Sports

Thursday, November 26, 2009

SEC Football Blogger

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2009 Iron Bowl, Alabama vs Auburn, Prediction Pick

2009 Iron Bowl, Alabama vs Auburn, Prediction Pick. This year will mark the 74th meeting of Auburn and Alabama in the Iron Bowl. This season I think most would agree that this is Alabama’s game to lose. The Crimson Tide is coming into this game undefeated and ranked as the No. 2 team in the nation. While Auburn has struggled in their SEC match ups this season. They come into this game with a 3-4 SEC record with losses to Georgia, LSU, Kentucky, and Arkansas. This game is a big rivalry game though, and often that means anything goes.

Mark Ingram and Ben Tate are sure to be battling it out in this game. Both are superb running backs who have already racked up over 1,000 yards each this season. Mark Ingram should fair well against Auburn’s defense who has allowed over 100 yards in all but two games this season. Ben Tate on the other hand may struggle against an Alabama defense who has only allowed over 100 yards in two games this season. Auburn’s best chance at scoring on this Alabama defense will be in utilizing their passing game. Alabama will have to be ready to stop Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachery who together have over 1,000 in pass receptions this season.

Going into this game I feel pretty certain that Alabama will come out on top. Auburn’s defense has struggled so much this season that I don’t feel they will be able to shut down Alabama’s offense. Whereas Alabama’s defense has shown such great strength this season that Auburn will probably have a difficult time scoring on them. One thing that is going in Auburn’s favor is the home field advantage. Alabama has only won twice at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Nick Saban has never won a game at Auburn during his college coaching career, maybe this will be the year. If Alabama’s offense is firing on all cylinders I expect this to be very similar to last season’s Iron Bowl, which was a 36-0 win for the Crimson Tide. However, if Alabama’s offense can’t perform it could be very similar to the Alabama/Tennessee game earlier this season.

The Iron Bowl is always difficult to predict, but I’m going to call this one for Alabama 38-10. One thing is for sure though the rivalry will be in full effect this Friday. Fans all across the state of Alabama will be hoping to come out with bragging rights for the next year. Let’s see who gets ‘em this year.