What are some games that Alabama was lucky or very fortunate to win?

tusks_n_raider

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I’ve always felt that the 2012 LSU and 2013 Auburn games were about the same... the tigers in both games were lucky that Doug Nussmeir was our OC.
Throw in 2012 Texas A&M too.

If AJ calls plays from the Huddle and/or has free reign to Audible then we win both games you mention with comfort.

If Kiffin or Sark were calling plays we would have beat both handily.
 

81usaf92

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Throw in 2012 Texas A&M too.

If AJ calls plays from the Huddle and/or has free reign to Audible then we win both games you mention with comfort.

If Kiffin or Sark were calling plays we would have beat both handily.
Well you could also throw the 2012 SECCG in there too. It’s was pretty obvious that he was more concerned about getting AJ to NYC than winning a national championship. Because it was pretty obvious early on that Georgia couldn’t stop the run but was more than capable at stopping the pass.

I really hate the Roundtable as a show and preferred opening drive way more. I know I’m in the minority in that regard but the Roundtable is basically the Bama homer show with a wannabe odds man and a guy trying to be funny. Anyways Ryan Brown is one of the dumbest people I’ve heard on air or television to attempt the talk about sports. But one of the dumbest things I’ve heard him say is “Doug Nussmeier was the greatest OC in Alabama history and he gets too much unnecessary criticism from Bama fans”. This was in 2016. His basis was numbers but good lord you have to look at context at some point in your life. Does anyone really want to make a case for Locksley being better than Sark because of numbers? I think Nuss’s career after Bama can serve as clear empirical evidence that Alabama won a national championship in 2012 because of the talent on that team and not because of a great OC.
 

RammerJammer15

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2014 Arkansas

A rainy night in Fayetteville, offense was stagnant, coming off a loss to Ole Miss, the whole vibe of the team was just flat but a missed Arkansas XP in the 2nd quarter was the difference, Landon made a key pick late in the 4th.
 
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Bama75&80

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This is the 'retire the trophy' winner. I was in school at the time and didn't even bother going to the game because it was expected to be such a monumental rout, even though we were down to our third and fourth string quarterbacks. FSU had the country's longest losing streak, as I recall.

Desperate last minute drive and 37-yard field goal by Bucky Berry. Bizarre.
I was at the game as a student and crowd was just stunned at what we were seeing. Pretty big cheer in the old bowl for that field goal.🤪
 
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LSUgrad2BamaDad

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No offence, But we were not lucky or fortunate to win that one. We led the game 14-3 at half time.

LSU then came back to take a 17-14 lead.

Then late in the game Alabama made the plays to Win......They forced a LSU turnover on downs, then they forced a LSU FG attempt from 45 that missed and then proceeded to make the drive to win the game.

It's not like LSU was running the final minutes off the clock and then just fumbled the ball to Bama for a fluke scoop and score.

Alabama earned that Victory.

But since it was brought up, let's roll that beautiful bean footage.....

No offense taken, and seeing things differently makes the world go around. From my point of view, and why I think Alabama was fortunate (not lucky) - LSU outscored Alabama 14-0 in the second half and was driving to put the game away. Miles had 2 of the country's best WRs and a QB who had 298 yards passing and could get it them, but he parked the bus once he was in FG range. Credit the Bama D for stepping up, but IMO, Alabama was fortunate our coach played scared and the stupid a.. iced his own kicker.
  • 2nd & 11 at LSU 46
    (3:12 - 4th) Zach Mettenberger pass complete to Odell Beckham for 22 yards to the Alab 32 for a 1ST down.
  • 1st & 10 at ALA 32
    (2:34 - 4th) J.C. Copeland rush for 3 yards to the Alab 29.
  • 2nd & 7 at ALA 29
    (2:34 - 4th) Timeout ALABAMA, clock 02:34.
  • 2nd & 7 at ALA 29
    (2:28 - 4th) Jeremy Hill rush for a loss of 3 yards to the Alab 32.
  • 3rd & 10 at ALA 32
    (2:28 - 4th) Timeout ALABAMA, clock 02:28.
  • 3rd & 10 at ALA 32
    (2:10 - 4th) Jeremy Hill rush for 4 yards to the Alab 28.
  • 4th & 6 at ALA 28
    (1:39 - 4th) Timeout LOUISIANA STATE, clock 1:39.
  • 4th & 6 at ALA 28
    (1:34 - 4th) Drew Alleman 45 yard field goal MISSED.
 

