TUSCALOOSA -- For the first time in 12 games, quarterback Greg McElroy had to perform without the help of Alabama's heralded running game.
That made Friday's game with Auburn a little different for the Texas native, who is accustomed to having one of the nation's best rushing attacks at his disposal. Instead, McElroy's arm had to save the second-ranked Crimson Tide, and touchdown passes to Colin Peek and Roy Upchurch pulled out a 26-21 victory.
"It was obviously a trying game for me," McElroy said. "It was one of those games where it's like, 'Gosh, are we ever going to do anything right? Why do we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot?' It felt real similar to the Utah game last year (in the Sugar Bowl) at one point, but I think the way we responded, obviously, was totally different."
The junior said his teammates didn't seem properly motivated to face the Tigers, another similarity to the Utah game. That won't be a problem this week, he said.
"Obviously, you look at a team like Auburn that's been allowing however many points they were -- all kinds of points and all kinds of yards -- and they went out there and played one heck of a ballgame. So every game is a little bit different. Did we execute well? No, we didn't. But when the game was on the line and we needed to make plays -- yeah, we did. We made those plays. That's encouraging, but it's great to know we can make so much improvement and we were still able to get a victory."
