Alabama's show of strength propels it to BCS title game
- The high-scoring SEC championship was a departure from recent conference slugfests
- Running backs Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon combined to propel Alabama to a championship rushing record
- Alabama will play for the BCS title against Notre Dame, a team against which it is 1-5 all-time
ATLANTA -- He had just come up with the final stop in a game that featured far fewer stops than we're used to, at least in clashes of Southeastern Conference powers. Somewhere, somehow, a slugfest had morphed into a shootout. But C.J. Mosley ended it, blitzing, leaping and tipping Aaron Murray's last pass. Intended for the end zone, the ball instead fell into the arms of Georgia receiver Chris Conley, who fell 5 yards short as time expired.
And after the confetti had fallen and the wild celebration had subsided and No. 2 Alabama had been crowned champion of college football's best conference, Mosley had a confession: the linebacker liked it better this way – a 32-28 victory over No. 3 Georgia, two teams trading haymakers, swapping touchdowns instead of scrapping for field goals.
"It was just back and forth, back and forth," Mosley said. "They made plays. We made plays. That's when your true ability comes out, when you're able to bounce back from a big play or to make a big play."
BOX SCORE:Alabama 32, Georgia 28
Even with all the fireworks, the SEC championship was an intense, extremely fast, very physical display of what they like to call "grown-man football," another illustration of why the league reigns supreme.
At times, the effect can be numbing – like in LSU's 9-6 victory last season in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Alabama's 21-0 victory in a BCS championship rematch that featured one very late touchdown. This time, it was supremely entertaining.
"We jabbed and jabbed and jabbed, and finally we got the knockout punch at the end," Tide tight end Michael Williams said.
With the victory, Alabama moves on to the BCS Championship game on Jan. 7 in Miami. While Notre Dame is ranked No. 1, the Crimson Tide is the favorite to bring home the program's second consecutive crystal football (and third in four seasons) and the conference's seventh in a row. Put it another way: Could the matchup with the Fighting Irish – or anybody – be any more difficult than what the Tide had just completed?
"It's a pretty dominant conference," Williams said. "We won, and it shows a lot." And he added: "This one was pretty tough. It'll be hard to match."
Both defenses got gassed, and then gashed. Tide running backs Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon combined for 334 of Alabama's 350 rushing yards, 198 in the second half. Georgia's Todd Gurley (122 yards) almost matched them. And while Murray and Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron were inconsistent, both made big plays.
With a little more than three minutes left, McCarron connected with freshman receiver Amari Cooper deep down the sideline – the Georgia sideline – for a 45-yard touchdown. The pass was set up, of course, by all of the running.
McCarron faked a handoff to Yeldon, sucking the safeties forward. Cooper was supposed to run a post, but got pushed outside. It didn't matter; he got behind the defense and hauled in the nice spiral as he crossed the goal line.
"We were running the ball so much, pounding it," McCarron said. "Play-fake, he bit, we beat 'em over the top. I just launched it."
And the Tide has relaunched, completing a climb back to the top after a fall three weeks ago. When Texas A&M upset the Tide in Tuscaloosa, it wasn't just Alabama, the entire SEC was momentarily on the outside of the BCS race.
With two weekends remaining in the regular season, Kansas State and Oregon and Notre Dame were unbeaten. And never mind Nick Saban's unnecessary drumbeating after Saturday's victory – "This conference will test your mettle," he said, making sure to emphasize the current BCS standings, which features six SEC teams in the Top 10 – because had two of those three others finished unbeaten, it would have been the correct matchup for the BCS championship.
Only Notre Dame made it, though. And after Saturday's slam-bang display of power football – a slugfest that was at the same time a shootout – it's hard to argue that the one-loss SEC champion hasn't earned its way into the game.
It would have been true for Georgia, too, had Murray and the Bulldogs managed the clock a bit better on that last, frenzied drive. Or had Mosley not tipped the ball, or Conley not caught it.
"It still baffles me, exactly what happened," Murray said afterward.
But the bigger picture was crystal clear. Alabama is back in the national championship game, and the SEC is a favorite to take home another crystal football.
"That's a whole 'nother feeling," said Alabama senior guard Chance Warmack of winning a national championship. "I'm still trying to take in this SEC championship feeling. It's just a beautiful thing."
But Saturday showed why, lately, it has been the same thing.