It wasn’t a complete domination, but the 24-7 final score fairly represents how the game played out.

Washington scored one touchdown, but other than one impressive drive, couldn’t move the ball on Alabama’s defense. The Huskies’ offense only got the ball into Alabama territory twice throughout the entire contest.

A defensive score for Alabama took place, of course, as the Crimson Tide’s defense controlled the entire game. That side of the ball, along with sophomore running back Bo Scarbrough’s 180 yards and two touchdowns on the ground give the Tide its chance at defending its national title from a year ago.

Directly after the game, head coach Nick Saban talked with ESPN about his team’s win and Scarbrough.

“After the first series, I thought we played pretty well,” Saban said. “People like these guys have a script, they did some stuff that got us a little off balance and we didn’t do our responsibilities. But after we got the flow of the game, I thought we did pretty well on defense.

“Bo’s been playing pretty well for us the last three or four games. We wanted to play him more. He’s hard to tackle. He’s big and powerful. He’s playing with a lot of confidence and he did a great job for us today. We got to get ready for another game and take advantage of the opportunities that we have.”

In addition to his televised comments, Saban gave the following answers during his post game press conference:

On the offensive gameplan heading into the game:

“I think that we went into this game thinking that we really needed to run the ball. And I think early on, we ran it effectively, especially on our first scoring drive, and then we started to see a lot more inside backer plugs.

“We started to see a lot more corner fires, pressures from the edges, and that made it much more difficult for us to run. We were ahead in the game, and obviously I think we have to do a better job at creating balance on offense and being able to throw the ball a little more effectively. And that’s something that we’ll continue to work on.”

On Scarbrough’s big game:

“Bo has really played well for us, especially the second half of the season when he got healthy. We’ve been playing him more and more and he has certainly delivered in a really positive way. The long run that he made tonight, broke a tackle, and, you know, the one he had at Tennessee that was a long run, guy hit him in the hole, but I think that’s what makes him a great player.

“He’s got great size and speed. He can run behind his pads. He’s got good vision. He’s a good receiver and he can block. So he can do all the things that any good running back can do. His productivity has certainly been a benefit to this team, especially the second half of the season.

“It’s very rewarding to see him have the kind of success he’s having, knowing what he’s been through and what he’s had to overcome physically. He’s done a nice job of showing a lot of perseverance in that.”

“He played really well in the SEC Championship game. I think, you know, you all look at stats all the time. We look at how guys play and he played very well in that game and was very productive. So it was the plan to get him in the game earlier today, but our game plan was to run more direct runs, and that’s one thing that he’s done extremely well for us.”

On Eddie Jackson’s contributions to the team, despite being out for the season due to an injury:

“Did you see the article that he wrote? Well, the last step of that, the last sentence of that said something like, I would give up anything to go out there and play with my brothers again. So you guys take advantage of every play that you have.

“But I think that one thing that I took from that article that some people don’t realize, especially if you haven’t played on a team, especially a football team, which is probably the greatest team game there is, because there’s more participants, that no matter what you search for in your life, no matter where you go, what you do — I mean, we went to the Martin Luther King Center. We’ve been all over this town this week.

“When you’re in that huddle, there ain’t nobody special. Everybody’s together. Everybody has respect for each other, and everybody appreciates the job that everybody else does. And you can go a long way in doing a lot of things, and you may never find that. You may never find that. But you find it when you play football and you play together as a team.

“I think that article epitomized the defensive chemistry that we have and how important those guys are to each other and how they play well together.”

The Crimson Tide will play against the winner of Clemson-Ohio State on Jan. 9.