Ahead of Saturday's game between Auburn and Alabama, The Plainsman's Caleb Jones spoke with The Crimson White's Ashlee Woods to talk about the matchup. Here's some questions that Woods answered about Alabama.
Jones: Why do you think this Alabama team has not been nearly as dominant over opponents as year as in years past?
Woods: "It's honestly because Alabama's had a lot of people go to the NFL Draft. The team is young. A lot of the starters haven't played for Alabama even though they've been on the team.
Also due to the fact that they got a new offensive coordinator, Bill O'Brien, whose offensive style is not what Alabama fans have been used to under [Steve] Sarkisian in the past couple of years.The deep threats, explosive plays, that's not really his style.
A mix of inexperience and first-time starters and losing a lot of the core and just a different style of offense."
Jones: This Auburn team isn't ranked. Does it not being a ranked-versus-ranked matchup change things a little bit? Does it feel different?
Woods: I don't know what it is about the ground at Jordan-Hare, I don't know what it is about the air or something, but Alabama teams just don't play well when Auburn is ranked at Jordan-Hare.
I do think this year is a little bit different. Bo Nix is out, this is a first-year head coach who's produced inconsistent results. I feel like this is a different season because of how Auburn is coming into this game: very vulnerable.
I'm interested to see how much different the atmosphere, is despite Auburn being a struggling team at the moment.
Jones: Second half struggles for Auburn, how does Alabama do in second halves?
Woods: "It's been weird this season, they've been up and down in the second half. There have been second halves where they're just cruising along and they control the tempo of the game.
Then there was last week, where they let Arkansas kinda get a little bit close in the second half and that game was a lot closer than it should have been.
And then LSU, the offense stalled greatly. They could not stay on the field to run out the clock, they could not do anything.
It's been really up and down as far as consistency in the second half, I would say it's been more up than down."
Jones: What did Arkansas and LSU do to create issues for Alabama?
Woods: "With LSU, I think they really just played physical football. I think what happened really was LSU was challenging Alabama to make the plays and to execute. They weren't giving away the points like some of the teams were.
They didn't do enough against LSU to put that game away. As far as Arkansas, I think it was the same thing. They just didn't do enough to put Arkansas. I think that both teams really challenged Alabama to win the game in their hands and not giving away the game as other teams have done this season."
Jones: Where is the Alabama defense weak?
Woods: "I think the weakest area is the middle as far as the passing game. It's been inconsistent all season, I think the loss of Christopher Allen against Miami really hurt. That's the biggest weakness right there, the secondary has also had some hiccups this season."
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November 27, 2021 at 11:00PM
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Behind Enemy Bylines: The Iron Bowl - The Auburn Plainsman
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