Until Saturday’s Iron Bowl, Jeremy Pruitt had owned Gus Malzahn. Auburn made Alabama football pay for its blitz-dependent defense.
Last week we hung our optimism on Alabama football and Jeremy Pruitt’s defense negating the Auburn offense. History was on the side of our opinion. So we wrote the following.
As a Defensive Coordinator, Jeremy Pruitt has four wins from blowing out the tires on the ‘Gus Bus.’ Once with Florida State, twice with Georgia and last season with Alabama, Pruitt has matched wits with Gus and won.
In retrospect, our optimism was as Alan Greenspan once said about stock market confidence in a bull market – irrational exuberance. We oversold the ability of three returning linebackers to impact the Auburn game. We undersold the ability of Gus Malzahn and perhaps even more so, Chip Lindsey to adjust.
Others may have forced Lindsey on Gus months ago but to Malzahn’s credit, the partnership has worked. Jeremy Pruitt is known for being an aggressive play-caller. He has never been afraid to bring heat.
Frequently bringing up to six rushers against Auburn was only marginally successful. On several key plays, the Tigers exploited Pruitt’s aggressive decisions. As good as the Tide secondary is and it is very good, man coverage on Ryan Davis was a Tide failure.
In almost every third-and-long situation, Pruitt dialed up extra heat. Too often, Auburn devoured those defensive sets. In fairness to Pruitt, this Alabama football defense, unlike past Tide championship defenses, gets little pressure with four rushers. Letting Stidham sit unhurried in the pocket would not have been a good option.
Auburn’s tackles had struggled at times in pass protection. Pruitt had every reason to attack this weakness. Unfortunately for Alabama football, Auburn had a plan to negate edge pressure. Knowing Pruitt’s tendencies from the four past encounters, the crossing routes to speedy Auburn receivers repeatedly burned the Tide. In these situations, Davis and Will Hastings zoomed to twenty-plus yard receptions.
As Alabama football fans it is almost inconceivable to think of a Nick Saban staff getting out-coached. National pundits sometimes claim Saban is not good at game-time adjustments. Saban’s record refutes the argument.
Still, credit earned should be acknowledged and the Malzahn/Lindsey plan was well designed and executed. Jake Weaver wrote that Malzahn stated in advance the Auburn plan to attack the Tide’s blitz.
"Malzahn: When they played in the national championship game it was a blitz fest…he’s a lot more aggressive this year. They’re blitzing a lot more. You’ve got to make them pay when they blitz. If you don’t they’ll keep doing it. They’re pretty good at it. He’s an aggressive mindset guy and does a good job."
There were no scheme surprises on either side. Auburn did not win with trick plays. The Tigers won because their execution was better than Alabama football on both sides of the ball. The Tide defense could not get off the field (Auburn was 9-for18 on 3rd downs) because the Tide’s blitz was expected and negated.
Was the Iron Bowl lost because Auburn outcoached Jeremy Pruitt and Nick Saban? Auburn’s offense did not beat the Tide alone, the Tigers defense deserves equal billing. According to Auburn defensive coordinator, Kevin Steele,
"We affected the quarterback with a four-man rush pretty much the whole game."
That, Alabama football fans, explains the Iron Bowl loss. The Tide could not get pressure with four and Auburn could. All the other problems and failings were spinoffs of Alabama football not being able to dominate in the trenches.
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While we Alabama football fans lick our wounds from a lost Iron Bowl, remember this Bear Bryant quote. “I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won’t know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.”