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Alabama players celebrated their SEC Championship triumph over Georgia. More Photos »
ATLANTA — As the final seconds ticked off an instant classic, Alabama linebacker C. J. Mosley froze, uncertain if the game had ended, unsure if the celebration could commence. The fireworks helped convince him, as did the confetti that shot skyward and the bedlam that ensued.
"I didn't know what was going on," Mosley said. "Complete? Incomplete? Clocked stopped? Still going?
"Then it was over," he said, as he paused and sighed.
"Yes!" he added, and with a fist pump.
A 32-28 triumph at the Georgia Dome earned the Crimson Tide a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game in January, opposite Notre Dame, a dream matchup likely to shatter television records and drive more interest to the sport.
First, though, Alabama needed to dispatch Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game, a de facto national semifinal with an atmosphere like a national title game. Georgia's last drive started with 1 minute 8 seconds on the game clock.
The final sequence unfolded before anyone could make sense of what took place. The officials overturned an Alabama interception after a review. The Bulldogs sped downfield, improbable as it seemed, the yardage gained in chunks, until they reached the 8-yard line. Those 8 yards stood between Georgia and the title game. Eight yards between Georgia and an epic upset.
The Bulldogs did not spike the ball to stop the clock. They ran a play. The idea was for quarterback Aaron Murray to throw a fade toward the back of the end zone, but the ball was tipped and landed instead in the hands of fullback Chris Conley. He would have been better served to drop the ball but had only a split second to decide. Instead, he caught it and gained 3 meaningless yards.
The clock ran out.
So tense were those final seconds that afterward Alabama quarterback A J McCarron said he would "worry about this game" before he turned his attention to the Crimson Tide's title game opponent, Notre Dame. And that was after Alabama won.
In victory, Alabama secured one championship and moved closer to another, closer to its second consecutive national title and third in the past four seasons under Coach Nick Saban. A fan in the front row waved a sign back and forth. "Bring on the Irish," it read. "You'll need more than luck. ROLL TIDE."
For all of college football's fancy passing, for all its spread offenses and Saturday shootouts, the two highest-ranked teams at season's end — the Fighting Irish and the Crimson Tide — proved they could do something as simple as hand the ball off, push defenders backward, play great defense, throw occasionally and still win games. Sounds simple, at least.
Looked simple, too, on Saturday.
Behind by 21-10 in the third quarter, Alabama (12-1) sent its oversize running backs, Eddie Lacy and T. J. Yeldon, up the middle and dared the Bulldogs to stop them. Georgia (11-2) did not, could not, slow the onslaught. Alabama ran for one score, then another, to reclaim the lead in a game best summarized like a children's book title: See Alabama Run.
The Crimson Tide opened holes collectively large enough to drive a spaceship through. Alabama gained 350 rushing yards and averaged 6.9 yards a carry. Lacy accumulated 181 rushing yards and scored 2 touchdowns. Yeldon, in a secondary role, recorded 153 rushing yards and another score.
This was UPS football, what-can-ground-do-for-you football. When Georgia reclaimed the lead early in the fourth quarter, Alabama ran to move the ball downfield, where it punted but pinned the Bulldogs near their end zone. When the Crimson Tide took the ball back, with 5:25 left, they ran again, even on one third-and-5.
All that running set up the only Crimson Tide pass that really mattered, a rainbow that left McCarron's hand and sailed downfield to the freshman Amari Cooper. Later, McCarron would say Cooper ran a go route when the play called for a post. No matter. McCarron saw the safety bite.
"I just launched it," he said. Touchdown, Tide.
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