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One of the mightiest powers in the history of college football, the Alabama Crimson Tide, turned to a ferocious offense on Monday night and paired a yard-by-yard rushing attack with a constellation of daring, electrifying passing plays to ravage Ohio State, 52-24, during the College Football Playoff’s national championship game.
The title was the sixth at Alabama for Coach Nick Saban, equaling Bear Bryant’s mark in Tuscaloosa.
But this championship season was not like all of Saban’s others at Alabama. For as sound as Alabama’s defense so often was, a mainstay of any Saban team, and for precise as its special teams play was, the Crimson Tide plowed past one opponent after the next with one offensive outburst after another. By early in the fourth quarter on Monday, this Alabama team, which won the Southeastern Conference championship, was assured of a new program record: most points per game.
DeVonta Smith, a wideout of such speed and grace that Alabama once mulled whether he should play defensive back, became the first receiver in nearly three decades to win the Heisman Trophy. Before he exited Monday’s game with an injury, he had 215 yards and three touchdowns for the night, finishing his senior season with 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns.
Then there was Najee Harris, a senior tailback who maintained Alabama’s rigorous running game even as Smith soared and dazzled. Mac Jones, the quarterback who had waited and waited for his starting job, found he could trust both Harris and Smith, but also tight ends and receivers like Jaylen Waddle and John Metchie III. The offensive line, stocked with a few talented seniors, was a shifting, swarming fortress from the time Alabama started its season on Sept. 26, when it crushed Missouri.
And in the end, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., the Alabama offense did what it had done in its previous dozen games during the coronavirus pandemic-disrupted season: It scored, scored and scored some more. Ohio State, the Big Ten champion who feared just five months ago that it would not play a single down this season, turned in enough points to have made an impression and to have created, at least for a spell, a scare for Alabama.
But it was Alabama’s night, the Tide’s statistics a record-setting display of power in a playoff-era title game. Jones captured a year-old record for passing yards in the playoff’s title game, seizing the mark from Joe Burrow, who led Louisiana State to the championship last January. Smith’s receptions set a record. And Alabama set a new standard for the most points ever scored in one of the playoff’s championship games.
The third-ranked Buckeyes had hoped to keep it competitive with the No. 1 Tide. The first quarter ended in a 7-7 stalemate. But the second quarter was when Ohio State’s ambitions collapsed. The Buckeyes scored 10 points that period, a fine showing against a defense that does not give up many.
The problem for Ohio State was that Alabama scored 28 in the second quarter and never surrendered the lead again. At the end of the third quarter, the Tide held a 45-24 advantage. Alabama predictably added even more points in the fourth.
By then, though, the game’s tension had long ago slipped away. By then, Alabama was assured that it, and Saban, had a new spot in history.
George Gusman, a member of the Big 12 officiating crew calling tonight’s title game, nearly missed the season.
A college official since 1986, Gusman lives in Hawaii and has long commuted weekly to games for the Big 12 and Mountain West Conferences. But as the season approached, he expected the coronavirus pandemic would keep him far from the continental states.
“It looked bleak, dark, you name it,” Gusman, then 69, said in an October interview with The New York Times. For safety reasons, he said, the Big 12 had initially opted to have officials drive to games — leaving people like him who must fly out of their annual gigs. But once the Mountain West resurrected its schedule, the leagues were in need of experienced officials.
Hence the late summons to Gusman, who called two previous championship games and got his start in officiating with Catholic Youth Organization basketball. He ultimately wound up on the football field, working the University of Hawaii’s nonconference games before he drew the attention of top officiating executives. He’s been around the most prominent leagues in college football ever since.
Even with his fate in doubt this season, he planned as if he would be able to make it some game, somewhere.
“I was still doing all the practice tests, I was still looking at video, looking at training video,” he said.
It paid off, it turns out, with Monday’s gig as the head linesman for the game near Miami. And it might keep him going for future seasons.
“If I didn’t officiate this year, I’m not sure I would come back next year,” he said in the fall. “Every year that ticks off the clock, there is a difference. It’s a lot different when you get over 60, 65.”
Joe Burrow broke a lot of records last year when he led Louisiana State to a national title win over Clemson.
They include the most touchdown passes in a single season by a college quarterback (60), the most touchdowns in a College Football Playoff title game (6) and the most passing yards in a championship game (463).
Burrow had just clinched the Heisman Trophy, and tossed the ball around with the safe knowledge that he would be the first pick in the N.F.L. draft. L.S.U. beat Clemson, 42-25.
Alabama’s Mac Jones has 464 passing yards in this game so far, meaning that record is his now.
And he’s within reach of some of those other numbers — even with his Heisman-winning teammate, DeVonta Smith, out with an injury. He has five touchdowns.
While he is not expected to be the first pick of the 2021 N.F.L. draft, Jones should go early.
