« on: December 06, 2013, 11:01:50 AM »
Uh Oh. Scarbinsky better hope he lives in a single story house.
http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2013/12/dont_call_this_auburn_team_a_f.html#incart_big-photoCall it The Return. Kick, Bama, Kick. Destiny 34, Dynasty 28. Whatever you call the Mother of all Endings to the Mother of All Iron Bowls, don’t call it a fluke.
Auburn’s better than that.
You don’t go 11-1 in the Southeastern Conference totally or primarily on luck. The league that’s won seven straight BCS national titles is too good.
You don’t advance to the SEC Championship Game, especially from the Western Division, through good fortune. Not when you have to go through the likes of Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU.
You don’t rise from unranked in the preseason, without receiving a single vote in the USA Today or AP polls, to No. 3 in the penultimate BCS standings because your quarterback found a rabbit’s foot or your coach picked up a lucky penny.
Auburn’s much better than that, and the Tigers proved it in the biggest college football game of the season, the biggest Iron Bowl of all time. The road to Atlanta goes through Alabama, and Auburn took the high road to the Georgia Dome.
You don’t beat the two-time defending national champions, the undefeated and top-ranked team in the nation, with trickery. Alabama has been too good for too long to be dethroned by deception.
On the last Saturday in November, over every last second of 60 minutes, Auburn was better than Alabama. Without a single reverse, Statue of Liberty or double pass. Without a fake punt or an onside kick.
Straight up, man for man, Auburn won the game, the state championship and the division title. The Tigers proved themselves a championship team by getting the better of a championship team.
Gus Malzahn made better decisions than Nick Saban. Nick Marshall made more plays than AJ McCarron. Tre Mason was the best running back on the field.
The Auburn offense ran for 296 yards, much of it between the tackles, against the Alabama defense. The Auburn defense, when it counted most, was stingier than the Alabama defense.
The Alabama offense, the most balanced and talented that Auburn had faced, got the ball for six possessions in the second half - and scored seven points.
The Auburn defense, led by coordinator Ellis Johnson, allowed just one of those six drives to last for more than five plays. Even the touchdown the Tigers surrendered came on a 99-yard pass play.
Auburn freshman defensive end Carl Lawson made the unsung play of the game when he stuffed Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon on fourth-and-1 at the Auburn 13 in the fourth quarter.
That wasn’t luck. It was manhood.
This trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game is Auburn’s second in the last four years. That’s one more than Alabama and one more than LSU, and it makes a point.
When Auburn is bad, as it was in 2012, it’s very bad. When Auburn is good, as it was in 2010 and it is again this season, it’s very, very good. Alabama found that out. Missouri is about to learn the same lesson.
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"Hey my friends are the ones that wanted to eat at that shitty hole in the wall that only served bread and wine. What kind of brick and mud business model is that. Stick to the cart if that's all you're going to serve. Then that dude came in with like 12 other people, and some of them weren't even wearing shoes, and the restaurant sat them right across from us. It was gross, and they were all stinky and dirty. Then dude starts talking about eating his body and drinking his blood...I almost lost it. That's the last supper I'll ever have there, and I hope he dies a horrible death."