BCS National Championship

Alabama Rolls To National Title

*UPDATE*

Final score 42-14.

*ORIGINAL STORY*

It may be a little unprofessional starting to write this article with 22 minutes left in this "game," but with the score being 35-0 it may be safe to call it over. This has been the most one-sided game I can ever remember in the National Title Contest. Notre Dame looks like a team that doesn't even belong on the same field as their opposition. Alabama is just running through the Irish defense and no one is able to take Lacy down.

It's hard for me to write this article praising how well Alabama has played, but I have been very impressed with the performance of their defense, offensive line, and AJ McCarron. Notre Dame has been unable to get pressure to the quarterback, leaving their suspect secondary fending for themselves. Against the speedy Alabama receivers, they have no chance.

The first quarter was pretty suspect from an officiating standpoint. On a third and long for the Irish, Everett Golson completed a pass for a first down to Tyler Eifert along the sideline. On the completion the big tight end got two feet down, took another step before going out of bounds. After going out of bounds, the tight end had the ball swatted free. The referees called it an incompletion and the booth did not buzz down for a review, even though Brian Kelly called a timeout to give them a chance to get a better look at it. Rather than having a first down, Notre Dame was forced to punt. Alabama took the gained momentum and put themselves up 14-0.

After another failed series on offense, Notre Dame lined up for a punt on fourth down. A fair catch was called for, but the returner dropped the fair catch. An Alabama blocker ran into his teammate trying to return the ball. The returner was unable to cover the ball and the Irish recovered, gaining possession. But, the referee threw a flag and called the Irish for interfering with a fair catch opportunity even though it was his own teammate that did the interfering. Essentially in the first quarter the referees accounted for possibly a 14 point swing. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Notre Dame should be winning this game. Their defense couldn't stop a nose bleed tonight. But you could see the team almost get deflated on the second blown call that resulted in not only them losing possession, but also gave the Tide a few extra yards.

With all that being said, teams cannot give up because of officiating. If Notre Dame was a championship caliber team, they would have dug in and not let the refs affect their resolve. Have to give props to Alabama, they went out and won this game. Looks like the seventh National Championship in a row for the SEC and back-to-back for Bama.

Congrats to Alabama as a program, but I will never say congrats to Nick Saban.