He is dealing with a lower leg injury, but it’s not keeping him out of the game. Alabama retains a steady lead, 52-24, with eight minutes to play.
DeVonta Smith, the Alabama wide receiver who has poked all sorts of holes in Ohio State’s defense during this championship game, has headed to the locker room with a right hand injury.
It’s not clear whether he will return to the game. He’s logged 215 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 12 catches.
A few minutes after Smith went to the locker room, Alabama scored again to push the Crimson Tide lead to 45-24 with 2:52 to play in the third quarter. More than half of Alabama’s plays on the eight-snap drive were runs.
Justin Fields had a shaky first half that left him with just 90 yards of passing. It took him and Ohio State just three plays to score on their opening possession in the second half.
Fields started the march toward the end zone with a 17-yard pass to Garrett Wilson. Then he reminded all of us of how he can extend a play and ran for 33 yards. A 20-yard pass to Wilson was good for a touchdown to narrow Alabama’s lead to 38-24.
Fields’s status for Monday’s game was something of a question mark after he took a hard hit during the Sugar Bowl against Clemson. (By night’s end, he had still managed 385 passing yards and six touchdowns against Clemson, which appeared in last season’s title game.)
But Alabama spent much of the time between the semifinals and the title game fretting over Fields. Speaking to reporters last week, Pete Golding, the Alabama defensive coordinator, offered an extended assessment of how Fields has developed since his freshman season, which he played at Georgia:
I think he looks much more veteran. I think he does a good job of getting them in and out of plays. Obviously they’re a big check-with-me team, and based on the shell and the front he can control the run game and the pass game.
So I think he’s come a long way obviously of understanding coverages and fronts and how they fit together. He does a really nice job of getting them in and out of plays. Obviously, I think he’s got a really good arm, a really strong arm, another one. He threw on his back foot 68 yards last week for the touchdown, but I think his accuracy has improved.
I think he’s done a better job of keeping his feet in the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield, but he still has the ability to be able to hurt you and tuck it and run. So I really think he’s become a complete quarterback, not labeled an athlete.
I think he can make the throws, can make the checks, understand his coverages, so I think he’s really grown up.
Dylan Moses, a senior linebacker for Alabama, said that Fields reminded him of Cam Newton, the Auburn quarterback who tormented Alabama and engineered an Iron Bowl comeback that makes Tide fans shudder a full decade (and four national championships) later.
“He can deliver the ball to his receivers, has a strong arm, athletic,” Moses said. “He’s everything that you want in a quarterback.”
And now all Alabama wants is for Fields not to be able to come up with a Newtonian-style revival. We’re at about five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
It doesn’t happen often, but it has tonight: Alabama put together a scoring drive without a single yard from DeVonta Smith.
Alabama went for 75 yards over nearly seven minutes and hit a field goal to extend its lead to 38-17. But Smith, who wasn’t in the game for the whole of the drive, dropped the one ball that came his way.
Alabama fans will be holding their breath until they see Smith, who retreated into a sideline medical tent after appearing to injure his right hand, line up for another snap. But at least they know their team can score anyway.
Lane Kiffin, one of the great offensive minds of his era, knows how to size up a quarterback. And when he looks at Mac Jones, the redshirt junior who takes almost all of Alabama’s snaps, he thinks of a quarterback he coached more than a decade ago: Matt Leinart.
Pretty high praise considering Leinart won the Heisman Trophy in 2004.
“Matt was a great player, won the Heisman, but he had great weapons and a great offensive line,” Kiffin, Mississippi’s coach, said in an interview last week. “That’s what this offense really reminds me of. They have a Reggie Bush, but he’s a receiver, not a running back” in DeVonta Smith.
Please say more, Coach.
“He’s really accurate, really smart, doesn’t turn the ball over, and on top of that, he’s got great weapons,” Kiffin went on about Jones who, like Leinart, is being coached by Steve Sarkisian, Alabama’s offensive coordinator.
The Jones stat file entering Monday night’s game: 5,699 yards of total offense across three seasons at Alabama, with 51 passing touchdowns and a career completion percentage of 74 percent. He stumbled in the second quarter on Monday night with a fumble that set the stage for an Ohio State touchdown, but he recovered minutes later with the engineering of a five-play drive that restored Alabama’s lead.
As Alabama starts the second half with a 35-17 lead, Jones has 342 passing yards and has completed 25 of his 30 passes. Not bad for a guy who was seen as a talented, but maybe not history-making, quarterback when he finished high school.
But he has been a stabilizing, reassuring presence for Alabama throughout the season and placed third in the Heisman voting (Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence was second behind Smith).
As Alabama coaches and Kiffin will say openly and frequently, Jones benefits from the talents around him, namely Smith, who had 215 yards in the opening half, and Najee Harris, the premier tailback for the Crimson Tide.
