I haven’t spoken to my father – an Alabama alumnus and lifelong fan – since Alabama’s relatively narrow victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. I haven’t needed to speak to my father because I know the basics of what he’ll say: The team came out flat, played sloppy, didn’t take care of the football and generally thought they’d win the game just by showing up. They bought their own hype, rather than seeking to “impose their will on their opponent” as Nick Saban would put it or, to use my father’s favored phrase, “beat the snot out of them.”
I haven’t needed to speak with him because we’ve had this conversation before. We’ve had this conversation before because this is becoming a trend.
The Crimson Tide frequently “comes out flat” after “big wins.” Before the Mississippi State game, Alabama rode a dominant second half to a victory against then-No. 13 LSU in their biggest test since week three. They promptly turned the ball over four times against Mississippi State. After the game, Saban said, “We won the game, but we didn’t really beat the other team.”
Rewind to that Texas A&M game. Alabama put up more than 500 yards of offense and intercepted two Johnny Manziel passes while converting three of six third downs.
The next week, against Colorado State, Alabama converted just two of 10 third downs and posted only 338 yards against the barely bowl-eligible Mountain West team. After that game, C.J Mosley said, “I felt like as a whole, we didn’t really execute to our full abilities … So I felt like we kind of got away with a win. We didn’t really dominate that win.”
Last year, Alabama famously and narrowly lost to the then-SEC newcomer Aggies. To hear some tell it, Alabama was dominated on their home field, left without answers for freshman phenom Johnny Football. Truthfully, as my dad likes to remind people, Alabama lost one quarter of that game: the first.
In short, after the historic “Rally in Death Valley” the week before, Alabama took the field following a huge win, and the score was 20-0, Texas A&M, “before the band had finished the fight song.” Obviously, Alabama still won the national championship but not without some help on the way.
“The Process” is supposed to focus on one play at a time, one game at a time, for 60 minutes a game. Saban’s philosophy is supposed to produce a juggernaut that maintains an indomitable standard of play for every down of every contest. For the most part, it reaches that goal.
I mean, it has won three BCS championships in four years and is knocking on the door of the only three-peat in modern NCAA Division 1 history. It’s possible that the kind of perfection it seems like Saban demands – a perfection that extends beyond 14-0 – just isn’t possible in today’s SEC.
And if this team produces results, wins the BCS National Championship – the fourth in five years, the third in a row, the 16th for Alabama and the last-ever BCS National Championship – who really cares?
