Tide Rolls Over Notre Dame 42-14 In BCS National Championship Game
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: January 8, 2013
Alabama rode the tide of a commanding halftime lead to beat Notre Dame 42 to 14 to win the BCS National Championship game at Miami Gardens, Fla.
The No. 2 Crimson Tide scored on drives of 82, 61 and 80 yards against the top-ranked and undefeated Irish in its first three drives of the game. They added a 71-yard scoring drive with 31 seconds left in the half to take a dominating 28-0 lead.
By that time, despite the fact that the half of the game was yet to be played, many commenters on Twitter were jokingly wondering if Notre Dame would come out of the locker room for the second half.
The Irish did, but it did not get much better for them. In fact, one of the biggest hits of the game on Alabama's quarterback A.J. McCarron came from his own teammate Barrett Jones. The
two teammates disagreed on a play call and had to call a timeout to get
it cleared up. McCarron got in his lineman's face and Jones pushed him
some three yards back, a feat that Notre Dame could never do throughout
the game. Notre
Dame also couldn't stop Alabama's running game. Crimson Tide runners
Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon both ran for more than 100 yards. Alabama has now won three national titles in the last four years, which had some calling them a dynasty. "You can call us whatever you want but this is was a total team effort," McCarron said after the game. Alabama coach Nick Saban did not shy away from the D- word. Saban said it was the team's work ethic that has brought so many victories. "Because we have a great team we have been able to have a significant amount of success," Saban said. The
last team to win three national championships in four years was
Nebraska in 1994, 1995, and 1997. The '97 championship was split with
Michigan. Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly said his team will learn from the loss.
"We are not there yet," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "Alabama
showed us that in the way they played the game. We got a lot of work
left to do to get back here."
