Jalen Milroe and Bama didn’t get a blowout but may have gotten a third chance

 

 

 

 

 

 

TUSCALOOSA — The Iron Bowl wasn’t played Saturday. It was the Missed Opportunity Bowl. It was the Non-Coup de Grace Bowl.

Alabama defeated Auburn 28-14 and 100,000 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium roared in delight afterward in a familiar refrain that has been heard the last seven times the Tigers have come to Tuscaloosa: “Hey Tigers! We just beat the hell out of you!”

But hell is a relative term here. Hell would have been turning the ball over four times, as the Crimson Tide did, and losing to an Auburn team that hasn’t frightened anyone, despite its four-overtime victory over Texas A&M last week. Hell would have been the Tigers scoring touchdowns when they reached the red zone three times in the first half, including getting stopped at the 1-yard line. Hell would have been coach Kalen DeBoer losing his first Alabama-Auburn game, although a couple of fellows named Bryant and Saban lost their first ones (“It lived up to the hype,” DeBoer said afterward, somewhat relieved). Hell would have been having to answer more questions about Jalen Milroe’s efficacy as a quarterback. Hell would have been losing when the Tide should have blown the Tigers out.

Fortunately for Alabama, it won and, amazingly, still has a chance of reaching the College Football Playoff. This is a team that once looked like a cinch to be a No. 1 seed, then seemed hopelessly out, then in, then out and, now, perhaps in again. It is ranked No. 13, on the cusp of sliding into a bracket.

Such are the hormones of modern college football, which mimic the hot ardor and cold contempt that some Tide fans feel for Milroe, depending on how he plays. The guy Alabama fans love to love when he wins and love to flog when he loses was back in their good graces after Saturday’s win. He circled Nick Saban Field in the afterglow and soaked in their adulation.

“It’s hard being the quarterback of any football team,” DeBoer said. “I think it’s hard being a quarterback of a team in a program that expects to win every game.”

Milroe and DeBoer have had their share of vilification from fans in a season in which the Tide has sought an identity but Milroe said DeBoer has adeptly handled his first season in Nick Saban’s cavernous shadow. In fact, DeBoer is now tied with Frank Thomas for the most wins by a first-year Alabama coach.

“I love coach DeBoer,” Milroe said. “I love his commitment, his resiliency, the shoes that he’s filled with the position he’s in. He’s always working his tail off to be the best coach he can be for our football team. I respect him a lot for always trying to get the best out of me, pushing me each and every day to be the best quarterback that I can be for this football team. It’s not easy being the head coach in the SEC. Yeah, we lost some games. Yeah, we haven’t played our best game. But I’ve really enjoyed being a quarterback for coach DeBoer.”

Milroe may have experienced a breakthrough Saturday with perhaps his best game this season, even better than the victory over Georgia that somehow now seems to have occurred back in the Civil War.

Yes, he threw an interception. He fumbled twice. But he was unstoppable on third down, finally plucking a thorn from his paw that has plagued him all year.

Milroe converted 7 of 11 on third-and-5 or longer and 12 of 18 overall. Six of the converted third-and-longs went to wideouts Germie Bernard and Ryan Williams on good reads. Coming into Saturday, Milroe was a miserable 27% on third-and-5 or longer, not counting the games against Western Kentucky, South Florida and Mercer.

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze didn’t have to think long about the consequences of those numbers.

“The difference in the game is their third-down conversions,” he said. “You knew how good Milroe was and what he can do with his feet and his arm. Some of them were third-and-longs and you can’t get off the field.”

The Tigers made Milroe a passer, which is supposed to be his kryptonite, and he threw 18-of-24 passing for 256 yards in their face. He also scrambled or stabbed Auburn with direct keepers for 104 yards on 17 carries and three touchdowns.

A week after being harangued for his play in the 24-3 loss to Oklahoma, Milroe regained his equilibrium.

