re: Was ND THAT out-talented in the NC, or is it development?

quote:

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What I think it is that separates Bama right now is their bowl game prep is on another level. Bama's best 2 performances of the year were the game against Michigan and the game against ND. Those 2 teams are talented at the least (maybe not as talented as Bama of course. Bama beat the crap out of LSU in the NCG too (not scorewise in the same fashion but LSU had no realistic chance to score in that game so Bama could have won 3-0, although LSU's D was good enough to keep them alive).

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This is the reason it was a blowout. Bama still would have won if it was a regular season game, but it would have been much more competitive. Saban's just a freak when he has a lot of time. The comments after the game by Bama's players about ND basically stated it wasn't as much a talent difference as they just knew what we were going to do. This was from Barrett Jones:

"They're good because they are so simple," Jones said, "but, also, they're simple. We knew if we had certain shifts, they would get into certain formations that we felt like we would have good runs against. We were right -- every play, almost. This is not a flaw in Notre Dame. We watched a lot of film. We had a lot of time to figure out what they did in certain formations."

Nov. 5, 2011

Jan. 9, 2012