Alabama was stuffed on 3rd and short a few times and tried running into stacked boxes. Auburn had the 13th ranked passing defense in the SEC. Take out the 99 yard underthrown touchdown pass, and McCarron is 16/28 for 178 yards, which is hardly satisfactory. Yes, part of that was execution. McCarron started the game off target and there were a few dropped passes such as Cooper's dropped touchdown in the end zone.

Personnel decisions are also a part of playcalling; a coach must select the player that is having a better day or is more suited to the goal. Kenyan Drake had a significantly higher rushing average than Yeldon, yet he only received 4 carries.

AJ McCarron got about 150 yards on three deep balls, 2 of which were underthrown and lead to turnovers on the following set of downs. The deep ball was the Texas A&M defense's weaknesses, but the team apparently didn't discover that until the 4th quarter when it had been exposed multiple times in previous games. Furthermore, Alabama was not running the ball effectively versus Texas A&M as they had done against most of their opponents. If the running game isn't working and the opponent's secondary is susceptible to the deep ball, then it makes sense to take a few more deep shots.

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The Sugar Bowl was just a bad performance all around by our team. Nuss didn't turn the ball over like we did.

McCarron was responsible for the two interceptions, but that second half is all on the offense. The line struggled to block Oklahoma's pass rush, so why did Alabama elect to continue to try passing versus an undersized defense when the Alabama offensive line couldn't buy McCarron enough time? The defense held Oklahoma's offense to 7 points in the second half, but the team couldn't overcome a 14 point halftime deficit thanks to the offense.