From the first play of scrimmge you knew it was going to be a very long night for the Buckeyes when Trey Sermon suffered a game ending shoulder injury.
For Ohio State to beat this historic Alabama offense it was going to have to be a game where the Buckeyes could run the ball and create some turnovers.
Without Sermon–the Ohio State run game fizzled and there was only one Mac Jones turnover which led to a red zone field goal for the Big Ten champs.
Alabama averaged 48.5 points a game this football season and were better than their norm in this national championship snoozer.
Ohio State’s defense had no answer whatsoevr for Heisman winner DeVonta Smith who was the game’s MVP. Ohio State’s four linebacker defense was in no way going to keep DeVonta Smith in check. But then again… no one in college football stopped Smith this season either.
Nick Saban has now won six national titles in the past twelve years. If you throw in Saban’s title at LSU he’s won seven national tiles and has now passed Bear Bryant on the leaderboard for national championships in the AP era.
OU will start next season ranked No. 2 behind Saban’s dynasty. Unlike in previous years the concern in Norman isn’t going to be on the defensive side of the ball. The concern is if OU wants to beat Alabama can they score forty-nine points or so and make a few clutch defensive stops through the course of a back and forth game.
Saban is a smart football coach. The college game changed and he not only changed with it but he went one better than Lincoln Riley on the offensive side of the ball.