Auburn’s 3-2 score raises eyebrows in Tuscaloosa
September 16, 2008
Nick Saban was asked about Auburn’s 3-2 victory over Mississippi State last Saturday night and tipped his cap.
“Somebody had to play some pretty good ‘D,’ that’s for sure,” Saban said. “I love to see defense, but I know you play offense for the crowd. I’m always hopeful that we play well on offense so it’s enjoyable for the crowd.
“Auburn has an awful good defensive team. I can’ t remember seeing anybody that has a third-down (conversion) statistic (3-for-46) like they do at this point in the season after three games. ... I’m sure they’ll get their thing straightened out but when you play good defense, you’re always going to play to keep from losing the game and that’s probably a good way to win a lot of them.”
Alabama safety Rashad Johnson shook his head when asked about the score.
“Auburn’s just getting their offense going, it’s only the third game for them, so it’s going to take a couple of games to get it moving right,” Johnson said. “And both of those teams have great defenses.”
Saban was asked if a team in today’s game could win a championship with just a dominant defense.
“I think if you have experienced players and they can make those adaptations, if you have a dominant defense they can take you a long way,” he said. “With my experience, we were horrible on defense the first year we won the SEC at LSU. We had a great offensive team and Jimbo (Fisher) did a great job. Rohan Davey was an outstanding quarterback. We kind of scored 40 a game and won that way.
“We got a little better on defense as it went on and then the next time we won it we had a really good defensive team and a really good offensive team, too.
“But I think when you’re that way, at least when one side is a little bit struggling for whatever reason, the other side has a chance to pick it up. You can win championships all kinds of ways. If you’re dominating on one side of the ball, that can go a long way to giving a lot of people a lot of problems.”
