We all watched as the Clemson Tigers took home the championship Monday night, January 9, 2017, but that’s not the first time their opponents, the Alabama Crimson Tide, lost a big game in such a tragic fashion. Of course, we will take a look at the ending of the latest championship, but first we must venture back to 2013.
It was tied 28-28 as time ran out in the fourth quarter in the 2013 Iron Bowl between Rolltide and the Auburn Tigers. Chris Davis had knocked Alabama’s T.J. Yeldon out of bounds after the clock had struck 00:00. ‘Bama coach, Nick Saban, then ran onto the field throwing his challenge flag, complaining that Yeldon was out of play at 00:01. With the ball resting between the 38 and 39 yard lines, the refs reversed their call and sent the players back onto the field for one final play. Instead of taking a knee and venturing into an overtime period, Saban brought out his kicking unit. Adam Griffith lined up for his first kick of the evening. As the placeholder is 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage and the field goal posts are at the very back of the 10 yard end zone, 18 yards are added to the number on the field the ball is at. With that number being 39, the field goal would be 57 yards. That’s long even for great NFL kickers like Matt Prater, Stephen Gostkowski, and Stephen Hauschka. Griffith was a Freshman back then. Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn saw that this would be challenging kick for the Freshman and he sent out his punt returner, Chris Davis, to stand in the end zone to be ready to try to run back a short kick. The Senior positioned himself just under the uprights. The ball was snapped and the kick went up. To the Crimson Tide’s dismay, the Griffith had come up a yard or 2 short, but that wasn’t the worst part. The muffed kick had ended up in the arms of now sprinting Davis. He went downfield and ‘Bama was now watching with horror as their dreams were vanishing before their eyes. They regained hope when the returner bordered on falling out of bounds at his own 30 yard line, however that hope would be quickly vanquished as Davis kept his balance and rushed past the rest of the Roll Tide team. Auburn scored the touchdown there and ended the game, thusly making the final score of the 2013 Iron Bowl 34-28 Tigers on top. A week ago last Monday, Alabama faced a different set of Tigers, this one from Clemson. In the fourth quarter, ‘Bama led 24-14, and they looked forward to another championship win. However after 2 Clemson scores, the Tigers had the ball with a second to go and a 3 point deficit. With a 31-28 score, the Alabama defense desperately needed to make the final game-winning play. On the last play, Deshaun Watson tossed the ball to Wayne Gallman who then scampered into the endzone to take the game, 35-31. Clearly, ‘Bama has the unfortunate trait of having a poor defense to the rare, but deadly, Tiger attack. The Crimson Tide are going to lose star players to the NFL such as O.J. Howard, Reuben Foster, and Jonathan Allen, so that means that their future may be in jeopardy over the next few years. Without their stars, the Roll Tide might have trouble making it back to any bowl games; except for the Iron Bowl, of course. In these 2 games, as well as many more, though it’s tough to hear for those who hail from Tuscaloosa and its surrounding cities: Alabama has a Low Tide. Jesse A. Cook “Alabama Has A Low Tide” January 30, 2017
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AuthorJesse Cook: High school junior. Does play-by-play for the Sharon Varsity Eagles softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and football teams. Fanatic of the Boston and Cincinnati teams in the Big Four sports. Designs graphics of athletes, politicians, and musicians at Picsart.com. Archives
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