CFP/86TH COTTON BOWL: Cincinnati no match for Crimson Tide

Alabama earned a trip to the national championship game with a convincing 27-6 win over Cincinnati in the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on Friday. (UA Media Relations)

By GRAHAM DUNN

ARLINGTON, Texas - Nick Saban couldn’t ask for a better outcome.

Even if he tried.

“I think that this game probably is a little bit of what this season has been all about,” Saban said. “We've had some really good players that are missing. It created opportunities for other players who have stepped up and showed that they have the confidence and the competitive character to go out there and do their job in a first-class way. The players believe in each other.”

Top-ranked Alabama’s 27-6 win over No. 4 Cincinnati in the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl wasn’t perfect, but it was just what Saban asked for from his team… a bruising rushing attack that finished with 301 yards, an Alabama bowl record. Or how about a defense that held the Bearcats to a mere 218 yards in total offense?

“We've had a couple games like that this year, but sometimes you've got to take what the defense gives,” Saban said. “And a lot of these running plays that we had had RPOs and passes attached to them. But by the way they line up on defense, it's a give read. So you don't end up throwing the ball, and they play a lot of man-to-man.

“So sometimes they took the RPOs away. I thought Bryce [Young] did a really good job of making good decisions and taking advantage runs when we had them and a couple of advantage throws when we had them. So that's just part of it.”

Alabama entered the game as a 13-point favorite and wasted little time providing a glimpse of what the day would be like for the Bearcats’ defense. Quarterback Bryce Young led the offense on an 11-play, 75-yard drive with most of the damage on the ground. An 8-yard pass to Slade Bolden closed out the drive.

Although the Bearcats came back on the first possession with their most-impressive drive of the night, it netted three points as well as the thought that scoring would be difficult against the Tide defense.

“Coach had a really good game plan for us,” stated linebacker Christian Harris. “I think the main thing for us was making sure we're all on the same page and knowing that we're going to come out there, we had about -- I don't know how many practices. But, of course, we're going to see some new stuff we haven't seen before. But let your rules apply.

“I think that's just what we did out there. We stay together. Regardless of we knew they were going to make some plays. They're a good team. They're there for a reason. It's all about how you respond to that. I think we responded pretty well.”

Cincinnati was said to be vulnerable against the run and Brian Robinson left no doubt with a school-record performance in a bowl game. He finished with 198 yards on 25 carries.

“I think we just showed a lot of physicality,” Robinson said. “We knew they were going to come out fired up. We knew they were going to come out and try to be physical. And we just proved that we were the most physical team, with the run game, the defensive front. Just the whole defense overall and the whole offense overall, we just proved that we were the more physical team.”

The outcome left little doubt which team was the juggernaut and which one was cutting its teeth in its first playoff game.

“We knew it was going to be a big deal, and I think that's kind of where the game is won,” Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said. “At no phase of it did we give ourselves the best opportunity. It's very difficult. It's difficult on these guys because they've worked so hard. They've committed so much. They've done everything we've asked them to do. We just were a bit short, obviously, tonight.”

Bearcats quarterback Desmond Ritter entered the game averaging 241 yards in the air and totaling 371 yards on the ground. but he spent most of the night dodging the rush of Will Anderson,  Phil Mathis, Dallas Turner, et al.

The Tide defense recorded six sacks and held Ritter to 144 yards passing and minus-6 rushing, his lowest total offense output of the season.

“They didn't do much different than what we saw on film,” Ritter said. “To sit there and draw the twists and stunts that they do on the board and work it out through practice, it's another thing to come down here and play it on a big stage.”

Few gave Cincinnati much of a chance against the perennial playoff contender. History will decide just how well the Bearcats represented as the first-ever Group of 5 teams in the College Football Playoff.

But Fickell is convinced his team made a statement.

“It doesn't feel great right now, but step back here and reflect a little bit more and recognize where it is that we've come from,” he said. “And I mean that just in the last five years. And I mean that with this group of guys.

“I don't know if I can see it or think about it right now in the midst of this, but I promise you my wife (Amy Fickell) will make me, later tonight, try to take a couple of deep breaths and recognize where these guys have taken us and what they've done for us.”