Blake Sims has a chance to make his own legacy in Iron Bowl-sds
This Alabama season will be remembered for a lot of things. Amari Cooper’s dominance, Lane Kiffin spicing up the offense, the injuries the team has overcome, the dramatic wins and losses. The quarterback battle from the preseason is long-forgotten, but the player that emerged from that battle on top, Blake Sims, should be one of the first names that comes up when discussing the Crimson Tide’s 2014 season.
Sims’ brilliance this season has gone under-appreciated, and that should change if and when he lights up the Iron Bowl.
After last year’s class of passers dominated the SEC, this was supposed to do be a down year. That takes nothing away from Sims’ status as far and away the best passer in the conference this season. He’s second in passing yards, third in completion percentage, has thrown the second fewest interceptions and has the second-best touchdown to interception ratio.
It doesn’t end there. Sims is completing better than 70 percent of his third down passes and turning more than half of his third-down passing attempts into first downs. His 52 percent on third-down conversions his tops in FBS, according to ESPN research.
Sims has been eating at home, too, and he gets a crack at an Auburn team that’s been stumbling defensively for the better part of a month. Sims is completing more than two-thirds of his passes at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and his quarterback rating is more than 50 points higher at home. Meanwhile, Auburn is giving up nearly 400 yards per game in November, and the defense has deteriorated week by week.
The stage is set for Sims to leave an indelible mark at Alabama. At this point, he’s already put up more impressive numbers than his predecessor, AJ McCarron, but he doesn’t have the hardware to show for it. If Alabama rolls through Auburn, they’ll likely be favored to win the SEC championship and hold onto the top seed in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Despite how good he’s been, this season’s story lines simply haven’t been dominated by Sims’ dominant play as it should have been. Would Cooper be breaking every Alabama receiving record without Sims finding him all over the field? Would Alabama’s offense be this diverse without Sims’ game-changing running ability to go along with his pinpoint accuracy? The answer to both is likely a “no,” but Sims hasn’t gotten the proper credit for it.
If the senior simply keeps his season-long status quo at home, it should be more than enough for people to realize that Alabama has the best quarterback in the conference, one deserving of all the praise his national championship-winning predecessors earned and then some.