UAH

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I was at the game as a student and crowd was just stunned at what we were seeing. Pretty big cheer in the old bowl for that field goal.🤪
We were sitting almost perpendicular to the goal post on the press box side in the end where the field goal was made. FSU ran the ball all day through holes in the defensive line that a truck could be driven through. As I recall they took a safety in the series preceding the field goal. Looking back they were probably gassed at this point and Bama managed a drive in the last possible moment. No one left feeling very good about the day not realizing at the time the number of injuries Bama had going into the game.
 
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We_are_Bama

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2009 auburn I don't know how we got out of there with a win. The national title for that year almost went up in smoke that day. They fooled us out of our shoes on trick plays to go up 14-0 early. The smoke and mirrors mess waned for a bit and we tied it up at 14-14 right before the half. But then they caught us napping and went up 21-14 late in the third quarter on a TD pass to Darvin Adams. Then we had to earn every yard to muster up 2 FGs to pull to within a point at 21-20. We pretty much drained the remainder of the 4th quarter with a 15 play 9 minute plus drive. That daggered the barn's defense and was the difference maker. The TD pass from McElroy to Upchurch was beautiful, however.

2010 Arkansas Ryan Mallet torched us for most of the game. A trick play blew up on us early. Ingram finally got rolling in the 4th quarter and bailed us out in a 24-20 nail biter

1998 LSU I thought this one was done. LSU had a two plus score lead in the 4th quarter. Quincy Jackson caught 2 tipped passes for TDs to get us out of Baton Rouge with a 22-16 win. I hate to say it, but we had barn luck that day LOL

1991 Mississippi State We escaped with a 13-7 win. We didn't do much of anything in the second half. State had the ball late in the game with a chance to go ahead 14-13. Granted, had MSU scored, there would have been time on the clock when we would have gotten the ball back, but considering our poor offensive performance in the second half, I'm not sure we could have driven down the field and kicked the winning FG. Thank goodness we never had to find out as the State QB overthrew his intended receiver on 4th and goal
 

mrusso

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National Championship game vs Georgia. I think Bama was fortunate that Saban was very un-Saban like at halftime and make the QB change. Love Jalen Hurts, but he was not the QB that was going to win the game that night. Even with Tua and all the young talent around him making plays, it still took a little good luck among bad luck (missed FG near end of regulation) for us to win that night.
 
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Padreruf

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In 1981 we played UK in Lexington -- I was there. We were behind in the 4th quarter and CPB put in the 2nd team QB. He pulled away on a 4th down run, made the 1st down and we went on to win 19-10. UK had stuffed us all game and we did not deserve to win...but somehow did.
 
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selmaborntidefan

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2009 auburn I don't know how we got out of there with a win. The national title for that year almost went up in smoke that day. They fooled us out of our shoes on trick plays to go up 14-0 early. The smoke and mirrors mess waned for a bit and we tied it up at 14-14 right before the half. But then they caught us napping and went up 21-14 late in the third quarter on a TD pass to Darvin Adams. Then we had to earn every yard to muster up 2 FGs to pull to within a point at 21-20. We pretty much drained the remainder of the 4th quarter with a 15 play 9 minute plus drive. That daggered the barn's defense and was the difference maker. The TD pass from McElroy to Upchurch was beautiful, however.

2010 Arkansas Ryan Mallet torched us for most of the game. A trick play blew up on us early. Ingram finally got rolling in the 4th quarter and bailed us out in a 24-20 nail biter

1998 LSU I thought this one was done. LSU had a two plus score lead in the 4th quarter. Quincy Jackson caught 2 tipped passes for TDs to get us out of Baton Rouge with a 22-16 win. I hate to say it, but we had barn luck that day LOL

1991 Mississippi State We escaped with a 13-7 win. We didn't do much of anything in the second half. State had the ball late in the game with a chance to go ahead 14-13. Granted, had MSU scored, there would have been time on the clock when we would have gotten the ball back, but considering our poor offensive performance in the second half, I'm not sure we could have driven down the field and kicked the winning FG. Thank goodness we never had to find out as the State QB overthrew his intended receiver on 4th and goal

In that 91 MSU game, we would have died. Remember - we had ONE TD, and it was a pick six by Stacey Harrison (who showboated towards the end zone and nearly didn't make it). And our field goal kicking in 1991 was next-level atrocious. We had Danny Woodson as QB, and he had all of 46 yards passing. Hamp Greene, the kicker, lost his job to Matt Wethington that day, and neither was Phillip Doyle, Van Tiffin or even the guy who started next year, Michael Proctor.

