Thank you. The Garcia thing gets on my nerves...think it was RBR who did a deep dive years ago and virtually all of the so called "career day beat Bama" stereotypes were inaccurate statistically
This is generally true.
Look, TEBOW did beat us in 2008, but we were lucky to be leading in the fourth quarter anyway. I don't think there's a fan on this board who is grounded in reality who thinks we were better than Florida in 2008.
2010 Iron Bowl
McElroy -27 for 37, 2 TD, 377 yards
Newton - 13 for 20, 3 TD; 22 carries for 39 yards, 1 TD, 216 yards
Newton wasn't the best QB in the game statistically, and Greg lost a TD because of the most insane fumble you will ever see.
2012 aTm
Manziel - 24 of 31 for 253, 2 TD; 18 rushes for 92 yards, 1 TD
McCarron - 21 of 34 for 309, 1 TD, 1 INT
YES, Manziel was better and he's why they won, but he wasn't "that much" better. If we had an OC with a functional brain, we win that one even with all those yards JF2 got.
2013 Iron Bowl
Marshall - 11 of 16 for 97 yards, 2 TD; 17 rush for 99 yards, 1 TD
McCarron - 17 of 29 for 277, 3 TD, 4 rush for 16 yards
We lost that game more due to kicking failures (not just the obvious one), failed fourth down conversions and every manner of whatever. Auburn doesn't win without Marshall's stats but almost anyone running the Gus offense would have had similar numbers, too.
2014 Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma)
Knight - 32 of 44 for 348 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT
McCarron - 19 of 30 for 387 yards, 2TD, 2 INT
OK, yes, Knight was better than AJ - but we all know about context in this one, too.
2014 Ole Miss - yes, Bo Wallace was better, but his line isn't exactly superstar:
18 of 31 for 253, 3 TD, 0 INT
2015 Ole Miss
Alabama had:
- 13 more first downs (29-16)
- 70 more yards
- 1/2 as many penalties
But the key stat in this game was the 5-0 deficit in turnovers. Yes, Kelly did have 341 yards passing of which 139 yards came on a lucky toss up (that could have been disastrous for Ole Miss) and an illegal forward pass. It's not that I'm diminishing it, but this was not "Chad Kelly sliced up the 2011 defense and made Alabama look awful."
Ole Miss beat us, but they didn't win because Chad Kelly was some next-level college QB, either.
Gary Danielson promoted that narrative incessantly but the "evidence" is far less than the details suggest.