ROSE/CFP: Tide dominates Irish in 31-14 win in Rose Bowl
The Alabama Crimson Tide beat Notre Dame in the 107th Rose Bowl on Friday, earning another trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship game. (Alabama Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly spent the entire week talking about how his team has narrowed the physical deficit against Alabama since losing to the Tide eight years ago in the BCS National Championship.
Now, he’ll spend the foreseeable future discussing how to narrow the talent deficit.
Top-ranked Alabama used a pair of big plays from its big-play specialists to grab a 14-0 lead, then fought off the fourth-ranked Fighting Irish the remainder of the game to grab a 31-14 victory in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game in Arlington, Texas on Friday afternoon.
Alabama (12-0) will face Ohio State a week from Monday in the CFP National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The early line has installed the Tide as a seven-point favorite.
Alabama didn’t match the betting line against the Fighting Irish, plus it failed to reach the 35-point plateau for the first time in 25 games, but it didn’t look that way early. A quick pass from Mac Jones to DeVonta Smith on the left side of the field turned into a 26-yard footrace by Smith to the end zone and a quick 7-0 lead.
On the next possession, Crimson Tide tailback Nagee Harris bounced outside to the right side of the field, hurdled cornerback Nick McCloud and sprinted 53 yards to the red zone. Jones then watched Smith on a slant toward the middle draw double coverage before lofting a pass to the vacant left side for a wide-open Jahleel Billingsley and a 14-0 lead with 4:19 remaining in the first quarter.
“We felt we could rally to them a little bit more physically,” Kelly said. “As you know, they exploited some matchups into the short field where we thought we could get out and box that a little bit better. And it didn't happen. And then the bubble to the field (to Smith) -- essentially what happened, I would just be clear with you, is that we were a little tentative. We shut our feet down. And you can't do that against highly skilled players. If you shut your feet down for a second they are gone.”
Smith, who had seven receptions for 130 yards and three touchdowns, earned most valuable player honors on the offensive side of the ball, joining defensive MVP Patrick Surtain, while Harris had 125 yards on 15 carries. Alabama became the first FBS team in history to have a player with 20 receiving touchdowns (Smith) and 20 rushing touchdowns (Harris).
“We went into the game wanting to play physical,” Notre Dame strong safety Shaun Crawford said. “We tried to eliminate all of the explosive plays. We let an explosive run slip, but I think overall in the game we held the line of scrimmage. We tackled the running back, forced him to get the ball on the perimeter, throwing the ball. So in the second half, I think we stepped it up as a group, as a unit, to try to eliminate the run game completely and just try to make them one-dimensional as an offense.”
Notre Dame succeeded, but only after another 34-yard reception by Smith gave the Crimson Tide a 21-7 cushion. In those first three possessions, Alabama averaged 16.6 yards per play on first down; after the adjustments, the Crimson Tide managed just 6.0 yards per first-down play.
“I think every time they got a big play, whether it was missing tackles or not getting off blocks or not being in the right spot at the right time, it's all the stuff that we can control,” Notre Dame free safety Kyle Hamilton said. “It’s more us just having mental errors. I think big plays have hurt us a lot this year and obviously hurt us tonight.”
Jones completed 25 of 30 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns, setting a Rose Bowl record for highest completion percentage (83.3) but most of the success came in the first half. Alabama found itself facing long-yardage situations in the second half, converting 5 of 5 third-down plays via the run, but only 1 of 5 throwing the ball as the Fighting Irish dropped defenders to keep everything underneath.
“That's just the basic adage of football, take what the defense gives you,” Jones said. “We have a great offensive line. We have plenty of time to take shots down field and then plenty of time to hit the quick game stuff to our receivers, tight ends and running backs.”
Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban seemed satisfied with his team’s performance, if you take away Notre Dame’s control of the ball for the final 5:32 following a touchdown and a successful onside kick.
“I think when people play us that way, you got to take what the defense gives,” he said. “Mac threw a couple of check-downs tonight, which become catch-and-run plays for you. They're not the big-time explosive plays we sometimes make but they do keep the chains moving. The key to the drill is, if you don't get long-yardage situations, they don't really have the opportunity to do that. We got in too many long-yardage situations today, especially in the second half, and we didn't convert.”
In the process, Jones set the school’s single-season record for passing yards (4,036), becoming the first Crimson Tide quarterback to go over the 4,000-yard mark. Smith’s 130 receiving yards gave him 3,750 career receiving yards, just nine shy of the Southeastern Conference career receiving record set by Vanderbilt’s Jordan Matthews in 2013.
Both players are among the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy, which will be awarded on Tuesday night, and both dodged any reference to the award as they turned their attention to Ohio State.
“That's a rat poison question,” Jones said. “I don't know what to tell you. We were really focused on this game, which I'm really proud of everybody for just locking into this. We've won a lot of games, a lot of people are going to get awards. It's just part of the team effort.”
Demarcco Hellams led the Tide’s defensive effort with 12 tackles. Hellams was a late replacement at the “money” position for Brian Branch, who moved to “star” to take over for the injured Malachi Moore.
The championship matchup pits two of the winningest programs in college football. Alabama won its 928th game on Friday, trailing just Ohio State (931) and Michigan (964). Alabama’s win on Friday gave the Crimson Tide its seventh win in a College Football Playoff game, the most in college football since the format was adopted in 2014.