Iron Bowl 2010: Mark Ingram Strikes First; Tide Up 7-0

We're underway at the 2010 Iron Bowl, live in Hate-O-Vision from Tuscaloosa. The first quarter is less than half-played, and already the Crimson Tide are making the Auburn Plainstigerhawks' lives a special kind of living hell.

Players picking themselves up on the first play from scrimmage are already jawing back and forth. And Alabama, it seems, has come to back their talk up. In a three-minute drive that features so many of the Crimson Tide names you love or loathe (Greg McElroy, Julio Jones, Marquis Maze, and Mark Ingram), Alabama is inside the red zone and Ingram runs right for a nine-yard score. There is a ghost of -- not a smirk, exactly, on Nick Saban's face, but a self-satisfied expression that says this is about how he thought things would go. The Tide will need to survive Auburn's own offense for a bit before we'll be able to tell if he's right.

Then, the unthinkable series of 2010: The Tigers go three and out. Auburn is averaging 505 yards of offense per game, according to the CBS broadcast team, and picked up eight on their first drive of the Iron Bowl.