AUBURN, Ala. — Once again, Alabama faced a moment of crisis with just a handful of minutes remaining in the Iron Bowl. Once again, the Tide looked out on the massive north end zone, the one with 25-foot-tall letters spelling out AUBURN. Once again, an Alabama quarterback took the snap … and once again, Alabama broke Auburn's heart with the Iron Bowl's go-ahead touchdown. Final score:Alabama 27, Auburn 20.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, who has the appearance of a kindly Sunday School teacher and the heart of a Texas Hold 'Em grinder, looked out at the situation — fourth-and-2, the ball on the Auburn 6–yard line, 3:50 remaining in the game, the score tied at 20 — facing a stark, season-defining choice. Go for the field goal and risk a loss, or go for the touchdown and shove Auburn's backs against the wall?
"I figured it was 29 yards shorter than the last time we needed a touchdown here," DeBoer smiled after the game, referencing Alabama's infamous fourth-and-31 "Gravedigger" play from 2023. "Probably the percentages were much more in our favor." So he put the ball in his quarterback's hands.
With that, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson faced the defining moment — so far — of his Alabama career. A win in the Iron Bowl would punch Alabama's ticket to the SEC championship and, in all likelihood, grant the Tide a berth in theCollege Football Playoffone way or another. A loss, and the second straight season under head coach Kalen DeBoer would end in disappointment.
Simpson took the snap, paused in a collapsing pocket, and then threaded a dart through chaos to find receiver Isaiah Horton for a touchdown, his third of the night.
TY SIMPSON WITH ICE IN HIS VEINSpic.twitter.com/EuJ6U0pSso
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF)November 30, 2025
Auburn had a chance for a rebuttal, but its drive ended when Cam Coleman fumbled the ball after a catch in Alabama territory. Soon afterward, Alabama had clinched its sixth straight Iron Bowl and another trip to the SEC championship. As for a CFP berth…? Well, we'll get to that in a moment. First, a eulogy for a season that could have been so much more for Auburn.
The Iron Bowl's history of unpredictability and chaos looms large every year; you never quite know when a routine game will metamorphosize into aKick-Sixor aGravedigger. Both programs entered this year's version with much at stake — for Alabama, a berth in the College Football Playoff; for Auburn, bowl eligibility … and a chance to knock Alabama out of the CFP, which would be sweeter than any bowl invitation.
Alabama entered the game at 9-2 but facing, in effect, the first of many potential elimination games. Not only that, but a second season of missing the 12-team CFP, after being a regular fixture in the four-team one, would turn a white-hot spotlight on Kalen DeBoer's program. Nine wins are lovely for other programs, but nine wins aren't even table stakes for Alabama.
Auburn, on the other hand, is a program for whom "disarray" would be a step up. The Tigers came into Saturday with a record of 5-6, just 1-6 in conference. Since August, they've shed one head coach and started three different quarterbacks, and rolled into Saturday night's game largely cruising on "Hey, you never know" vibes and little else.
But vibes don't stop the Alabama defense, and early in the first half, Auburn looked overmatched and unprepared. The Tigers three-and-outed on four of their first five possessions, and didn't even get a first down until the waning seconds of the first quarter. Quarterback Ashton Daniels flailed under pressure, Auburn's receivers missed balls that hit them in the hands and the Tigers generally looked like an unserious team on their way to an early offseason.
Meanwhile, Alabama laid the foundations of what seemed like a rout. After a 45-yard field goal from the recently wobbly Conor Talty, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson hit receiver Isaiah Horton for a pair of touchdowns, including this toe-tap beauty:
👀👀@isaiahhorton14📺: ABCpic.twitter.com/QKjQ1FjdHk
— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL)November 30, 2025
The second touchdown put Alabama up 17-0 and surely had Tide fans dreaming of an SEC championship berth, a CFP bid and maybe a whole lot more.
They should've known better. This is the Iron Bowl, after all.
Auburn closed out the first half by holding Alabama to two three-and-out drives while at the same time putting two field goals on the scoreboard. A second-quarter Auburn touchdown was called back when a receiver lined up a couple feet too far off the line, but the Tigers opened the second half with a massive course correction — a 65-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to Malcolm Simmons. And just like that, Alabama's gaudy 17-0 lead was a fragile 17-13 one.
Came out swinging 😤@MalcolmSimmons0takes it 64 yards to the crib!📺 ABCpic.twitter.com/qUmf8QZiWd
— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball)November 30, 2025
After another Alabama field goal extended the lead back to seven points, Auburn began the fourth quarter with another devastating Daniels-Simmons connection, this one for 66 yards. And just like that, the game was tied, and all the ghosts of Iron Bowls past came roaring back.
But in those crucial final minutes, the Crimson Tide centered themselves and made the game's two key plays. Horton came through with that clutch third touchdown, and on the ensuing drive, Alabama stripped Coleman and effectively clinched the game.
So what now? Alabama faces Georgia once again in the SEC championship, continuing a run since 2014 of at least one of the two reaching the conference's title game. Alabama already beat Georgia in Athens earlier this season in one of the Tide's defining victories. In theory, that win and several other ranked ones, combined with Alabama's appearance in the title game, ought to be enough to guarantee Alabama a berth in the College Football Playoff regardless of the outcome of Saturday's game.
But then this is the College Football Playoff, and the unpredictable does happen. Some combination — but by no means all — of Alabama, Miami, Notre Dame, BYU, Vanderbilt and Texas will get into the playoff. Could Alabama play themselves out of a berth with a loss next Saturday?
DeBoer scoffed at that idea. Being denied a berth in the CFP "would blow my mind," he said. "That would be unreal. We're 10-2, and 7-1 in the SEC with all these ranked wins, and some wins on the road. We've got more than a playoff-caliber football team. There's not a question in my mind."
The rankings on Tuesday, and the results next Saturday, will tell the story. It seems absurd to think that Alabama could be left out of the playoff after reaching the conference championship, but stranger things have happened. Just not on this Saturday night, not in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
