CFP Championship wrap-up: Bama finally reached the limit of what it could lose

As the 2021 season went along, Alabama's march to the College Football Playoff Championship seemed to adopt a theme – call it the “How many players could Nick Saban lose and still win a championship” theme, if you would. Against Georgia in a rematch of the SEC Championship Game that Alabama dominated, the world found out. Down both starting cornerbacks and its most physical receiver, Alabama lost its top offensive playmaker in the first half, then sputtered to a finish with a disappointing fourth quarter. Nick Saban is fond of talking about how his teams “finish.” A more appropriate question for this game would be, how many people were left to finish? Saban will undoubtedly avoid blaming the loss on factors beyond the team's control, because that's not the way he is wired. But any analyst looking in from the outside will be happy to do it for him.