Nick Saban is frustrated and he’s not making sense.
After the Alabama Crimson Tide’s 48-45 loss to the Auburn Tigers in the Iron Bowl on Saturday, Saban was ready to place blame — mostly on others. In particular, Saban took aim at the officials, who flagged his team for 12 men on the field on a crucial fourth down.
Auburn trotted out its punter on a fourth-and-4 with the clock running and roughly a minute left in the game. Alabama sent out its punt coverage unit as a response. But — SURPRISE! — Auburn also sent out quarterback Bo Nix, who put the unit in an offensive formation with the punter lined up at receiver. It was a clear attempt at drawing Alabama offsides, but Saban responded by putting his defense back on the field. The problem was that he left punt returner Jaylen Waddle on the field, so when the Crimson Tide lined up for the play, they had 12 men on the field.
Auburn lined up the punter at wide receiver to try to keep Waddle on the sideline. Bama noticed it late and took a penalty in the confusion. So simple, but so smart by Malzahn. Took the game straight out of Bama's hands pic.twitter.com/u0g87fz7as
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) December 1, 2019
It was a brilliant bit of strategy and maneuvering by Auburn. Coach Gus Malzahn identified a way that he could make the rules work for Auburn — and against Alabama. And Malzahn’s Tigers executed the head-fake formation to perfection. Saban, meanwhile, did not respond well.
There was blame to go around for Alabama, but it would be unfair of him to blame the officials. That’s what he did anyway. He felt the officials didn’t give Alabama the proper amount of time to get their returner off the field. Here’s what Saban said Saturday night, via a video on AL.com.
“I really feel that it was a pretty unfair play at the end of the game. They substituted the punter as a wide receiver, so we put the punt team in. And then when the quarterback was still in there we tried to put the defense back in. I thought they should have given us a little more time to substitute and get Waddle out as a returner. We get called for 12 guys on the field. So that was very disappointing.
“We’re responsible for that as coaches, but it was a very unusual circumstance to say the least. And I think that sometimes when you have those, it should be viewed that way.”
Had Alabama gotten the ball back, it would have had one final possession to attempt to get a field goal to tie the game. Instead, the penalty gave Auburn a new set of downs and an Iron Bowl win.
The Crimson Tide coaching staff got flustered at a crucial moment, and Malzahn outsmarted Saban with a savvy trick formation. Saban has used trick formations to win games — he knows that gimmicks can stump opponents. He’s just not accustomed to getting stumped. That’s what happened on Saturday.
Among other things, the penalty cost the Crimson Tide a chance to win or tie the game and earn trip to the playoffs. Saban’s proclivity to call the situation “unfair” seems to be nothing more than a case of misguided frustration.
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