Posted on 11/30/2013 4:41:05 PM PST by xzins
With only a second left on the clock, Chris Davis caught a 57-yard field-goal attempt that fell short, got up the left side and returned it 100 yards to give the No. 4 Tigers a 34-28 win over No. 1 Alabama and the SEC West title.
Now, Auburn (11-1, 7-1 SEC) has a shot at the SEC title and possibly a national championship all left on the table.
For the second straight game, the clock was running down, and the Tigers had little time left.
That's when Nick Marshall came up with another play.
After a drive spent handing the ball off over and over again, Marshall kept the ball on the zone read, then pulled up short and floated a pass to a wide-open Sammie Coates, who raced in with a 39-yard touchdown to tie the game.
Badly needing some momentum to erase a 21-7 deficit, Auburn went back to the running game that has carried the Tigers all season.
Held without a rushing yard for most of the second quarter, Auburn ripped off a 7-play, 81-yard drive near the end of the first half, punctuated by a 40-yard burst from Mason up the middle to set up his own 2-yard score.
And then, given the ball to start the second half, Auburn kept the momentum going, alternating Marshall and Mason on a nine-play, 69-yard drive that Marshall capped by firing a 13-yard strike to C.J. Uzomah in the corner of the end zone to tie the game at 21.
But after AJ McCarron's 99-yard strike to Amari Toomer, the Tigers had trouble getting going offensively, and the defense came up big with two stops, a fourth-down stand by Carl Lawson and a blocked field goal by Robenson Therezie that set up Auburn's final drive to set up a trip to Atlanta
“OSU also started the season with stalwarts like San Diego State, Cal, Florida AM...”
When they scheduled Cal, Cal was a top 10 team...and Florida A&M was a last -minute fill in when Vanderbilt bailed.
Break up Southern Miss!!! They finally snapped their losing streak today.
“Maybe it’s time he retired”.
He will to Texas.
that’s great...and if my uncle had boobs he’d be my aunt....
Big Ten defenses suck; Illinois, Purdue, N’western, Indiana....
OSU played tougher teams than Alabama. Auburn was it. The any day Antony can lose in SEC. THAT GOES FOR ANY CONFERENCE. Its the hype that builds the SEC up this year. They just weren’t very good this year and I’ve been saying it for just about the entire year this year. And ot looks like I was right.
If Michigan state wins I think they have a good argument to leap frog FSU.
If Bama goes with a bunch of athletes to defend against the run back, they face the real possibility of having Auburn overwhelm the line and block the FG. Using players in unfamiliar positions is a ticket for disaster. How many athletic types have lined up to block for a place kick before? The guys everyone suggest should be used are likely undersized and inexperienced for that duty.
Probably suggests that Saban shouldn't have tried the kick after he considered all the factors.
No question that on that last play, the Auburn players were much better coached than the Bama players on how to deal with the possibilities.
Very excited Mizzou won! Love to see them go all the way, as a former Big-8 guy.
Tigers have always been a puzzle, beating great teams one week and losing to poor teams the next.
Millon years ago in 1976, they beat USC, Ohio State, Nebraska (my team), and Colorado, all at those team’s home fields, and got beat by Kansas, Iowa St, and a couple others (including of course the greatest wishbone team ever, the Oklahoma Sooners—but just barely!)
Always a great, hard-fought game against Mizzou... Back when the Big-8 was the best conference in the country, year after year.
Again, it’d be awesome if went all the way this year!
They may suck but I think its clear the SEC doesn’t even have a defense.
right...Michigan put up 604 yards total offense against the best team in the Big Ten (OSU) today....
the most Alabama gave up this season was 485 and that was to a Heisman Trophy winner (Manziel TAMU)...
Only stat that counts is what’s in the “L” column.
Good riddance. I think we were all quite tired of the Saban gimmick. Looks like the Devil finally came to collect....
WOW!!! What a game! WAR EAGLE!!!
Maziel is sucking ass. Have you watched his last couple games. Braxton Miller would school him. OSUs defense is very spotty. But so is Bama’s.
I see the Alabama hate is alive and well on FR. Success breeds contempt. 3 out the last 5 national titles. Don’t be surprised if they play again for it. LSU is as good as anybody team in the country and Bama demolished them. If not for the boneheaded play at the end of the Auburn game Bama wins that one too. It was a bad game for Alabama, a great game for Auburn and Alabama still had a chance to win. Missouri will beat Auburn next week and Michigan State will beat Ohio State, which has no defense.
Alabama lead the country in points allowed. They had 3 or 4 shutouts this year and went 5 straight games without allowing a rushing TD. Their defense was not as good as last year, but still one of the best in the country.
“SEC. Any team on a given day can beat you. Best conference in the country”
I think Pac12 is better than SEC. The QB is the most important position in football and there are about 7 SEC teams that do not have a competent player at that position as opposed to only 2 Pac12 teams with an incompetent QB.
fyi, the Pac12 out of conference record is 31-6. the six loses were (Last place and winless in the pac12) CAL losing to Northwestern by 6, Ohio State by 18, Washington St losing to Auburn by 7, Oregon St losing to E. Washington by 3, AZ st losing to Notre Dame by 3, USC losing to Notre Dame by 4.
Pac12 was about by 41 points short of going 37-0 in out of conference play.
As far as any team beating any other team, that would be the Pac12 with (2-7, 5-7) Utah beating (7-2, 10-2) Stanford.
It is not the SEC with KY, TN, Ark, or Florida.
“Only stat that counts is what’s in the “L” column.”
No, it doesn’t otherwise undefeated Northern Illinois would be in the BCS championship race.
and NIU beat Iowa by 3 and Purdue by 31
Ohio state beat Iowa by 10 and Purdue by 56.
fyi, Cal is 0-9 in the pac12 with some really bad blow outs.
Cal had 9 starters on defense who did not play against Ohio State and Cal still made a game of it.
Fact is Michigan lit up the OSU defense and Cal put 34 on the board against OSU. For Cal, that was their high water mark all year long.
And Stanford and USC both hung over 60 on the bear defense.
Tennessee is the case to look at.
They were absolutely blown out by Oregon. It was embarrassing. Then they turn around and nearly beat Georgia, and do defeat South Carolina.
Somewhere that plays into my calculation about the strength of the SEC.
Dantonio of Michigan State is known for defense, not offense.
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