When the Crimson Tide take the field Saturday, they will not have lost a regular-season game in 743 days.
That will be little consolation for Alabama if it comes up short against Florida in the SEC Championship Game for the second straight year.
UA is about to get a second chance against UF, after the Gators pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 31-20 win en route to a BCS National Championship Game appearance.
This year’s winner will again have a chance to play for the national title.
“We got too caught up in the moment,” Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain said. “Our guys got caught up in the pressure and they wanted to be the hero and make the extra effort play instead of just doing what we had to do and doing what our job was.
“If everybody would have just done what they had to do in the fourth quarter instead of getting caught up in the moment, we would have been fine. I think the guys understand that now and everybody is trying to play their role, playing their role the best they can instead of trying to be the hero.”
It has been well-documented that Saturday’s showdown will feature a clash of the nation’s top defenses. The outcome may hinge on which offense can do just enough to pull out the win.
Florida and Alabama have seemed to favor the run this year, with the Gators boasting the SEC’s top rushing offense and Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram second in the conference in rushing yards per game.
UA quarterback Greg McElroy said the ability to depend on Ingram on offense has been a big help as he develops in his first year under center.
“(Inrgram has) been a great security blanket for all of us in our first years as starters. He’s that solid rock,” McElroy said. “He’s been a guy we can fall back on when we need to grind the clock and a guy that’s gotten off to great starts in games for us.”
Ingram’s superb season has helped the Crimson Tide weather through some of McElroy’s rockier weeks, including a three-game stretch against Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee in which he completed 51.8 percent of his passes, averaged 119.7 passing yards per game and had a total of zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
“There was a huge question mark that everybody had about the quarterback on our team this year,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
But Alabama’s closer-than-expected win in the Iron Bowl may have given McElroy a much-needed boost of confidence. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns and drove his team 79 yards for the game-winning score with 1:24 remaining.
That might be remembered as the day McElroy went from a game manager to a clutch presence in the pocket.
“It was important for us as an offense,” McElroy said. “Most times people will sit back and say — if our offense is put in charge of winning that, shoot, we’re going to be out of luck.”
McElroy’s favorite target has been star wideout Julio Jones. Jones caught five passes for 124 yards in last year’s SEC Championship Game as a freshman. This year, he has eclipsed the century mark in yards just once, racking up 102 against LSU.
The Gators will rely on their conference-best passing defense to shut down Jones.
“What they do is not necessarily over complicated,” McElroy said. “It’s tough to prepare for in the sense that you can replicate the looks, but it’s difficult to replicate the personnel they have.”
McElroy has gone through quite a transformation this season, but whether it will be enough still remains to be seen.
“At the end of the day, you can talk about playing Florida and how you want to beat them,” McClain said, “but at the end of the day, you have to go out and prove it.”
