The Alabama Crimson Tide were the undisputed No. 1 ranked team overall and undefeated before Saturday's matchup against the Auburn Tigers. Jarrett Stidham and Kerryon Johnson combined for 341 yards to help propel the Tigers over the Tide 26-14. This earned Auburn the SEC west title and a chance to play for the SEC championship in Atlanta on Dec. 2.
Tigers on top
Going into the game, Alabama had a 59% chance to win according to the Football Power Index and the Crimson Tide were favored by 5 points. This game was for more than just bragging rights against their bitter in-state rival this year; This game decided who gets to move on to the SEC championship against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Auburn started off well and scored first to put the Tigers up 7-0. Only once did the Tigers trail after this and they could not be stopped in the end by Alabama's injury-ridden defense. Auburn outplayed the Crimson Tide on offense and defense. Gus Malzahn's offense put up over 400 total yards compared to 377 from Alabama. Auburn held the ball for over 36 minutes and had 6 more first downs than Alabama. Alabama's 3rd down performance was underwhelming as well with only 3 conversions out of 11 tries.
Mistakes on both sides of the ball caused the Tide to come up short. Sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts had no time to make plays in the pocket because of poor offensive line performance, but he still needs to mature as an athlete and leader of the team.
Alabama's weaknesses were exposed on Saturday night and Nick Saban addressed this in his post-game interview. Saban still thinks that they still deserve a spot in the college football playoff, but that is up to the committee to decide.
How will this shake up the playoff picture?
Many expected Alabama to go undefeated and make it to the playoff with no tough decisions.
Auburn has turned everything upside down by beating the No. 1 team twice in 3 weeks. There will be a rematch in Atlanta for the SEC championship between Auburn and Georgia. The winner of this game will certainly go to the playoff but as for another SEC team, those odds are unlikely. If Auburn can beat UGA again, they would be the first two-loss team to reach the playoff.
The ACC champion (either Clemson or Miami) will probably be placed in the playoff as well because they would be a conference champion with only one loss. If Oklahoma wins the Big 12, they will most certainly be put in the playoff because they have 3 ranked wins and only one loss, but if TCU pulls off the upset the Sooners might be left out. The Big 10 also poses a problem to the committee because Wisconsin has such a weak strength of schedule. If the Badgers win the conference there is no doubt that they would be put at the No. 4 spot because they are an undefeated conference champ, but if they lose, how does the committee deal with a two-loss Ohio State team?
Championship weekend will be very hectic but at least 6 teams control their own destiny as far as playoff contention goes. It will be an interesting weekend for college football once again, and this one is for all the marbles for some teams.