It has always been rumored that the State OL who jumped was a freshman who did so because one of the Tide players called "hut." It was never proven, but State insisted the moment it happened that we did.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Throw in 2012 Texas A&M too.

If AJ calls plays from the Huddle and/or has free reign to Audible then we win both games you mention with comfort.

If Kiffin or Sark were calling plays we would have beat both handily.
My Longhorn bud here called me moments after the game and said, "Get ready to hear it - because they're never gonna let this one go." Even after we won the title that year, he said all they were gonna do was talk about that they beat Alabama.

And he was right, too.

On the Monday after that game, I was off, and it was the Veteran's Day holiday. That was the first time I ever partook of one of those Vets Day specials, I went over to some steakhouse in Frisco. All anyone was talking about that day was, "Did you see A/M beat Alabama?" And, of course, they made it sound like they were the Globetrotters and Alabama was the Washington Generals.
 

BamaMoon

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Two games in Saban’s first year-

2007 Arkansas- blew a big lead. Thought Jones and McFadden were going to take over. Matt Caddell made a great catch at the end.

2007 Ole Miss- really bizarre ending. Coach O yaw-yawed about it for weeks. Scored 10 points in the final 8 minutes. Then benefited from a replay reversal at the end to beat the Rebs.
I thought about this game. Stood on field level about 20 feet from a recruit named Julio Jones for the game winner against the Hogs in 2007.

Nice roar went up and seeing the replay Caddell's catch was super difficult.
 

BamaMoon

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National Championship game vs Georgia. I think Bama was fortunate that Saban was very un-Saban like at halftime and make the QB change. Love Jalen Hurts, but he was not the QB that was going to win the game that night. Even with Tua and all the young talent around him making plays, it still took a little good luck among bad luck (missed FG near end of regulation) for us to win that night.
I don't know if I'd call it lucky, but yeah that's a game it felt like we probably wouldn't win until we did. No doubt Tua gave us a chance but it's not like Georgia just went away in the second half either.
 
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Zorak

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Two games in Saban’s first year-

2007 Arkansas- blew a big lead. Thought Jones and McFadden were going to take over. Matt Caddell made a great catch at the end.

2007 Ole Miss- really bizarre ending. Coach O yaw-yawed about it for weeks. Scored 10 points in the final 8 minutes. Then benefited from a replay reversal at the end to beat the Rebs.
Man, I was living in Oxford that game, and actually had seats in the South Endzone Club (my boss at the time was a big OM booster, and invited me to the game with him). By and large, the OM fans were pleasant enough as that was before they got uppity following the 14/15 games. One guy told me exactly what Alabama could go do itself after that ending, but I was immediately apologized to by numerous OM fans who watched what went down. Being an Alabama fan I could enjoy winning the game, but also winning the party as I was back on the Grove for several hours afterward on The Grove with OM fans. I got the best of both worlds.

I don't think my heart has ever fully recovered from the `09 Tennessee game, though. So yeah, I go with this one.
 

TideEngineer08

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Dare I say the 1994 Iron Bowl? It should have been a rout. We raced out to a 21-0 1st half lead, and Auburn whittled away at it and it was a 21-14 game in the 4th with Auburn driving and facing a 4th and 1. Pretty sure they converted, but the refs ruled it short. It was close either way. I'm not sure it would have been conclusive on replay. And there is no guarantee they score even if they do convert the 4th and 1. But the game was over after that.
 

deliveryman35

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1988 Sun Bowl against Army. 29-28. Our only bowl win during the Bill Curry years. The Cadets ran all over us that day. I seem to recall they had over 350 yds on the ground against what was a very good, Derrick Thomas-led defense. We were down 28-20 going into the fourth quarter and we had to rally late with two scores to pull it out. I think still the only time we've played one of the service academies.
 
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