The Iron Bowl blowout

For six years, Auburn has beat Alabama in the annual Iron Bowl. With a season in the toilet, the Tigers hoped to wash the bitter taste away with a swish of victory over the Tide on Saturday, continuing their streak and ruining Bama's perfect season.

But Alabama had something else in mind. After a slow start, The Tide would shut out Auburn, 36-0 in a beautiful performance in front of a sold out crowd of 92,138.

Bama had a 10-0 lead at the end of the half. Seconds before the half was over, Auburn threatened to cut the lead by three with a field goal. But as the rookie Auburn kicker placed one perfectly down the middle, Saban called a timeout, forcing the kick again. This time, the Auburn kicke was blocked keeping Auburn scoreless into the half and sending Saban into a rare but short celebration.

But in the second half, Bama would unleash the fury. They forced three fumbles, all were converted into touchdowns. In less than six minutes, The Tide expanded their lead to 22-0 after capitalizing on two consecutive fumbled possesssions.

The first two came on consecutive possessions in the third quarter and extended Alabama's 10-point lead to 22-0 in less than six minutes. On Auburn's first drive of the half, Kareem Jackson forced a Brad Lester fumble that was recovered by Rolando McClain at the Tigers' 39. One play later, quarterback John Parker Wilson hit Nikita Stover for a 39-yard touchdown to put the Tide up 16-0.

On Auburn's next drive, quarterback Kodi Burns fumbled the snap, which was recovered by Terrence Cody at the Auburn 45. After a pair of first downs, Alabama punched the ball in the end zone on a 1-yard run by tailback Mark Ingram to go up 22-0.

Ingram would score a second touchdown in the next drive puting Bama up 29-0.The touchdown was the first of two for Ingram on the afternoon.

Bama also gave Aurburn as strong cup of Coffee, Glen Coffee that is. Coffee owned the ground attack, carrying the ball 20 times for 144 yards and the tide's first touchdown of the game.

Auburn's defense was the only hope they had before the game. Having givin up only four rushing touchdonws all season and allowing 130 yards per game, Auburn gave up three rushing TDs and 234 rushing yeards to Bama.

A spectular defense is just on piece of the Bama puzzle. THe strong offensive line makes Coffee's job easy. He said this: "[The offensive line] showed up like they do every game," Coffee said. "Running behind them doesn't really give us that much to do except hit those holes full speed and take care of the rest."

And it doesn't stop there. Wilson finished the game 8-of-16 for 134 yards and a score.

Saban would honor his seniors and his starters by taking them out one by one in the fourth, allowing each of them to enjoy the crowd's cheer. But their replacements didn't just fill in, they added to the lead.

Backup quarterback Greg McElroy finished 2-of-2 for 44 yards and a touchdown, which came with 2:49 to go in the game to put the Tide up 36-0. Marquis Maze caught McElroy's touchdown pass, finishing with one catch for a 34-yard touchdown. In total, Alabama rolled up 412 yards against the Tigers. Amazingly, the Tide had only ONE penalty!

JPW was ecstatic but showed focus and maturity when he said, "To come out and score all these points, it feels good, but we have a lot left that we have to do," Wilson said. "We will learn from this game and get ready for the next one."

Of Auburn's 14 possessions, 9 of them ended in punts, 1 blocked FG and three turnovers.

Saturday's shutout was Alabama's first against the Tigers since a 17-0 win in 1992. The 36-point win was the largest margin of victory in the Iron Bowl since Alabama beat Auburn 38-0 in 1962.

"It means a lot to earn the shutout," safety Rashad Johnson said. "We were just trying to get better every week. We practiced hard and were able to finish the game."

With the SEC championship game just around corner, Bama will look to Florida. Stay tuned for a breakdown and to see why Bama and Florida is a match made in college football heaven.

To finish off the recap, Saban said, "It was obviously a great win for our fans, and it was a great win for our players," said Alabama coach Nick Saban. "We don't have a player on our team who has experienced this before so that was our goal." When told by the of field reporter that Bama was considered the underdog next week, Saban replied, "That doesn't bother me."

And you know what? it doesn't bother me either. Anybody out there who belives that Bama doesn't have a chance against Florida, or that somehow our position is not legitimate is a f*cking idiot. Don't forget who you're talking to.

And just for fun, I will paste below a blong entry I posted in on Feb. 2, 2007.

Alright already! We get it...as Bama fans we have become accustom to your "hating" and constant trash talk. However, we have a little message for all of you out there. You know who you are, so lets not make small talk. The following was in an email that my dad sent me. The writer of this testimony said it better than I ever could so I will allow him or her to do so.

Hey my Bama faithful, you know... I was reading the article about us being on probation for the last 15 years and I realized that if most other schools had sustained a blow of the magnitude and duration that we've had to endure they would simply fold and vanish into the realm of football has been's. Sure we haven't been the usual dominate Alabama of the past, but we have been far from slouches. During these past 15 years we've had some teams that could hang with anybody and I think our 1999 SEC championship team could have been national champions if it had not been for that mental fart (LA Tech game)we lost that year. My point is...it shows our strength and why we are the Epitome of college football...second to none!!!

See below: THE DECLARATION OF THE CRIMSON TIDE...YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT...YOU JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT IT!

LISTEN UP!! TENNESSEE, BARNERS, LSU AND EVERYONE ELSE OUT THERE, HEAR ME LOUD AND CLEAR. YOU'RE DAYS ARE NUMBERED!!! NO LONGER WILL YOU BE ABLE TO WREAK HAVOC AND CHAOS OVER THE SEC AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD DUE TO YEARS OF OPPRESSION OF THE BAMA PROGRAM. THE RIGHTFUL KING OF NCAA FOOTBALL IS BACK. WE WILL SHOW YOU WHAT A JUGGERNAUT PROGRAM IS ALL ABOUT. YOUR GREATEST DAYS ARE BEHIND YOU (hope you enjoyed). TIC TOC, TIC TOC, TIC TOC....THOSE ARE THE SECONDS THAT WILL FEEL LIKE YEARS AS YOU WALK DOWN THIS GREEN MILE. DON'T BOTHER STEPPING DOWN BECAUSE WE WILL KNOCK YOU DOWN AND WHILE YOU'RE DOWN THERE....BOW!!! YOUR KING IS HERE!

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Well, only 9 months after the kingship was declared, The Tide fulfilled every prediction of the entry. And with that, I will end by welcoming The Tide back to Atlanta knowing they have earned their spot.

Get out your pen and paper, this one's gonna rewrite history.

ROLL TIDE