Overshadowed by the dramatic ending of Michigan-Ohio State and lost in the shuffle of a handful of other important late season games with more direct College Football Playoff repercussions, we need to talk about the ending of the 2023 edition of The Iron Bowl. Although it's not quite on the level of the Kick-Six ending from ten years ago in terms of “Holy S*** what the hell just happened?” reactions, very few games come down to a 4th and goal Hail Mary with under a minute left. After the game, the two players involved in the throw and catch weighed in on this classic moment in Alabama football history.

It started before the play, when Alabama wide receiver Isaiah Bond says that the calmness of Tide QB Jalen Milroe set the tone. Bond said that when Milroe entered the huddle, he looked at his teammates and delivered a simple message: “Let's go make a play.” (h/t Chris Low of ESPN). And oh boy, did Isaiah Bond make a play.

“I saw IB one-on-one, and I said, ‘We're going to score,'” Jalen Milroe said after the game. It turns out, thirty-plus yards away, Isaiah Bond was thinking the same thing.

“It's mine. That's what I was thinking,” Bond told reporters. “I was like, ‘It's a 50-50 chance, and I'm going to get it.' And I went and got it.”

It was a perfect throw and catch to the back of the end zone that kept Alabama's slim College Football Playoff hopes alive. One would assume that a win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game would secure Alabama their 8th appearance in the four-team postseason, but that's certainly not a guarantee. A home loss to Texas earlier in the season could keep Alabama behind the Longhorns, and the Oregon Ducks have been the highest-ranked one-loss team in the rankings and have chance to win the Pac-12 Championship on Friday night.

But no matter what happens with the rest of the Alabama season, this is one Iron Bowl that Tide fans will remember for a very long time.