ARLINGTON, Texas – It wasn’t pretty, but Alabama got it done.
The Crimson Tide defeated Cincinnati 27-6, ending the Bearcats fairy tale run and leaving painful glass slipper shards in their wake.
There was no Desmond Ridder riding in on a game-winning touchdown white horse. There was no Group of Five revenge or justice for the little guy. There was only Nick Saban and his talented, imperfect 2021 Alabama Cotton Bowl Championship team.
And really what did people expect?
“In the game of life, like sports, it very rarely ends how you envision it,” said Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickle after the loss. “These guys have done a phenomenal job. There’s so much they’ve been through. I mean that for the whole group, especially the seniors. So it is very difficult. It’s very tough. But more than anything, I told them I do not want to see them hang their heads. I do not want to see any fraction of anything amongst the brotherhood that they have built.”
The game itself felt like a trip down the rabbit hole – down was up, up was down and the things that were supposed to be big didn’t make an impact. Ridder finished with negative rushing yards, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young threw his second interception of the season and Cincinnati running back Jerome Ford rushed for just 77 yards.
But both defenses, they understood the assignment.
Alabama held the Bearcats to just 218 yards of offense, only allowing them to convert twice on third down and sacking Ridder six times. Cincinnati surrendered just 17 points through nearly three quarters of football and held them to a season-low 181 passing yards – the Bearcats are the only team to hold Alabama to under 200 passing yards all season. Darria Beavers lead Cincinnati with 10 total tackles and one sack. Fellow linebacker Wilson Huber had Cincinnati’s other sack. Alabama safety Brian Branch finished with a team-high eight tackles while William Anderson Jr. led the team with two sacks.
If crowd energy could win games, Cincinnati would have had a fighting chance – Bearcats fans showed out cheering, chanting and booing all things Alabama (sorry Amari Cooper). But fans can’t put points on the board, only players can and ‘Bama boys came to play from the opening whistle with a gorgeous 11-play, 75-yard, 5:09 scoring drive culminating in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Young to Slade Bolden, who finished with three catches for 31 yards.
Cincinati kicker Cole Smith countered with a 33-yard field goal, adding another 37-yarder in the third quarter, making him the Bearcats lone scorer.
If you like running the ball, this was the game for you. Both teams game-planned heavily on the ground and Alabama running back Brian Robinson Jr. went off, finishing with 204 yards off of 26 carries which is the sixth best for an FBS player at AT&T Stadium and are the most for a running back in this stadium since 2015.
“I didn’t think I was going to be a spotlight,” admitted Robinson Jr. after the game. “We just game-planned. It was just, whatever they throw at us, we got to adjust to it. If the running game works for us, we got to stay with it. Coach O’Brien trusted me, just put the ball in my hand in critical situations. And just carrying this team means a lot to me.”
Robinson Jr. took home the J. Curtis Sanford Most Valuable Offensive Player while Anderson Jr. snapped up the Felix McKnight Most Valuable Defensive Player.
Alabama’s 16 rushing first downs tied two other teams for the fifth-most rushing first downs at AT&T Stadium. Adding that layer to the offense helped Bama’s freshman quarterback achieve some balance.
“For me as a quarterback, having a running game like we did tonight, that made my job way easier,” explained Young. “All those guys played tremendously.”
With the win tonight, Alabama improves to 6-0 at AT&T Stadium, which is the most for any FBS team at Jerryworld without having a loss. And the six wins ties Oklahoma for third most wins at AT&T. Bama will head to the National Championship game in Indianapolis next month to face off against fellow SEC foe Georgia. So basically, business as usual for the Tide.
“The message is going to be the same,” said Anderson. “Nobody is going to give us anything. We have to go out there and take it. We have to earn it. We can’t relax right now. Right now is not a time to relax. We have to enjoy this game for 24 hours, and we have to go back and get to business. Now we’re going to be playing on the really biggest stage of college football now. And we have to be prepared and everybody has to locked in and all in.”
Written by Emily Van Buskirk
