TideIllustrated – Reliving the plays that led to Alabama’s wild Iron Bowl comeback

AUBURN, Ala. — Alabama survived another scare inside Jordan-Hare Stadium, pulling off perhaps its craziest win in the Iron Bowl rivalry.

Trailing Auburn by four with 43 seconds to play, Alabama faced a fourth-and-31 from the Tigers’ 31-yard line. From there, Jalen Milroe delivered one of the most memorable moments in Iron Bowl history, hitting Isaiah Bond in the corner of the end zone to lead Alabama to a 27-24 victory.

The miraculous final play capped off a wild comeback, complete with a muffed punt, a fourth-down conversion and more snapping mishaps. Here’s a look at how Alabama pulled it off.

Alabama’s game-winning drive almost never happened. Leading 24-20, Auburn forced a three-and-out that saw the Crimson Tide line up to punt the ball away from its own 24-yard line with 4:57 to play.

From there, James Burnip delivered a booming punt, booting the ball to the Auburn 32-yard line. Then chaos happened. Auburn returner Keionte Scott slipped while fielding the punt before muffing it. That allowed Alabama linebacker Jihaad Cambell to scoop it up at the Tigers’ 30-yard line and set up Alabama’s game-winning score.

“It was a good punt, had good hand-time,” Saban recalled of the play. “Jihaad did a great job of covering. He was right in front of the guy. The guy misjudged the ball a little bit, was a little off-balanced, and Jihaad was right there to take advantage of the muffed kick.”

Campbell returned the ball to the end zone, but NCAA rules state that a defender isn’t able to advance the ball on a muff. The rest was up to Alabama’s offense.

After Alabama regained possession, Milroe started Alabama off on the right foot, scrambling for an 11-yard gain on the Tide’s first play of the drive. Things would go south for Alabama from there.

Alabama running back Jase McClellan lost a yard on the next play before Milroe was sacked for a 9-yard loss to set up a third-and-20 from the Auburn 29. For most teams, that would have been a death blow. However, Milroe started his fourth-quarter magic, scrambling to his left for 19 yards while coming inches away from the first-down marker.

While Milroe will be best remembered for the plays he made with his arm, his legs came in handy on the afternoon as well. The dual-threat quarterback picked up two other third downs with his feet earlier in the game and finished the game with 107 yards on 18 carries.

Needing less than a yard on fourth down, Alabama lined up in its jumbo package for what looked like a quarterback sneak up the middle. However, instead of having Milroe push his way to a first down, the quarterback tossed the ball to Roydell Williams, who picked up a key block from tight end Robbie Ouzts before rushing for a 3-yard game.

Following the game, Alabama head coach Nick Saban said he originally tried to get Auburn to jump offsides. After the Tigers didn’t bite, the Tide decided to take advantage of an Auburn defense that sold out on trying to stop Milroe up the middle.

“So Jalen’s under center and we looked to the sideline, because we wanted to see how they lined up and they had so many guys packed in to stop the quarterback sneak we knew that if we pitched the ball we’d have a pretty good chance on the edge,” Saban said. “It was really good design and good situational football.”

While Alabama appeared to be in trouble following Auburn’s 9-yard sack on Milroe to set up third-and-20, that was nothing compared to the hole the Tide dug itself into later in the drive.

Facing a second-and-goal from the 9-yard line, Alabama center Seth McLaughlin snapped the ball too early, sending Milroe scampering to fall on it on the Alabama 26-yard line. The 18-yard loss set up what seemed like an impossible third-and-goal for the Tide.

Things got even worse after Milroe was flagged for passing the line of scrimmage on an incomplete play. That set up the now famous fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard line.

“There’s still a lot of time left, they’ve got to come see us,” Milroe said when asked about his message in the huddle after the mishap. “No matter what the circumstance is, they’ve got to see us. So the biggest thing we had to do was finish. We talk about playing four quarters, that’s what happened today.”

Alabama’s snap troubles came as the team opted not to use a silent count in a raucous Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Crimson Tide has struggled with communication on snaps in loud environments all season. It almost cause Alabama’s season to unravel Saturday night.

Alabama calls the play “Grave Digger.” It’s designed to put the game to bed, and that’s exactly what it did Saturday night.

Facing a fourth-and-goal from the Auburn 31-yard line, Milroe faced virtually no pressure after taking a shotgun snap. From there, the quarterback scanned his options downfield, looking left and right and then left again before seeing Bond create a bit of space in the far corner of the end zone. From there, Milroe heaved the ball, fitting into a tight window while allowing his receiver to catch it and get a foot in bounds for the score

Grave Digger did its job.

“We’ll put them in the grave after that game,” Bond said when asked about the play. “It’s normally at the end of the game, Gravedigger, put them to sleep.”

Following the game, Saban said Alabama practices a similar play every Friday during walk-throughs. Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold said the defense usually lets the receiver catch the ball in order to avoid injuries. Bond said he’s never run that exact route in practice. However, when the time came he was ready.

“I knew as soon as he threw it, it was a catchable ball,” Bond. “I just had to be there in the best opportunity to make a play.:

Milroe said he had a good feeling about the ball once it left his hand. Although, that’s nothing to the way he’ll feel about this moment moving forward.

“I’ll never forget this play,” Milroe said. “I’ll never forget this game, ever in my life.”