Crimson Chapters: Chapter 12

An oral history of the University of Alabama’s football season, as told by the people who lived it

Bittersweet

Alabama wide receiver DeAndrew White (2) sits on the ground after Ohio State intercepted the ball to end the game on Jan. 1 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La. Alabama lost, 4235.

staff photo | Robert Sutton

By Tommy Deas

Executive Sports Editor

The University of Alabama entered the first-ever College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed, drawing a marquee semifinal matchup with Ohio State.

The contest pitted two traditional powerhouse programs, the SEC champion against the Big Ten champion, Alabama coach Nick Saban against the Buckeyes' Urban Meyer.

Playing in the Sugar Bowl in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Alabama entered favored by more than a touchdown. That's how it looked through most of the first half before Ohio State surged, eventually taking the lead in the third quarter and holding off the Crimson Tide down the stretch for a 42-35 upset victory to end Al-

For a video look back at the stretch run of Alabama’s 2014 football season, go to www. tuscaloosanews.com or www. tidesports.com

from playing for the national championship, leaving many wondering what could have been.

Nick Saban, head coach: abama's season.

We probably didn't play our best game.

Ohio State torched Alabama's defense for And I take responsibility for that.

537 yards. Running back Ezekiel Elliott ran for 230 yards and two touchdowns to win Jalson Fowler, most valuable player honors, and quarterback senior fullback: Cardale Jones — who had risen up the depth They didn't sneak up on us. We prechart from third string to starter due to inju- pared and watched them for a month, and ries — passed for 234 yards and a score while they just outplayed us. also scrambling for some key first downs.

Alabama's Blake Sims threw three intercepBlake Sims, tions and the Crimson Tide seemed to abandon senior quarterback: its running game at key points.

It was all me. I take full responsibility continued It was a disappointing defeat that kept UA

for everything that happened tonight. It was no other person's fault but mine.

Urban Meyer, Ohio State coach: You see them on film. Great team. But we're pretty good, too.

Saban: Well, you know, we're very disappointed in the outcome of the game, but you have to congratulate Ohio State who played a really, really good game.

Alabama made a couple of big defensive stops in the first half to hold Ohio State to field goals and was up 21-6 midway through the first half.

Saban: Well, really, we were up 21-6 because of two turnovers and two stops in the red area. So we really weren't stopping them. We kind of had the momentum of the game because of the turnovers that we got and converted those into scores.

But we weren't really playing and executing the way we needed to even then. I didn't like the feel of the game even then.

staff photo | Erin Nelson

Butch Davis, former college and pro head coach: The complexion of the game dramatically changes because Alabama had somewhat control of the game — I think it was 21-6 — and Ohio State's one, big catastrophic interception or sack-and-fumble away from getting blown out.

If Alabama goes up 28-6 at halftime, the game dramatically, completely changes. But Ohio State scored and cut the lead at halftime. That allowed them to keep Ezekiel Elliott in the game as a legitimate threat.

Above: Alabama head coach Nick Saban walks off the field after a timeout during the fourth quarter.

Below: Alabama tight end Michael Nysewander (46) tackles Ohio State running back Curtis Samuel (4).

Saban: I was kind of anxious to see us take more shots down the field. I don't think we maybe did that enough early in the game.

Meyer: You know, all of a sudden you get down against a team like that, that's No. 1 in recruiting every year for the past six, seven years, our guys know that.

Saban: They hurt us on third down, lots of times on thirdand-longs, and converted, and we didn't do very well on third down. So we didn't continue drives and they were able to continue driving and convert scores.

Elliott scored on a 3-yard run and Ohio State got the ball back to score again in the final minute of the first half to cut Alabama's advantage to 21-20. The Buckeyes drove to another score to start the second half, taking a 27-21 lead.

Meyer: The most important momentum of any game is the last five minutes of the first half, first five minutes of the second half. We came out smoking in the second half, too, because I could hear it as we were walking in: "We get the ball, we get the ball."

staff photo | Robert Sutton

continued

Alabama quarterback Blake Sims (6) completed 22 of 36 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns; He also had three interceptions.

staff photo | Robert Sutton

Sims drove UA to a touchdown after the interception, scoring on a 4-yard run late in the third period to cut the lead to one score.

Alabama's defense kept Ohio State backed up through most of the fourth quarter, and UA failed to capitalize on good field position. On the first play after taking over at the OSU Landon Collins, 23-yard line after a shanked punt, Alabama junior safety: Defensively we were just trying to be on threw a deep pass and Sims was again interthe same page and on every given play cepted. and down, they broke out on some big Fowler: plays on us and we just couldn't contain Just a couple of bad reads and we the edge at points. ended up turning the ball over, someSims threw an interception in the third quar- thing you can't do in that area. When ter that Ohio State returned for a touchdown you've got the ball that close you've got to get the ball in the end zone. to increase its lead to 34-21.

It's a tough situation. It would have made the game a lot closer.

