Alabama prepares for run-heavy Auburn offense
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Winning a rivalry game comes down to beating the other team during key moments.
One area where a litany of key moments will happenat the line of scrimmage known as "the battle in the trenches." For Auburn, under interim head coach Cadillac Williams, winning the line of scrimmage which in turn re-energized the running game has helped his alma mater to a 2-1 record in his three games at the helm.
On Wednesday, Alabama head coach Nick Saban talked about the importance of stopping Auburn's running game.
"They play a lot of different personnel groups and most of the time we play against three wide receivers and a tight end, sometimes four wide receivers," Saban said. "They do have three wide receivers formation, but they play a lot of tight ends and a lot of play a lot of personnel groups. You've got to try to match that as much as you can, but they do a very good job, using formations to try to create advantages for them. You've got to be able to adjust all those things as well."
It's going to be matchup of strength against strength as Alabama is currently the No. 2 rushing defense in the conference while Auburn sports the sixth-best rushing offense in the SEC.
Tank Bigsby has talied 907 rushing yards this season, good for fourth-highest in the SEC, along with 10 touchdowns. Last season, Bigsby ran for 63 yards on 22 attempts but his was infamously remembered for going out of bounds, giving Alabama a chance to come back from a touchdown deficit with less than two minutes to play.
It was the closest the Tigers came to upseting the Crimson Tide since they shock their in-state rivals at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2019.
That night the two teams combined for 92 points and 869 yards of total offense, but the storyline became Auburn's efficiency on the ground and Alabama's inability to stop it.
The Tigers tallied 181 rushing yards and more than five yards per carry in the win. It was a recipe Auburn has used before to beat Alabama. In fact, in the three wins Auburn has over Alabama since 2013, the Tigers ranked in the top five rushing offenses in the conference.
With the 87th Iron Bowl looming, Saban stressed the importance of stopping Auburn's run game on Saturday.
"They're playing really well," Saban said. "They do a great job running and they have really good schemes. They've got you know, good players, good backs, quarterbacks a good runner, so he kind of adds to that as well. I still think they're very capable of throwing the ball, but they have played and tried to win on the line of scrimmage and have been pretty effective doing it these last couple of games."