“I’m really proud of the way he played tonight,” DeBoer said. “He found his times to go make plays. Sometimes it was when we dropped back but he didn’t force it. He did a good job of trying to put his head down at times and then he loves using his speed and getting the corner. When he’s doing those type of things, we become really hard to defend. I thought he threw the ball extremely well and we had some more that we probably left out there on the football field.”

Milroe, who coming into Saturday had a worse quarterback rating than his oft-pilloried Auburn counterpart, Peyton Thorne, wouldn’t say if the Tide is a playoff-worthy team.

“It’s not for us to decide what our future looks like but we’ve shown tremendous grit and a commitment level from everyone on the football team,” he said. “Despite if we’re in or out, I’m just proud of the guys that’s in the locker room, proud of their fight, their commitment, because it’s easy to dwell and easy to give up but we don’t have that in that locker room.”

If Alabama makes the inaugural 12-team playoff, Milroe’s newfound proficiency on third down — and his seven wins over AP Top 25 teams the last two years — will serve the Tide well.

“I think I could be better,” he said. “Third down is so critical in a football game because that’s the momentum booster that you need. And it’s a very intense down but it’s so important to be above the 80 percent range. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that but that was definitely an improvement that we had this week.”

DeBoer, of course, campaigned for 9-3 Alabama to be included in the playoffs.

“Everyone’s aware of our schedule,” he said. “I know we beat four top-25 teams throughout the year. Week to week, it’s just a grind and really the only conference that has to do that is ours. We won five of our last six and we’re playing physical football. We were what the game’s all about.”

That the Tide won despite not getting any impactful explosive play from Williams made Saturday’s triumph more impressive and yet more vexing.

Williams — who should be the SEC’s Freshman of the Year — fumbled early at the Tigers’ 29 after converting a third-and-8 with a 19-yard pass from Milroe. He dropped a touchdown bomb after beating a defender. He slipped on an end around for a 5-yard loss. His targets and his yards per catch have nearly been cut in half in the last half of the season as he has faced double teams and jamming. If there is to be a Hollywood ending in the playoffs, Hollywood must get on script; he’s too good to be this silent.

Meanwhile, Freeze and Auburn won’t go to a bowl after a second straight losing season and he knows his third year will be his make-or-break year with what is expected to be the second of two straight top-10 recruiting classes he’ll start signing on Wednesday.

For the players already there, “It was disappointing tonight, a disappointing season,” Freeze said after Saturday’s loss. “I hate to see them hurting the way they are.”

Freeze knew his limited offense had to take advantage of every chance to keep the pressure on Alabama.

“It could have been a different game,” he said, “if you put those in the end zone when we had the opportunity three times in the first half. You second guess yourself all the time on things like that because if we could have made that 28-21 there, we’d love to have seen what would have happened.”

Freeze said the fact that the Tide and Milroe were unstoppable on third down took its toll on the Tigers.

“It wore on us,” he said. “I mean, we’re thin and you could tell we looked gassed at times.”

Freeze is counting on Auburn fans to be patient as he tries to build his roster with high school talent instead of a truckload of transfers.

“I think we’re improving with a lot of young kids that are very talented,” he said. “At the same time, we had chances to win games with who we are.”

It’s a hard sell but Freeze wants Tigers fans to look past the current results.

“I’m big on not getting your identity from a scoreboard,” he said. “And I want our players to understand that because they get talked about. I sign up for it. I just don’t think 20 years from now they’re going to think about necessarily the wins and losses that we had. And I know that’s not the world we live in. You guys get paid to cover us, and you get paid to write the good, the bad and everything in between.”

When Freeze was at Ole Miss, he poignantly told his players to have no fear of Saban and the Tide and they beat Alabama twice.

“Let’s go lock the gates, look for a fight and see what they got!” he said.

Auburn saw what the Tide had Saturday despite all its flaws. In this most tumultuous of college football seasons — where Alabama lost to Vanderbilt but beat Georgia, which lost to Ole Miss, which lost to LSU, which hammered Oklahoma, which hammered Alabama — then why shouldn’t the Tide be in the playoff?