AUBURN, Ala. — That crazy tipped pass for a long game꧋-winning touchdown is now the second-most stunning and improbable play of Auburn’s wild se💖ason.
Yes, the Tigers found a way to to🍌p “The Immaculate Defleಌction.”
🎃Chris Davis returned a missed field-goal atteꦯmpt more than 100 yards for
a touchdown on the final play to lift No. 4 Auburn to a 34-28 victory over No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, upending the two-time 🐈defending national champion🅷s’ BCS hopes and preserving the Tigers’ own.
“We’re a team of destiny,” Davi𒐪s said. “We won’t take no for an answer.”
He🏅 delivered a play that deserves its own nickname. Say the Happiest Return. Or the saddest, depending on which side of the Iron Bowl you si🦋t.
Davis caught the ball about 9 yards deep in the end zone after freshman Adam Griffith’🍒s 57-yard attempt fell🃏 short. He then sprinted down the left sideline and cut back with nothing but teammates around him in a second straight hard-to-fathom finish for the Tigers (11-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference).
“I knew when I🌠 caught the ball I would have room to run,” Davis said. “I knew they would have big 💯guys on the field to protect on the field goal.
“When༺ I looked back, I said, ‘I can’t believe this.’ ”
Alabama coach Nick Saban 𓂃defended his decision to kick the long field goal.
“Griff makes them from 60 in practice,” Saban said. “So, there was a shot. We had the wind behind us. We had the wind in the fourth quarter. He didn’t hit it gr🐼eat, but we still should have covered it and the game shouldn’t have ended that way.”
Auburn clinched a spot in the SEC championship game with the stunning victory over the powerhouse from across the state. The Tigers will face No. 5 Missouri, which clinched a spot with a 28-21 💝win over No. 19 Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide (11-1, 7-1) several times seemed poised to continue its run toward the first three-peat in modern college football, but couldn’t put the Tigers away.
Asked if it was the biggest win of his career, Tigers coach Gus Malzahn said: “It ranks right up there.” But he said he’d “p🉐robably” still celebrate just like he has since his high school coaching days: With a Waffle House meal.
“That🐼’s what you coa☂ch for, that’s what these kids play for, to get a chance to win the SEC championship,” Malzahn said.
The Tigers put it away just when overtime on tap. The public address announcer in the stadium a❀lready had declared the game 28-28 at the end of regulation.
But Alabama got 1 second🐷 rest🔯ored and one more play after a review of T.J. Yeldon’s run to the Auburn 39.
That gave Saban a chance to try the long field goal — and now he probably wished he never did, give꧋n the stunnin𓆉g result.
“It w🥃as a great g🙈ame,” Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron said. “Sometimes luck just isn’t on your side.”
The entire field looked like a sea of orange shakers as the celebration c🔯onti♊nued long after the finale of one of the biggest Iron Bowls in the bitter rivalry’s 78-year history.
It lived up to the billing — and then some. According to NCAA records, it was just t⭕he fourth time a missed field goal was returned for 100 yards, with LSU’𝄹s Odell Beckham Jr. doing it against UAB early this season.
This finale even one-upped Auburn’s last-gasp win over Georgia two weeks earlier. A deflected 73-yard touchdown pass from Nick Marshall to Ric🍎ardo Louis dubbed “The Immaculate Deflection” with 25 seconds left set up only the second top-five Iron Bowl matchup and first since 1971.
A team that went 3-9 last season and had been destroyed by Alabama 91-14 comꦜbined the past two seasons will play for an SEC title and perhaps a trip tꦇo the BCS championship game.
Undefeated Ohio State, which was third in the BCS standings this wee🐻✱k and figures to move up to second behind Florida State, will have something to say about which teams play for the national title, too. No doubt the Buckeyes, who won their own thriller against Michigan earlier in the day, were celebrating Auburn’s win almost as much as the Tigers.
On the final play, Alabama turned to Griffith to replace Cade Foster, who had missed three field goals, with a potential clinching 44-yarder going low and getting blocked in the finalꦗ minutes. Griffith was only 1 of 2 all season with a long of 20 yards.
“We told our team that this is like March Madness,” Saban said. “Coming into this game that if you want to keep playing in the tournament you have to keep winning. I was really proud of the way our guys competed out there today, but t꧑he fact of the matter is that we did not make plays when we needed to𒉰.”
**
AUBURN, Ala. — That crazy tipped pass fꦫor a long game-winning touchdown is now the second-most stunning and improbable play of Auburn’s wild season.
Yes, the Tigers found a way to🧸 top “The Immaculate D🍬eflection.”
Chris Davis returned a missed field-goal attempt more than 100 yards for a touchdown on the final play to lift No. 4 Auburn to a 34-28 victory over No. 1 Alabama on Sat🐷urday, upending the two-time defending national champions’ BCS hopes and preserving the Tigers’ own.