Except the collective record of the LSU teams Alabama has beaten is 49-16 (75.4%). If Auburn was putting up similar numbers, people still wouldn't be happy but it wouldn't be seen as a real problem. Somehow he found a way to go 5-3 against an LSU team winning three-quarters of its games but he's never beaten Auburn when Auburn has won 75% of their games. That goes back to his time at LSU, where he was 2-3 against AU. AU had a 15-10 record (60.0%) record in the years that LSU won, and a 27-11 record (71.1%) in years Auburn won the game.
The combined records of the 3 AU teams that have beaten us is 34-5 (87%) and our combined record in those 3 years is 28-10 (73.6%) This year is the first that we were the team with the better record coming into the game.
As far as being 5-3 with LSU, we are only 5-3 because we got a do-over in 2011. Otherwise, it would be the same record. Even though LSU had the better overall record, only LSU's 2011 team was as good as good as AU's 2010 team, and I'd almost bet the farm that if LSU played AU again this year, AU would win this time around.
In our 5 November losses since 2009, the combined records of the teams that beat us was 60-6 (91%) (LSU 11-2, AU 14-0, LSU 13-1, A&M 11-2, AU 11-1) Our record in that time is 46-6 (88%).
In that stretch, we've got beat by 2 Heisman winners and arguably two of the best players in CFB history, a LSU team that had we not beat in the BCSNCG that would have gone down as one of the best SEC teams ever (they beat 8 ranked teams, including THREE top 5 teams), and an AU team this year that is running the ball almost like the wishbone days and leading FBS in rushing.
At the end of the day, the AU teams that have beat us had a better record than we did as well as the 5 teams that beat us in November.
It sucks losing, and I understand that the raw numbers of losing 5 games in November since 2009 and losing 3 games out of 7 to our biggest rival looks bad. However, at the end of the day, we've lost to AU when they are winning 87% of their games, and lost 5 games to 5 teams winning 91% of their games in November.
These games just happen to all be played in November and the last 2 losses to AU happen when they are 25-1. Considering we've done this ranked #1 - #3 most of the time in that stretch, and getting everybody's best shot game in, game out, I think this is an a awesome record.
If any team in any era has ever fared better, please show me. (I am not directing this at you Jess, I'm just making the point.)
With all that said, I do hope something is tweaked to help give us edge against AU. We really should have won this year, and everybody knows it, including AU. There's a 3 or 4 page thread on ITAT where they are terrified of having play us again in a bowl or the BCSNCG. The most troubling thing about both this game and the 2010 game is how conservative we got as the game went on. In the both games, we came out of the gate on fire. We dominated in 2010 until halftime, and even this year we came on the first drive and marched down the field until the drive stalled and we missed the first FG. They seemed to get tight in the rest of the 1st quarter, but we were on fire in the 2nd quarter. The only game I thought we were just totally flat in was 2009. In 2007, we were overmatched by a much better team. In 2010 and 2013, we came out looking like the much better team until halftime. We seemed to go on vacation after halftime in 2010, but in this game, we just seemed to have made a few too many mistakes, and the playcalling got too vanilla. Either way though, if we make just 1 of the FG's or get 1 yard on 4th and 1, we almost certainly win the game.
Hopefully next time around, the staff will come out super aggressive after halftime, and keep the hammer down. There's definitely things that could have been done better, but I just can't totally buy that CNS has a trend of losing to AU or teams November based on their records. We were beat by great teams winning 91% of their games, and two of those teams loathe us and CNS.
