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Alabama Blows Out Michigan State 38-0
On the Cotton Bowl field as the confetti gun set to blast, Alabama hybrid defender Ryan Anderson said: “I thought it just showed the brotherhood that we have”.
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“This was a great team win for us”. But against Michigan State, “The focus that they had for this game was completely different than we ever had before”.
Last season the Crimson Tide couldn’t get past the semifinals, upset by Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. That quickly gave way, however, to an onslaught in which the Buckeyes amassed 537 yards in their 42-35 comeback triumph. This time, Ridley hauled it in for a 50-yard touchdown.
Team captains make their way onto the field.
There was a point in Alabama’s dismembering of Michigan State on Thursday night when Spartans quarterback Connor Cook – reduced to a dinged, dazed and daffy mess by the Crimson Tide’s defense – looked up after another incomplete pass and mouthed the words, “They’re (expletive) everywhere”.
“We’d like to enjoy this game for 24 hours, but Clemson’s got a great team”, Saban said Thursday night. “So we knew we would have the throw the bubbles and the smokes and the outside perimeter stuff and try to get a block on the perimeter to be able to move the ball effectively”.
There were plenty of outside distractions and detractors – trash talk from Oklahoma was prevalent throughout the week, and even former West Virginia players were using social media to pile on after Oklahoma’s touchdown on the game’s first drive. “I said, ’15 for ’15, ‘ with the message being let’s make them print 15 tickets this year, somehow, someway”.
Freshman Calvin Ridley grabbed both of Coker’s scoring strikes and had eight receptions for 138 yards. When Cook – a veteran at the controls of the Spartan offence – is healthy, he can match wits with an Alabama defence that’s number one in pretty much every statistical indicator you can think of.
Cook was sacked four times, intercepted two times, and looked uncomfortable in completing only 19 of 39 passes for 210 yards.
That includes contributing to the first Cotton Bowl shutout since 1963 and continuing an 11-game win streak that began after Coker didn’t start against Ole Miss and failed to mount a comeback in the 43-37 loss.
Ridley hauled in several other key catches, connecting with Coker for a controversial – but acrobatic – 6-yard touchdown in the third quarter, and grabbing another 50-yarder that put Alabama up 31-0. It was his fourth punt-return TD of the year, setting a school record and tying the SEC record. “We had one open before, and I just said we’re going to go back to that and make their safeties cover our guys in the slot”. “Whenever you have a premier receiver, it changes the way you play the game, call the game”. Maybe we were a little bit too complacent, and I take responsibility for all that. And that was the most important thing, and there wasn’t anything else that – it wasn’t a bowl game to go have a good time. Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson was brilliant in a 37-17 win over Oklahoma in the other playoff semifinal at the Orange Bowl, and he presents the kind of run-pass threat that Johnny Manziel did when Manziel and Texas A&M stunned an undefeated Alabama team in 2012.
The title game is January 11 in Glendale, Arizona.
Jake Coker, Lane Kiffin Shines Michigan State said all month leading up to the Cotton Bowl that they would concentrate on stopping Derrick Henry, and they sold out to do just that. “We’re not done yet”. But Alabama has the nation’s best run defense and tremendous depth in the front seven, which allows Smart to rotate players and wear down opponents in the second half.
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After losing a halftime lead a year ago, the Crimson Tide were determined not to have it happen again. It wasn’t enough to overcome five turnovers.