Nick Saban's Goal Every Year a Little Higher Than Just Getting to CFP

Friday's domination of Cincinnati in the playoff semifinal shows Alabama is run like an NFL team

What Nick Saban does best doesn't show up in the regular season.

Bet against him with Alabama in the postseason, though, at your own risk. Do it and you'll probably lose.

With a 27-6 domination of Group of 5 Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl on Friday afternoon, the Crimson Tide is in the championship game for the sixth time in the eight years of the College Football Playoff.

The interior lines, allegedly the biggest question mark before the season, is finally starting to emerge in the postseason.

Alabama's Brian Robinson runs for part of his 204 yards on 26 carries Friday in a dominating win over Cincinnati :: Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

"You always want to control the line of scrimmage," Saban said after a win that wasn't as close as the final score. "It's always important in any game and we were able to do that on both sides of the ball and that was a big part of having success in this game."

Alabama took the opening kickoff and set the tone with a touchdown drive that featured nine running plays.

They hit the Bearcats squarely in the mouth and they never really recovered.

The Crimson Tide just kept hammering away with Brian Robinson running the ball and Bryce Young hitting key passes when he had to.

But the game plan all along was to just run the ball right down Cincinnati's throat.

"Now, we probably didn't make as many explosive plays because of that, but it shrinks the game," Saban said. "You don't have to play as many plays on defense."

This was an old-fashioned physical whipping. The Bearcats, the first team from a non-Power 5 conference to reach the playoff, fared about as well against the Tide as teams from the big boy conferences.

And it all comes from the way Saban runs Alabama football the same way an NFL team is operated.

You want to win every game, of course, but you want to develop throughout the season, get into the playoffs and win there.

Everybody else is playing college football.

Saban is running a pro team that has to go to class.

The physical difference against Cincinnati was the result of that. Alabama had 482 yards of offense and 301 of that came on the ground behind Robinson, who had 204 yards on 26 carries.

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young moving in the pocket during an efficient outing in win over Cincinnati :: Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports

The Bearcats could only muster 218 yards and 74 on the ground.

"We just showed a lot of physicality,” Robinson said later. "We knew they were going to come out fired up, we knew they were going to coming out trying to be physical and we just proved that we were the most physical team with the run game, the defensive front — just the whole defense overall and the whole offense overall — we just proved that we were the more physical team."

The goal every year is to win the national title. Winning the SEC West or even the league title is just a bonus. Remember, they won a national title without winning either one of those.

All week long from Arlington, Cincinnati sounded like they had accomplished their goal just getting into the playoff.

Saban's goal is a little higher.

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