Winning in the Iron Bowl has felt like a foregone conclusion in recent years for Alabama. The Crimson Tide has beaten Auburn in six consecutive meetings. They are 8-2 in the last 10 against the Tigers, and 12-3 in the last 15.
It's rare in this series for one side to be so utterly dominant, but Alabama has turned the best rivalry in college football into a foregone conclusion in recent seasons, at least in terms of what the outcome was going to be.
How we arrived at those outcomes, now that is a different story. And that story is what makes the Iron Bowl what it is.
Throughout the history of the rivalry, some of the best games in the history of the sport have been played. Memorable moments have been produced on both sides, and there will be many more to come.
The Top 10 Iron Bowl wins for Alabama
10. 2014 - The highest-scoring Iron Bowl ever
There was pure hatred in the air in Tuscaloosa when Auburn walked into Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2014, one year removed from the Kick Six on the Plains that ended Alabama's hopes of winning a third consecutive National Championship.
The vitriol was so intense that "Dixieland Delight" was ultimately banned for a while after this Iron Bowl because of some spirited language directed toward the visitors from the pasture.
This became the highest-scoring Iron Bowl of all time with the teams combining for 99 points in a 55-44 win for Alabama. The Crimson Tide trailed 33-21 in the third quarter, but the Blake Sims to Amari Cooper connection was ultimately unstoppable. Alabama scored 28 unanswered points on the way to a cathartic victory.
9. 2008 - The beatdown in T-Town
The Iron Bowl could be played for 500 more years, and there may never be a more cathartic one for Alabama fans than the 2008 game. That matchup and the subsequent beating were a long time coming.
Alabama came into this Iron Bowl having lost six in a row in the series, the longest losing streak in the rivalry in program history. But all Alabama fans knew brighter days were ahead when the program hired Nick Saban before the 2007 season. He lost his first Iron Bowl in Jordan-Hare, but the Crimson Tide pummeled Auburn 36-0 in Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2008 to clinch an unbeaten regular season.
8. 2021 - Alabama prevails in 4OT thriller
This one is a lot more fun to look back on in retrospect than it was while watching it. Alabama had the much better team than Auburn in 2021, but sometimes weird things happen on the Plains. The Crimson Tide played its worst game of the season and found itself trailing 10-3 with just a minute and a half to play and backed up to its own three-yard line.
Bryce Young led Alabama down the field for a 12-play, 97-yard drive that was capped off with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Corey Brooks to send the game to overtime. Alabama prevailed in the fourth overtime period when Young hit a two-point conversion attempt to John Metchie to lift Alabama to a 24-22 win.
7. 1984 - Wrong Way Bo
Alabama won nine consecutive Iron Bowls from 1973-1981, but things were a lot more back-and-forth from there as Coach Bryant retired following the 1982 season and Auburn's fortunes changed with the arrival of star RB Bo Jackson.
But after losing back-to-back Iron Bowls in 1982 and 1983, Alabama took the 1984 Iron Bowl, 17-15, thanks to a major mistake by Jackson.
Facing a 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard-line, Auburn opted to go for the touchdown instead of kicking a field goal. Jackson was supposed to be the lead blocker on a run to the right by Brent Fullwood, but Jackson misheard the call and ran the wrong direction, allowing the Tide's defense to swarm and force Fullwood out of bounds to preserve the victory.
6. 1967 - Kenny Stabler's run in the mud
This was a mostly uneventful Iron Bowl remembered for one thing: Kenny Stabler's dazzling run in the mud at Legion Field to secure the win for Alabama.
Trailing 3-0 in the 4th quarter, Stabler took an option keeper of the right side and sprinted down the sideline in the mud for 53 yards for the game's first, and only, touchdown as the Crimson Tide won 7-3 for their fourth consecutive win in the series.
5. 1999 - Victory on the Plains
The Iron Bowl was not played on Auburn's campus until 1989, as it was traditionally played at Birmingham's Legion Field, hence the name of the rivalry to begin with. But after years of whining, Auburn successfully got the Iron Bowl to be played at Jordan-Hare every other year.
The Tigers won the first four meetings on the Plains until Shaun Alexander and company invaded in 1999.
Alabama trailed 14-6 at halftime and looked to be heading toward a defeat that would knock them out of the SEC Championship Game, but Alexander took over with three touchdowns in the second half on his way to a 182-yard day and Alabama's first-ever win on Auburn's home field, 28-17.
4. 2009 - The Drive
In 2009, Auburn looked to play spoiler as Alabama was on the path to Saban's first National Championship in Tuscaloosa. Things looked bleak several times with the Crimson Tide falling behind early 14-0 before rallying to tie the game, and then trailing 21-20 halfway through the 4th quarter.
But Alabama engineered "The Drive." A 15-play, 79-yard masterpiece that ate up most of the rest of the clock. Greg McElroy hit several passes to Julio Jones to move the ball down the field, and then connected with Roy Upchurch on the game-winning touchdown pass off a beautiful play-fake as Alabama escaped with a 26-21 win to keep the perfect season alive.
3. 1971 - The battle of the unbeatens
To this day, the only Iron Bowl that featured two unbeaten and untied teams. Alabama came in at 10-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country, while Auburn wasn't far behind at 9-0 and ranked No. 5. To add to the drama, Tigers QB Pat Sullivan had already been awarded the Heisman Trophy, something that provided extra motivation for a Crimson Tide team that thought their star RB Johnny Musso was the best player in the country.
Nursing turf toe, Musso put Alabama on his back with 167 yards as Alabama rolled to a 31-7 win over Auburn. Sullivan threw two interceptions and looked overwhelmed against the Tide's dominant defense.
2. 1985 - The Kick
Long before kicking troubles haunted Alabama fans, there was the golden leg of Van Tiffin.
Alabama was a major underdog against No. 7 Auburn in this matchup, but pulled off a stunning 25-23 victory thanks to Kiffin and the heroics of QB Mike Shula and WR Greg Richardson.
Shula engineered a late drive with under a minute on the clock to get the Tide in field goal range to begin with, and Richardson scratched, clawed, and fought his way to the sidelines to get out of bounds on a reception to allow Tiffin's kick to happen.
Then Tiffin took the field with Alabama trailing by one point, nailing a 52-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Crimson Tide to the two-point win.
1. 2023 - 4th and 31
Could it be anything else at this point? Alabama has had its fair share of Iron Bowl heartbreaks in Jordan-Hare specifically. Ripping their hearts out with one of the most improbable moments in the history of the rivalry? You just can't put a price on that.
A calamity of events - par for the course at the haunted house of Jordan-Hare - led to Alabama facing a 4th-and-goal from the 31-yard line.
Facing just a two-man rush, Jalen Milroe stood in the pocket, bided his time, and then uncorked a bomb toward the back corner of the endzone, which was hauled in by Isaiah Bond for a touchdown that gave Alabama an improbable 27-24 win.
That one will forever be hard to top.
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