Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/98978
Game Preview: Alabama in the Serengeti. The top-ranked Tide outgained Arkansas 438-187, and junior Eddie Lacy rushed for three scores and 55 yards on 12 carries. Sept. 22: Alabama 40, Florida Atlantic 7 Alabama scored on its first six possessions and kept Florida Atlantic (110 yards of total offense) off the scoreboard until the 2:49 mark in the fourth quarter. Sept. 29: Alabama 33, Ole Miss 14 Alabama freshman wide receiver Amari Cooper caught a game-high eight passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns, and senior placekicker Jeremy Shelley kicked four field goals at home for the team���s second SEC victory of the year. A 99-yard kickoff return for a score in the second quarter by sophomore Christion Jones was part of a 21-point Tide outburst in the second frame. Oct. 13: Alabama 42, Missouri 13 On the road in Columbia, Mo., Alabama greeted its new SEC foe with a career-high 176-yard rushing effort by Lacy, who scored three touchdowns, and 144 yards and two scores by freshman T.J. Yeldon. The game was delayed 40 minutes due to lightning. Junior linebacker C.J. Mosley brought the thunder with a game-high 12 tackles and a fumble recovery. Oct. 20: Alabama 44, Tennessee 13 In Knoxville, head coach Nick Saban���s crew torched the Volunteers through the air, with McCarron throwing for a career-best 306 yards and four touchdowns. Cooper caught seven passes for 162 yards and two scores to help the Tide improve to 7-0 and 4-0 in the conference. It was Tennessee���s fourth consecutive SEC defeat. Oct. 27: Alabama 38, Mississippi State 7 Back home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama thumped the nation���s 11th-ranked team with scoring drives on each of its first three possessions. McCarron lengthened his stretch of passes without an interception to a school-record 262. Nov. 3: Alabama 21, LSU 17 No. 1 Alabama nearly became a casualty in Death Valley, but Yeldon took a swing pass from McCarron 28 yards for a touchdown with 51 sec- onds left in the game to cap a five-play, 72-yard drive to rally against No. 5 LSU. The Tigers missed a 45-yard field goal and Alabama took over with 1:34 to play trailing 17-14. McCarron completed his first three passes to start the drive, chewing up 44 yards in a hurry. Two plays later, Yeldon finished off the rally. Nov. 10: Texas A&M 29, Alabama 24 After an emotional win over rival LSU, Alabama was slapped in the face by Aggies redshirt freshman quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, who led his team to a 20-0 lead after the first quarter on the road. The Tide countered with 17 unanswered points, but Texas A&M connected on a 29-yard field goal and scored on a 24-yard pass from Manziel to Malcome Kennedy midway through the fourth quarter to hand the Crimson Tide its only loss of the regular season. Nov. 17: Alabama 49, Western Carolina 0 Football Championship Subdivision squad Western Carolina finished the year 1-10. Next. Nov. 24: Alabama 49, Auburn 0 Then again, Auburn, which won a national title in 2010, might have been a weaker opponent than Western Carolina. The Tigers went 0-8 in the SEC. Dec. 1: Alabama 32, Georgia 28 After climbing back up to the No. 2 spot, Alabama had No. 3 Georgia (11-1) standing between it and a second consecutive trip to the BCS National Championship Game. The teams met in Atlanta for the SEC title game, and the Tide edged the Bulldogs with help from Lacy���s 181 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Yeldon added 153 rushing yards for Alabama, which outgained passhappy Georgia 512-394. McCarron led the Tide 55 yards on four plays to regain the lead with less than four minutes to play, completing the drive with a 45-yard passing strike to Cooper. Georgia went three-and-out on its next possession and didn���t get the ball back until only 45 seconds were left in the contest. The Bulldogs moved all the way down to the Alabama 5-yard line, but time ran out. ��� Wes Morgan