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Nick Saban comments on rout of Notre Dame in Rose Bowl: ‘We didn’t come here to finish here’
By Keith Farner
Published:
Alabama continued its path to the national championship with a 31-14 rout of Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl on Friday night in Arlington, Texas.
After the game, coach Nick Saban recapped the game in an interview with ESPN.
“I was really proud of our players, they worked hard, we didn’t come here to finish here,” Saban said. “I was proud of the way we came out and played, we didn’t come out and finish the game like we liked. We’d like to take the air out of it on offense. I’ve always got something to complain about.”
Saban added that it was a great team win and Alabama did a great job of controlling the tempo on offense, and also did well on special teams.
“Defensively we got enough stops to be able to get off the field when we needed to, so it was a great team win, these guys have really earned the opportunity to play in the national championship game,” Saban said. “So we’ll see what we can do with it.”
The key was controlling Notre Dame QB Ian Book. He was 27-for-39 passing for 229 yards and an interception. He added 15 carries for 55 yards and a touchdown.
“We controlled the quarterback about as well as you can do it,” Saban said. “He still got out of there a couple times, but we’re trying to make him run sideways, and we did, when he was able to step up he didn’t have as much success, so there’s a lot of things that goes into playing winning football and a lot of guys have to do their job to do it.”
Star WR DeVonta Smith had seven catches for 130 yards and three touchdowns.
“He does a great job, he’s a talented guy, he’s a hard worker, and he does everything exactly right,” Saban said. “He has a great understanding of what he needs to do to be able to make plays and he makes them every chance he gets. So we’re very fortunate to have him and he’s had a great year.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
