A rare low year in Tuscaloosa only made things worse for the rest of college football. Alabama lost the decisive game of college football for the first time and helped create one of Nick Saban’s most dominant teams.
Last season, Crimson Tide lost twice and finished eighth in the final Associated Press vote. For most teams, it’s a quality season. For Saban, it is unacceptable.
Monday night – and his team’s performance throughout this impeccable season – was more in line than he expected.
Alabama mistreated Ohio State for Saban’s seventh record national championship, beating the Buckeyes, 52-24, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. In Crimson Tide’s 13 wins, only one win came by single digits. They overcame opposition 630-252.
Alabama completed the perfect ninth season in the program’s history with a world-class offensive performance, producing 582 all-purpose yards and setting a 52-point College Football Playoff championship game record.
“This team has accomplished almost more than any team,” said Saban. “Without disrespecting any other team we had or any championship. But this team won 11 SEC games. No other team has done that. They won the SEC, went undefeated in the SEC and then won two major teams in the playoffs with no break between them. “
Only in the first half, wide receiver Devonta Smith, winner of the Heisman Trophy, set a record for the College Football Playoff championship in catches (12) and touchdown receptions (three). In the second half, after an injury to his right hand ruled him out, his friends did the rest.
Mac Jones, the anonymous former reserve defender, completed 36 of 44 passes for 464 yards and five touchdowns. Najee Harris scored three times and was responsible for 158 yards in total. Crimson Tide’s forgotten defense kept Ohio state quarterback Justin Fields and Co. in check.
“I think we are the best team that ever played,” said Jones. “There is no team that will play SEC programming like this again.”
Crimson Tide took a 35-17 lead at halftime and consumed the first 7:13 of the second half with another old Alabama boost, moving the ball methodically, despite Smith having left the field after the second game of possession.
Ohio State responded by going 75 yards in three plays with Fields looking more like the player who dismantled Clemson, taking 33 yards on a goalkeeper and hitting Garrett Wilson on a 20-yard score. It did not generate any momentum, not with the Buckeyes defense unable to mount any resistance.
Alabama went straight to the field, despite Smith’s absence to push the lead back to three touchdowns with Jones finding Slade Bolden 5 yards away.
The expectation of a shootout between the two most important scoring offensives in the ranking was right from the start. The first eight attempts of the game resulted in five touchdowns. Both defenses seemed to be overcome.
While the Buckeyes were doing most of their ground damage – Master Teague III scored his two touchdowns in the first half in 4- and 8-yard races – Alabama was sharing Ohio State’s second place. Jones shot four points in the first half, three for Smith, and completed 25 of 30 passes for 342 yards.
The momentum changed when Ohio State had to settle for a field goal in the middle of the second quarter, after a few shots off Fields’ target in the red zone.
It was an unstable first half for Fields, who completed just 6 of 15 passes for 90 yards. He seemed hesitant and nervous, missing open targets and only used his feet occasionally. It didn’t help that Trey Sermon got lost on the first play of the game due to a collarbone injury. Crimson Tide started putting more pressure on Fields in the second quarter, leading to hurried pitches.
Just 3:31 after Ohio State’s field goal, Alabama’s lead went from three to 17. Smith took consecutive hits, the second a 42-yard reception in a stitch pattern in which he was somewhat compared to the slow linebacker Tuf Borland.
At that point, Smith had set several records. The first half wasn’t over yet and it didn’t matter. Alabama was on its way to another championship. It was a foregone conclusion.