Former Crimson Tide Heisman Trophy winner throws cold water on Alabama’s College Football Playoff hopes after SEC Championship
Mark Ingram had some choice words for Alabama’s playoff hopes.
It was simple for the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday night: look competitive and your spot in the College Football Playoff is solidified. But for three quarters and four minutes, the Tide looked lifeless. The offense had its worst game of the year, the special teams struggled again, and the defense couldn’t find the stops when needed.
Suddenly, that leaves the College Football Playoff committee with a decision to make. Alabama will now be battling for an at-large spot against Notre Dame, Miami, and perhaps BYU. And according to former Heisman Trophy-winning RB Mark Ingram, there is a clear decision to make.
Mark Ingram says Alabama should be left out of the College Football Playoff
“Bama, you played Georgia in the SEC Championship, and you lose by 21? I got too much Bama in me, but you’re out,” said Mark Ingram on FOX. “Now, Miami and Notre Dame should both get in, in my opinion. That’s the decision the committee is going to have to make. You have two bad losses and the [SEC] Championship game. You have to play well in the Championship game.”
If we’re to pick apart Ingram’s argument and argue for Alabama, the point would be that Alabama has one bad loss, not three. Florida State in Week 1 was a bad loss, no doubt about it. But losing to Oklahoma, who is firmly a top-10 team in the playoff, and to the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship are not bad losses.
Sure, the score wasn’t pretty. But Alabama losing to a top team, as the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC, should carry a hell of a lot more weight than Notre Dame and Miami sitting at home and watching everyone else play.
“You look at the games we played throughout the season. If you’re really looking at this game, it was a 14-point game with seven and a half minutes to go, and we had the ball. You can look at things that didn’t go well. We gave them four short fields,” said Kalen DeBoer via the Alabama Crimson Tide YouTube channel after the game, when asked why Alabama is still a playoff team.
“I don’t want to take anything away from what Georgia did. The field position battle is part of it. Four short fields, that’s a testament to our defense being resilient. One of those touchdowns, if we’re really worried about the score, probably punt it on your own 11.”
We’ll find out Alabama’s fate soon enough.
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