While watching Alabama destroy Notre Dame 42-14 last night, one thought came to mind: How in the world did this Alabama team lose a game?
The short answer:
Manziel was 24/31 for 253 yards passing, with 2 TDs. He also ran for 92 yards on 18 carries, and didn't turn the ball over. At one point, he fumbled, scooped it up, and threw for a TD:
In retrospect — after watching Alabama wipe Notre Dame off the face of the field with a jarring casualness last night — the performance is even better than we realized.
A&M was up 20-0 at one point, and it wasn't even all that close.
It wasn't all on Manziel. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit and CBS's Gary Danielson have both pointed out that Bama inexplicably refused to blitz Johnny Football in that game. In addition, AJ McCarron played what was perhaps his worst game of the year.
But in a general sense, Alabama managed to lose because they played a poor game against an elite, non-traditional QB.