Final thoughts and my take-away from the game . . .

Jan 12, 2016, 5:01 PM

First, let me qualify this: Alabama won; they are indeed a great team and deserve all of the credit, recognition, and all of the accolades that go along with winning the national championship. They did what needed to be done better than we did, and they are the national champs and we are not.

In my mind though, they just happened to be ahead when the clock ran out. Again, while I know that is the whole point, it does not tell the whole story. Yes, Alabama won, but in no way and by no measure do I feel they are superior to Clemson. They did not physically manhandle us, push us around, or wear us out. They were not tougher than we were. They were not faster than we were. They were not deeper than we were. They were not more talented or more highly skilled than we were. These were two very evenly matched teams, across the board. They were better in some areas (special teams/kickoff) and we were better is some (QB/passing attack). Overall though, there was no clear talent advantage by either team.

The majority opinion, as far as the media goes, and therefore as far as most ignorant fans across the country goes, was that yes, Clemson is good and had a great year and Deshaun Watson is an outstanding player, but they will ultimately be no match for BAMMA who is, well, BAMMA. BAMMA is just too big, too talented, too well coached and just too much for anybody, including Clemson. BAMMA was made up of supermen, from another planet, and nobody on this lowly orb had any kryptonite. They had the best defense in the land, made up of these other-worldly monsters who ripped the heads off of all who dared to challenge them. My whole point is . . . that was not the case AT ALL.

We piled up 550 YARDS of offense on that mighty defense, and slapped 40 points on them. It was men against men, all who tore and bled just the same. I'm not claiming a moral victory here, I am just setting the record straight; there is nothing either mystical or tangible that sets BAMMA on a different plane than this CLEMSON team; we led at times, they led at times, and they happened to lead when it counted. Congrats to them for that.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken

1. Alabama's Front 7 could not dominate the game - far from it even. The O-line and Watson had them gassed at the end. Saban even talked about making the insides kick call "because" Bama didn't have the momentum and his defense was tired.

2. Our Back 7 did not end up being much more effective than Michigan State's "when it counted in the 4th quarter" - unfortunately that may have been mostly because Mac Alexander was out.

3. Alabama did not win because they won at the line of scrimmage - they won because they continually forced us to punt away when we had the ball and the lead in the 3rd and 4th quarters, and then they made two special teams plays that gave them the two score lead.

4. Alabama's athletes are not better than Clemson's across the board - the O-lines may have actually been a wash.

5. Derrick Henry did not "wear down" the Clemson defense - Watkins, Dodd, Lawson, Reader, Pagano, Wilkins, Goodson and Boulware stood up all night. Outside the early run for 50, Henry got about 100 yards on 34 carries, or a 3.3 ypc. If offered prior to playing Bama, anyone would take that.

Basically our O didn't score when it had a chance to spread the lead, and ultimately their Coach made a game-defining call.

Anyone who watched the game knows that Bama will take their win and not ask for a rematch. That's a good place for our program to be in...

Final thoughts and my take-away from the game . . .

I agree - we went toe to toe with them

Great point - in the trenches, where their superiority

Re: Final thoughts and my take-away from the game . . .

Media basically had all the talking points wrong:

best post here in a very long time

Re: Final thoughts and my take-away from the game . . .

Re: As a Bama fan I agree with this post***

Excellent post. Feel the same.***

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