Sims: I thought the defense had messed up Davis: and the guy dropped. He did what I didn't The (shanked) punt that Ohio State think he was going to do and I should have never threw it there. I saw him but I had, it was surprising that with the success that they'd had running the ball at thought I could get the ball over there. that time that (Alabama) threw the ball, they took a shot, and threw the intercepDavis: Obviously the turnovers were just cata- tion right then; that they didn't say we're strophic. You just can't overcome the in- (23) yards from the goal line, we're going to pound these guys into submission and terceptions and those kinds of things. hand the ball off to these two running backs. That seemed out of character.

Saban: You know, it's not really about what you Saban: do most of the time, it's really more about I think there's obviously a lot of things how you do it. And they did a better job of executing what they do than what we that we wish we would have done differently to attack their defense. did.

Nick Perry, senior safety: It was all about us. We weren't communicating well on some of the third downs and they were able to capitalize on it.

After keeping Ohio State backed up in the fourth quarter, Alabama's defense finally cracked. Elliott swept left end for an 85-yard touchdown with 3:24 left in the game to up the Ohio State lead to 42-28.

Perry: We stayed on the field for a long time, probably the most plays we've played all season in one game. Guys got tired, got gassed. They wore us down and they were able to capitalize on a long run.

Collins: The only thing we just didn't do is contain the edge and they just got to the edge and broke out a big one on us.

Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State running back: I knew going through the game that the Alabama defense front was going to be very tough, very big, very physical. It was going to be a little bit hard for our O-line to get some movement off the ball, but they did a great job.

I knew I would have to hit those holes hard and break a couple of arm tackles to break a couple.

Perry: That's football. Football's a game of big plays and they wore us down and they were able to gash us at the end. They finished us off and that's what you have to

continued

do, the way you have to be.

Alabama drove back to match the score on Sim's 6-yard pass to Amari Cooper with just under two minutes remaining. After recovering an onside kick, Ohio State was in position to run the clock down to near zero, but Meyer made a curious decision to throw a deep pass that fell incomplete, stopping the clock. Alabama used its timeouts and got a stop to force a punt and get the ball back with 1:33 to go with a chance to drive 82 yards to tie the game.

Davis: I question Urban Meyer. At the end of the game when they threw the ball, that pass was the only chance to give Alabama a chance to win the game.

Basically what did was run a 6-second play that actually gave Alabama another timeout, it killed the clock.

Meyer: It was my call to throw it down the field. And you're going to not gain a yard anyways against very good players, they're playing zero coverage. Everyone is within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage and it was my call. So, maybe it wasn't the right call.

Davis: If you just take quarterback sneaks, now Alabama's out of timeouts, you kick out Alabama deep and they've got, what, 11 seconds to go 90-something yards. That just blew my mind.

Meyer: So, I just kept thinking I screwed this thing up. And then I have once again a lot of confidence in our defensive staff.

staff photos | Robert Sutton

Above: Alabama wide receivers Amari Cooper (9) and DeAndrew White (2) celebrate after scoring a touchdown. Cooper had nine catches for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

Below: Alabama wide receiver Chris Black (1) carries the ball. He had two catches for 10 yards.

Davis: He's won more championships than I have, and his answer, he said they've got nine in the box. I don't care if they had the whole student body in the box, it didn't make any sense to me.

Alabama drove to the Ohio State 42-yard line in five plays, and Sims threw incomplete with a few seconds left on the clock. He was intercepted in the end zone on the final play of the game, leaving Ohio State with the victory.

Sims: We have nothing but confidence in each other and believe that we can do anything that's possible. And we just told each other let's take one play at a time and just move the ball and get first down and get out of bounds.

Fowler: If it would have went faster we probably would have had a chance there at the end. It was just going way too slow. Myself and other people were just saying, "Come on, y'all are moving too slow."

Sims; I wanted to leave it all on the field and didn't want to leave until we got what we got.

Meyer: So, that's what all was going through my mind is get that darn ball down so we get out of this with continued

Alabama wide receiver Christion Jones (22) runs the ball after a punt return, as Ohio State kicker Kyle Clinton (39) attempts a tackle.

Jones had seven returns for 102 yards.

staff photos | erin Nelson

a win.

Alabama finished with a 12-2 record and the SEC championship, but didn't get to play for the national title. The end was disappointing, but in some ways the season was satisfying.

Alabama wide receiver Chris Black kneels on the field after the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

there's also a lot of lessons to learn when you have failings, and hopefully we'll learn a lot from this experience and that will help us in the offseason.

Arie Kouandjio, senior offensive guard: A lot of people put in a lot of work and heart and effort into this. It sucks like it ends like this. Shoot, I hate it.

Saban: I'm very proud of this team. This team excelled all year long.

They kept Alabama in the forefront of college football everywhere in the country, based on Sims: the hard work and the I had a coach that reimprovement that they ally ca red about h is made throughout the teammates and wanted season. to see them do great, and for myself I wanted to D.J. Pettway, see my teammates do junior defensive great. lineman: I don't even know Saban: how to put it in words.

I think there's a lot of It's just heartbreaking winners on this team. to work so hard and And I don't think you come up short. necessarily have to get a trophy to be a winner.

Saban: There's a lot of les- Sean Landry and D.C. sons to be learned when Reeves contributed to this you have success and report.