September 19, 2015: Ole Miss defeats Alabama 43-37. Fans and college football analysts across the nation labeled it the end of the Alabama dynasty. Nick Saban has lost his touch they said. The Tide were no longer invincible. Well, these people have one thing in common: they clearly don't know jack about football, Nick Saban, or the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

Ole Miss went +5 in the turnover margin and won the game by 6 points. That is ridiculous. Normally when a team goes -5 in turnovers they lose by 40. Not Alabama. In fact, the Tide nearly pulled a rabbit out of the hat and won that game. Ole Miss had one scoring drive of more than 50 yards in that game. One. The Alabama defense did its job, but when your offense continually puts your team in a bad spot you give up points. Alabama lost that game. Ole Miss didn't win it. 

Rewind back to the start of the season. Alabama opened up their campaign at AT&T Stadium against Wisconsin. The Tide cruised to victory in dominating fashion, putting up 35 points and 500 yards against a defense that finished 1st in the nation in scoring defense and 3rd in yards per game allowed. In fact, no other team scored more than 24 on the Badgers this season. In Week Two, Alabama handled a solid Middle Tennessee State team at home before dropping to 2-1 the next week. The Ole Miss game was exactly the motivation Nick Saban needed to get Alabama on track. Since then the Tide have looked virtually unstoppable. With the most dominant front seven in college football and the Heisman trophy winner in the backfield, Alabama has turned in to a machine that knows nothing but winning. 

Dominance After Ole Miss Loss

After the loss to Ole Miss, Alabama shut out Louisiana-Monroe and held the Warhawks to 94 yards of offense. You read that right, 94 yards of offense in a 60 minute game. The next week Alabama traveled to Athens and put a 38-10 beat down on the Georgia Bulldogs who were ranked #8 at the time (Georgia also scored its only touchdown of the game with 5 seconds left in the 4th quarter). Next up was the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Bama defense shined once again, allowing just 220 yards, but a 27-14 win wasn't convincing to many people. So what does Alabama do? The next week the Tide traveled to College Station and dominated Texas A&M in front of almost 106,000 Aggies. The Tide defense forced four interceptions and beat the #9 Aggies by a score 41-23. 

Next up, Tennessee, on the Third Saturday in October. Alabama's "trap game" as many labeled it. The Volunteers hung with Alabama until the very last moments. Nick Saban says this game is when Jake Coker won over the locker room. The Crimson Tide's game winning drive late in the fourth became the quarterback's defining moment. With just under six minutes to play, Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd scored on a 12 yard run to give the Volunteers a 14-13 lead.

Coker led the Tide on a eight-play, 71 yard drive the ended up sealing the victory for Alabama. The drive was highlighted by a 29 yard completion to Adarius Stewart and a 15 yard completion to Calvin Ridley on a crucial third down. The victory over Tennessee was just what Jake Coker needed to gain his teammate's trust. With a confident quarterback at the helm, Alabama looked to cruise through the rest of their season.

The release of the first college football playoff rankings following the Tennessee game set up a show down between #4 Alabama and #2 LSU in Tuscaloosa. With College Gameday on site the Tide and a primetime television slot, Alabama crashed the Heisman hopes of Leonard Fournette, holding the stand out back to just 31 yards on 19 carries. Meanwhile, Derrick Henry slingshot himself into the Heisman race with 210 yards on 38 carries and 3 touchdowns. The next week Alabama jumped to #2 in the playoff poll and traveled to Stark Vegas to take on #17 Mississippi State. Derrick Henry ran for 204 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Tide cruised to a 31-6 victory. 

After a 56-6 throttling of Charleston Southern, Alabama prepared for its annual showdown with Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The Iron Bowl is a matchup where records are thrown out the window. Every year there's a chance of an upset. This year was no different. Going in to the fourth quarter Alabama led Auburn 19-13. Derrick Henry continued to be the Tide's workhorse with 271 yards on 41 carries and a touchdown to seal the game with 26 seconds left. With the win, Alabama sealed their spot in the SEC Championship game against the Florida Gators. 

The Tide's SEC Championship victory was once again a dominant performance. Alabama controlled the ball for an astounding 43 minutes and 29 seconds. Meaning the Crimson Tide had possession of the football for almost three full quarters. Florida managed just 180 yards and seven first downs in the game, and Alabama sealed their spot in the College Football Playoff with their 29-15 victory. 

Alabama opened up as 9.5 point favorites over Michigan State in the Playoff Semifinal. Many experts predicted this game to be a low-scoring, hard-hitting, smash mouth game of football. Instead, Alabama came out and skunked Sparty 38-0.

After the game Jeff Speegle (ABC 33/40 Sports) said "38 to nothing... Teams don't do that in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff." To which defensive end Jonathan Allen simply responded: "Alabama does." This writer believes that statement tells you everything you need to know about the Crimson Tide. The Alabama defense has absolutely suffocated every offense they've played this season, and they will do the same to Clemson en route to their 16th National Championship.