Removing Smith from the equation is no easy task, Kiffin said, as much as Ohio State might want to right now.
“The problem is there are so many weapons,” he said last week. “Everybody said, ‘OK, drop eight and play double cloud.’ Well, the problem is then they just run you out of that because of the offensive line and Najee. They don’t allow you to really take him away because you can, but then you’re just going to die a slower death with the running.”
Coach Tom Allen and Indiana nearly broke Ohio State during the regular season, so I texted him at halftime to see what he made of the game so far.
If you’re an Ohio State fan, it might be best to look away.
DeVonta Smith, Alabama’s Heisman Trophy-winning wideout, and Najee Harris, the starting Tide tailback, “are at another level!!!” Allen wrote, adding that injuries were straining Ohio State. (Before the game, he was effusive in his praise for Trey Sermon, the running back for the Buckeyes who left the game hurt.)
“Bama’s athleticism and power is impressive,” Allen added. “I think OSU must pressure the QB more!!!”
The key so far, as Allen sees it: Alabama’s dominance at the line of scrimmage.
With no sustained pressure, he said, Ohio State has no chance.
The Heisman Trophy did not go to DeVonta Smith’s head. His feet just headed toward the end zone again and again.
Smith, the first wide receiver in almost three decades to win college football’s top individual prize, used the opening half of Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship game as if he still had a case to make to voters. He didn’t, of course, but he scored three touchdowns and amassed 215 receiving yards on a dozen catches anyway.
Again, that was in one half. There’s still another to play.
Smith’s graceful, speedy runs were the signatures of yet another offensive outburst by Alabama, which built a 35-17 lead over No. 3 Ohio State at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. But Najee Harris, a tailback, added more moments to his perpetually swelling highlight reel, and Mac Jones, the Crimson Tide quarterback, didn’t let a rare miscue of a lost fumble derail him or the offensive juggernaut that has Alabama in strong position to reign over the sport once more.
For a program accustomed to championships so often built on sturdy defenses, Alabama’s approach to Monday night’s matchup was a departure from so much of its long history — but also in keeping with its recent run of record-shattering, bracingly powerful offenses that produce big plays through the air.
By halftime, Smith had set the record for most receptions in a playoff-era championship game. And Jones had set a first-half record for passing in a playoff championship, upending the mark that Joe Burrow, a Heisman winner, set in last season’s game.
Alabama’s eruption in Monday’s opening half puts extraordinary pressure on Ohio State, which played far fewer games this season and headed to the locker room with just 190 yards in total offense. Alabama posted 389.
The star quarterback for the Buckeyes, Justin Fields, struggled, going 6 for 15 with his passes for only 90 yards. Trey Sermon, a tailback who had made defenders look foolish, left the game early with an injury and was not expected to return. The Ohio State receiver with the most productive night so far? A tight end.
More trouble might be imminent for Ohio State: Alabama will receive the kickoff to start the second half.
“The whole offense is really playing well,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban told ESPN as he headed toward the locker room. And with that, a whole bunch of heads snapped in surprise that the oft-scowling Saban would say something so glowing during a game.
The list of problems Ryan Day, Ohio State’s coach, wishes he didn’t have during a championship game assuredly includes not having two-thirds of the kickers on his roster absent.
But here we are.
Ohio State announced before the game that Blake Haubeil, who handled half of the field goal tries for the Buckeyes this season, would be out, along with Dominic DiMaccio, who took care of most of the kickoffs. Haubeil said he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The absences left Ohio State with Jake Seibert, a freshman who had missed his only field goal attempt of the season but had a 13-for-13 record on extra points heading into Monday night’s title showdown.
With just over five minutes to play in the second quarter, Seibert got a chance for 3 points. An easy 23-yard kick narrowed Alabama’s lead to 4, and it’s 21-17 as the intermission nears in South Florida.
Coach after coach has insisted that Alabama won’t beat itself.
They might be rethinking that perspective after Ohio State tied the game at 14.
Alabama started a drive on its own 12-yard line, and Mac Jones promptly threw to DeVonta Smith for a 12-yard pickup. On the very next snap, Jones lost the ball for Alabama’s eighth lost fumble of the season.
After the lost possession, Ohio State started its drive on the Alabama 19. A defensive pass interference call against Alabama moved the Buckeyes 15 yards. Master Teague III ran for a 4-yard score and knotted the ballgame with 11:43 to play in the second quarter.
It didn’t last. Alabama went 75 yards on five plays, including a 26-yard touchdown pass to Najee Harris, to seize the lead once more. Jones was perfect on the drive.
It’s 21-14, Alabama, with nine minutes to go before halftime. So maybe the coaches were right, after all.
