Alabama’s victory over LSU marked the official end of another season of college football, giving the Crimson Tide their second title in three years.
It was a snooze fest for the most part with a ton of three-and-outs, punts and field goals. That was to be expected of this match-up. While many are unhappy with the game, it featured something virtually non-existent in other bowl games this year — defense.
It was strange to watch two teams play defense in a bowl season that saw a number of offensive records broken. While the Bama-LSU chess match was boring for lack of touchdowns, other games were equally boring because they lacked defense.
The Rose Bowl saw the most combined points it ever had with 83. Oregon and Wisconson had more than 500 yards of total offense.
It got to the point where you expected a touchdown out of every possession, leaving one to wonder what happened to good, old-fashioned defense. It became so predictable that it was difficult to watch. Viewers could have just watched the fourth quarter and would have seen all they needed.
The worst defensive game of the year had to be the Alamo Bowl. Washington and Baylor combined for a record 123 points with each team racking up more than 600 yards. A high-powered offense is entertaining, but not when you think they have no chance of being stopped. Games like that should be in arena football not the NCAA. Yes these were two high powered offenses and yes a Heisman Trophy winner was involved, but I can’t help but wonder if the defensive coordinators did anything to prepare for the game.
There were 10 teams this bowl season that scored more than 40 points. Clearly offense is becoming the focus of teams, but should it be? High school coaches will tell you defense wins championships. Teams don’t seem to be thinking that way anymore, but it is true and this year’s National Championship proved it.
Oregon may have put up 45 points on Wisconsin, but Alabama is the national champion because they made stops. The Tide’s defense gave us one of the greatest defensive performances of all time with their shutout of LSU, but that has gotten lost because of the criticism the game has suffered. It may not have been entertaining, but they proved they’re a team deserving of the title.
People can complain about how boring the game was, but it gave us a glaring reminder of how defense should be played.
Defense still wins championships, and Alabama coach Nick Saban is proving it year after year.