Tide rolls Texas for BCS Championship

Congrats to the Alabama Crimson Tide and coach Nick Saban in claiming the BCS Championship with a 37-21 victory over the Texas Longhorns last night. The win marks Saban's second BCS title and he becomes the first to win titles with different programs (LSU).

One fact that cannot escape is that Texas QB Coly McCoy was knocked out of the game early in the first quarter. It was speculated that a shoulder injury had occurred when McCoy was tackled by Alabama's Marcell Dareus. It was only the game's fifth play. Mack Brown would now have to rely on  highly touted true freshman Garrett Gilbert to run the Longhorn offense. It took the kid a while, but he showed some fight in the second half. Some are saying losing McCoy cost the Longhorns another title, but I repectfully disagree.

I say that because didn't Texas come into this affair with the nation's best rushing defense? Both Mark Ingram (116) and Trent Richardson (109) had over 100 yards rushing. That helped lead Alabama to winning the time of possession battle, too (33:39 to 26:21). Which offers another question. Was Texas ranked as the nation's top rush defense because people can't run on them or is it a product of playing in the Big 12 with a fair amount of teams that run a variable of the spread offense? In all honesty, the world will never know on that. All it shows is that stats are just that, stats.

Because Texas could not hold the Bama running game in check, QB Greg McElroy only threw 11 passes. McElroy was seen by many as the one weak link in Alabama's offense. The running game was so successful that McElroy was merely an afterthought. Let the record show that McElroy only completed six passes for 58 yards. The thing is, this guy wins no matter how you look at it. He hasn't lost a start in over half a decade.

I only have one thing that Texas should have done differently and we can all agree on it. What in the world was your staff thinking by calling for a shovel pass? Seriously, why? Wouldn't have taking a knee or calling a running play been better? Sure, hindsight is always 20-20, but I said that before the play. You have a true frosh in at QB. Bama is showing the willingness to take an 11 point lead into the locker room. But, alas, a pick six and the lead goes from 17-6 to 24-6.

Nick Saban. I actually see that you can smile. Just like the Cheshire cat.

Texas had fought all the way back from a 24-6 deficit to only trailing 24-21 with 3:14 left and the Longhorns had to ball at their own 7. A great Bama defensive call for blitzing on the edge, sacking Gilbert, creating a fumble, and taking the ball in the endzone three plays later for a 31-21 lead with 2:01 left. Game over. Right?

It wasn't. Texas got the ensuing kickoff and on the second play of the drive, Gilbert threw his third of four interceptions, giving Bama the ball on the Texas 27. The game clock showed 1:48 remaining. I ask,. You're the head coach, what do you do? I instruct my team to take a knee. Sure, Mack Brown had time outs in his pocket. If Brown uses one, then proceed to run real plays. If not, continue to take a knee and show a bit of class.

Not Saban. He showed that there were to be no classy win this evening by running the ball for yet another Tide score with 0:47 remaining. Are you kidding me? 47 seconds left. You have the game in hand and you call yet another running play. It was obvious that Texas was not going to call any of their remaining timeouts. Okay, the drive did take another 1:01 off the clock, Scoring that touchdown meant a lock. No, how about the previous TD meant that.

I can hear it now. The Texas defense should have stopped them from scoring that last touchdown. Stop it. Just simply stop it. That argument simply doesn't wash here. The game was clearly over at that point. There's no need to pour salt in the wound. Simply a lack of class.

As I said above, no classy win. I say congrats to the Bama players that won that game. Not the head coach.

It was once in a song one that I wanted to forget until now: "I see your true colors shining through."

Yep, we see them.