re: I think Alabama is about to play their best road game under DeBoer

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Saban said on Gameday he always struggled to get the players up to play Auburn but not Tennessee and LSU. If Deboer can flip that switch and make the Iron Bowl personal, he might succeed in the one area the GOAT couldn't fully master.

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I think that playing poorly at Auburn has a lot to do with...well, getting there for the players. Bus ride from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery on Friday. Bus ride from Montgomery to Auburn. Horrible visitors locker room at Jordan-Hare. It's so small that about half the team can get dressed out at a time. Little amount of plumbing fixtures for bathroom visits. Park wood benches to sit on and no lockers. Just a 2"x4" on the wall with a laundry hook. Ask any body that works for AU in facilities, and they will tell you that the visitor's locker room gets the least amount of attention. The Fail Room at BDS is three times the size of Auburn's visitors locker room.

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WR cant catch or cant get open we struggle.

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Any team at any level would struggle if that happened

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Saban said on Gameday he always struggled to get the players up to play Auburn

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There is an energy level based on emotion that this game requires. That was the opposite of what Saban preached. I think that’s why, especially down there, we struggled. We came out like it was just “any other game.”

I would add, that approach isn’t sustainable over the long term, and I know why Saban was against it.

Go back and look at their game against Vandy. They jumped on them early and had a two score lead at the half. Pavia played his arse off in the second half and never quit. Say what you will about that guy but he has big balls. Of course they were playing at home and that played a role in their comeback. Can Alabama come back if they find themselves in a hole early ?

Everyone has confidence until you get hit in the mouth

Our team played pretty fearless against them last season. I mean, we really played an uneven game and still won by two touchdowns. As much as I love what Saban did for us, his teams were uptight against Auburn. Especially at their place. Hopefully that will change with a new mindset leading the charge.

I sure hope so. Would be nice to see a complete game in Jordan Hare. But outside of first half of UGa they have looked shaky on the road all year.

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Do you guys think coached the Iron Bowl tight?

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I thought the players played tight until Saban said recently that their uninspired play was because they weren’t motivated enough. But I trust Saban more than my amateur opinion. So, maybe their relatively lethargic play was them not being fired up, rather than being tight.

The only thing that might contradict that is that Alabama has not been lazy or tight at home because they blew them out by at least 2 TDs every year at home for almost 20 years, the only exception being ‘10 and ‘14 with an 11 point win. And that was really an 18 pt game until garbage time when AU slowly drove the field rather than trying to win, just to make the score look better. (Then the arrogant Malzahn said, “we should have put 60 on them”).

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I thought the players played tight until Saban said recently that their uninspired play was because they weren’t motivated enough. But I trust Saban more than my amateur opinion. So, maybe their relatively lethargic play was them not being fired up, rather than being tight.

The only thing that might contradict that is that Alabama has not been lazy or tight at home because they blew them out by at least 2 TDs every year at home for almost 20 years, the only exception being ‘10 and ‘14 with an 11 point win. And that was really an 18 pt game until garbage time when AU slowly drove the field rather than trying to win, just to make the score look better. (Then the arrogant Malzahn said, “we should have put 60 on them”).

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Home teams generally play better at home. I think the home field advantage overcomes the motivation advantage of the opponent. However, on the road we are running into a motivation advantaged opponent on their own home field.

There are a lot of reasons to think Alabama is in danger: we're turnover prone, cannot seize control over a football game (partly due to the turnovers but also due to a lack of offensive balance), etc. However, I just have this feeling in my gut that Alabama is going to play a good game by the 2025 standard.

Auburn is gettable in the backend. I think either Horton, Brooks, or Williams will have a big game to compliment Bernard. I suspect Durkin is going to copy and paste some of the Venables game plan to sit back with 3 safeties over the top and we'll be better prepared to run them out of it this time. We sorta didn't figure out that we should just be running on them a bit more until the 2nd half. The run game will not be explosive but they'll establish it in the first half just enough to start hitting big plays medium to long again as the game progresses.

My prediction was 24-10 but that is mostly because I suspect we will have one long drive that ends in a missed kick instead of 3-7 points. Alabama will get back to their pass leaning ball control offense but they will hit more explosive throws so these time chewing drives aren't requiring 15 plays to go 60 yards. The staff is simply going to hold the ball like they always do.