The early verdict for both teams in Miami Gardens is that Ohio State is down a running back while Alabama is up a long-lost wide receiver.
Alabama’s Jaylen Waddle fractured an ankle while playing against Tennessee in October, requiring surgery. His first play back was a 15-yard catch, putting Alabama in a good position to be the first with points on the board — Najee Harris finished a 1-yarder for his 25th rushing touchdown of the season. Waddle did appear to have some discomfort after his catch.
But Ohio State running back Trey Sermon was sent out after the first possession, grasping his left shoulder and heading to the locker room, then the hospital. Master Teague III, another running back for Ohio State, stepped up in Sermon’s absence, rushing to match Alabama’s lead.
But Alabama’s DeVonta Smith opened the second quarter with a 5-yard touchdown catch at the start of the quarter to put Alabama up, 14-7.
We knew there’d be a lot of scoring. Alabama just made it look easy (again).
And as you’d expect, Mac Jones threw the ball a lot to DeVonta Smith, the winner of this season’s Heisman Trophy.
A 32-yard pass. Then a 12-yard pass. Then someone else — John Metchie III — got to pick up nine yards on a pass before Smith caught another pass for three yards. Alabama pivoted to its ever-mighty running game from there, giving Najee Harris the ball for two quick gains that added up to seven yards and brought the Tide within 20 yards of the end zone.
Another pass to Metchie brought Alabama close to a first down, but Harris ran for 3 yards to sustain the drive. A 4-yard scamper by Harris brought Alabama to the brink of a lead headed into the second quarter, but on the next play, Justin Hilliard, an Ohio State linebacker, tore through the chaos to push Harris back two yards.
And when it came time to score? A 5-yard pass to a largely undefended Smith for a touchdown, completing a drive that went just more than five minutes.
Alabama rolled up 153 yards on its first two drives, including 127 through the air.
And now Alabama leads, 14-7, early in the second quarter.
Barely minutes into the game, Trey Sermon, clutching his left shoulder, was shuttled into the Ohio State locker room. It was only the first possession but the running back likely will not see any more action on Monday night, as he was then transported to a hospital for further examination.
A deep loss for the Buckeyes, Sermon blossomed in the last few games of the season. In the last two games alone, he rushed for 524 yards. In the first five games of this season, he rushed for a total of 344 yards.
“He’s one of those guys where you give him the seam, he can take it: I think he’s got breakaway speed and then he still has the ability to catch some out of the backfield,” Pete Golding, Alabama’s defensive coordinator, said of Sermon last week.
Luckily, Ohio State had running back Master Teague III, who suffered an injury in the first half of the Buckeyes’ Big Ten championship win and was unable to play in the Sugar Bowl. Teague was the first player from Ohio State to put points up on the board against Alabama. In the first five games of the season, Teague had 449 yards on 89 carries and six touchdowns.
And he has already proven himself by and large — after the defense forced a turnover, Teague wasted no time for the Buckeyes in landing his second touchdown of the night.
Half — half! — of Ohio State’s six passing touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson involved tight ends.
Consider the case of Jeremy Ruckert, a 6-foot-5 junior from Lindenhurst, N.Y. When the Buckeyes arrived in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, he had caught five touchdown passes this season and not one in the preceding three games.
But early in the second quarter that night, when Ohio State took the lead it would hold forevermore, Justin Fields targeted Ruckert with a 17-yard pass for a touchdown. He did it again, this time for 12 yards, just before halftime and finished the night with 55 yards on just three catches.
Ohio State’s reliance on its tight ends has been inconsistent this year. But when the Buckeyes turn to players like Ruckert, they’ve generally had positive results.
“They’ve been effective when used, but not used that often, and I think that’s probably a dimension that really stuck out to me,” Tom Allen, Indiana’s coach, said. “Honestly, you don’t think about taking any of those guys away. You’re worried about all the perimeter guys and you’re worried about stopping the run game. Tight ends, to me, that’s where you can really, truly take advantage of a defense because now you put those safeties and linebackers in conflict.”
Alabama had noticed the tight end play on film, of course. The lone outstanding question heading into Monday’s game was how much Ohio State Coach Ryan Day would use them with a title on the line.
“A lot of tight ends, they may be really physical but not that effective in the pass or only effective in the pass but not effective in the run, but I think he can do both of those,” Christian Harris, an Alabama linebacker, said of Ruckert. “He can kill you any moment of the game, whether it’s the run play, put you on your back or the pass. He’s a great route runner. He’s also got some size on him, so it’s really hard to get around him when he’s trying to make catches.”
Ruckert made his presence known early on Monday with a stellar one-handed catch for a 36-yard gain that set the Buckeyes up for an 8-yard touchdown run by Master Teague III.
Tie game in Miami Gardens with a bit under five minutes to play in the first quarter.
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