Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think Bama would be out of the playoffs? Yeah, neither did we. Kalen DeBoer, taking over the HC cap, was met with a he-k lot of questions. But, with Bama getting the blowout win over Georgia, it sealed the deal for the fans and Kalen DeBoer had gained their support. And that is exactly where it started going downhill.

You let that win get into your head and what do you get next? A loss against an unranked Vandy and then Vols walking all over the limp body of Bama. Now, hear us out; Kalen DeBoer and Co. managed to bounce back. Blowout wins against Mizzou and Mercer and then they wiped the floor with LSU. But the happiness was short-lived. With Oklahoma completely deleting Bama from the playoff list and DeBoer going home with a three-pointer game. 3 points? Their lowest in over 20 years.

You shouldn’t be surprised that after all this, Nick Saban is kinda mad: “I think Kalen DeBoer has a huge job in front of him in terms of getting his players ready to play this game. When you are born in Alabama, you have a birthright.” “

You’re either gonna be for Alabama or you’re gonna be for Auburn. So this is a big game to a lot of people,”Saban pointed out on College GameDay. See, the former HC wasn’t visibly mad, but if you had coached Bama for so many years and then you watched them crawl at the bottom of the barrel and fail to score any points against an Oklahoma team? Then you’d be mad too.

Let’s be honest; this is it for DeBoer. When the team first started going downhill, we had all thought that maybe they were getting too confident. With that win over Georgia and all, it happens. But if you look at the tapes carefully, every time Bama has lost their lead in the first half, they have lost the game in the second.

Vandy was leading with 23 points. Vols got the lead in the 3rd quarter with 14 points and then Oklahoma was leading in the first half with 10 points. Somehow, a team with massive offensive talent FAILS to secure the lead. The moment they trail behind, all hope is out.

This can be further narrowed down to the fact that Jalen Milroe is horrendous when it comes to the passing game. How can you be an elite QB and be bad at passing? We don’t even know. What is for sure is the fact that OC Nick Sheridan is a bad judge when it comes to using Milroe’s strength.

Mercer and LSU are the perfect showcase. Milroe was off the charts in those games. He got more rushing touchdowns than passing touchdowns, and that says all you need to know. FOCUS on the rush game. Sooners won because Sheridan tried to make Milroe a passer. Coming back to the Iron Bowl, Auburn is coming into this game with a massive win against the Aggies. So, can DeBoer win the Iron Bowl?

It’s down to the wire for the Crimson Tide

Alabama had 70 rushing yards in the entire game against Oklahoma. Brent Venables created the perfect defensive play to stop the run game from Bama and it worked out. So here is the thing; if you are going against Auburn and if you want to win, you need to stop doing everything you did against Sooners.

Do not play Milroe as a passer. Create enough opening with the offensive line so that Milroe can run the football or at least have a shot at passing it over to Ryan Williams. This duo is explosive, and we have seen how LSU’s defensive line just couldn’t keep up with the pace whenever the QB got a shot at running.

Another thing to keep in mind is stopping Jarquez Hunter. He has been the magnum opus of Auburn’s offense with 1174 yards and 8 TDs under his belt. Aggies just didn’t have enough to stop this guy and Hunter ran for a record 278 yards in that single game.

Kane Wommack‘s D-line has done magic against LSU, Mercer and even Mizzou and fans want to see that same energy again. DeBoer cannot mess this up because if he does, then this will be one of the worst seasons for Alabama football.