ATLANTA -- A couple hours after linebacker Ryan Anderson became the ninth different Alabama defensive player with a touchdown in 2016, Crimson Tide defensive lineman Jonathan Allen wouldn't let up on his teammate.
"It took long enough for him to score," Allen said. "We've been waiting on him. Better late than never."
Anderson rolled his eyes at Allen's comment, knowing his teammates can no longer needle him that he's one of the few starters without a touchdown.
"That's all they've had on me all year," Anderson said. "They've got to get some new material. [Allen] isn't as creative as me. Check him out. Does he look as creative as me?"
There's nothing creative about how Alabama beat down Washington at the Peach Bowl to reach the College Football Playoff National Championship for the second straight year. If anything, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin got too cute for too long. For whatever reason, Kiffin forget he had a 6-foot-2, 230-pound running back named Bo Scarbrough, who midway through the fourth quarter had gained 7.9 yards a carry but only received 12 touches.
This is where we're at with the Alabama machine. They can have a true freshman quarterback (Jalen Hurts) throw for 57 yards, witness their two elite wide receivers (Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart) get only three touches, and still easily beat the No. 4 team in the country 24-7.
At this point, all that separates Alabama from a second straight national title are Hurts' difficulty seeing the field as a passer, Kiffin forgetting his running back named Bo, and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson producing another special game.
This team is an embarrassment of riches. That doesn't mean Alabama can't be beat. Clemson will be a difficult matchup, especially with a healthy wide receiver in Mike Williams, who missed last year's national championship game that went down to the wire (45-40). An Alabama-Clemson rematch will be fun to see.
But Alabama possesses so much talent that its margin of error is so much wider than everybody else. This is what it looks like when you can get any player you want and then coach them up.
How talented is Alabama? The Crimson Tide watched the fourth-leading rusher on their team go off.
Scarbrough, who had 180 yards on 19 carries, is the new weapon Alabama must ride to win a second straight national championship. With his dreadlocks hanging out, he moved defenders on nearly every run with an incredible combination of speed and power.
Nursing a 17-7 lead in the fourth quarter, Alabama faced third-and-9 at its own 3-yard line. Kiffin finally got the ball back to Scarbrough on a simple handoff that turned into a huge 12-yard gain. Three plays later, he broke off a ridiculous 68-yard touchdown run.
"I mean, right now I understand how Kiffin be running his offense and whatever play he calls, nine times out of 10 it's gonna work," Scarbrough said. "You just got to trust whatever he calls."
Here's guessing Scarbrough, who has been injured a lot in his career, won't be forgotten in Tampa on Jan. 9.
"You guys know me," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "Whoever's hot, that's who's going to get the ball, and he's been hot lately, and he's going to get the ball."
How talented is Alabama? Let's go back to the Crimson Tide seeing their ninth different defensive player score a touchdown this season. Nine!
There are 22 Football Bowl Subdivision teams that have gotten touchdowns from nine or fewer offensive players. Take a bow, South Carolina, Stanford, Connecticut, East Carolina, Tulane, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, UTEP, Buffalo, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Wyoming and Georgia Southern.
Alabama has as many or more defensive players with touchdowns as those teams have offensive players with scores.
On Anderson's game-changing interception, linebacker Reuben Foster adjusted the defensive call at the line of scrimmage. He saw Washington's running back offset out wide and knew he would flare.
So Foster called out the change, meaning he blitzed up the A-gap and Anderson peeled outside to cover the back. Huskies quarterback Jake Browning looked totally unprepared for the look and threw it to Anderson.
"I felt like [a defensive touchdown] was coming," Foster said. "They thought we were in man to man. We changed it up on them."
This was just another business decision for a team that goes about its business. The mood on the field and in the locker room felt like Alabama just won the Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Week 1, not a national semifinal.
All of this seemed so inevitable. If you do what you're supposed to do and more business is still left, why celebrate?
That's not to say, though, the Crimson Tide are simply a bunch of robots, as they're often described. Team captain Eddie Jackson, who broke his leg in October, penned a heartfelt letter on The Players Tribune to his teammates this week. Several Alabama players read it before Saturday's game.
"I would give anything to be able to take the field with my brothers one more time," Jackson wrote. "So when you go out there, put every bit of yourself into every single play. Every single play. You never know when it might be your last."
Alabama's defense can have all the talent in the world, and it won't matter without chemistry.
"When you're in that huddle, there ain't nobody special," Saban said. "Everybody's together. Everybody has respect for each other, and everybody appreciates the job that everybody else does. And you can go a long way in doing a lot of things, and you may never find that. You may never find that. But you find it when you play football and you play together as a team. I think that article [by Jackson] epitomized the defensive chemistry that we have and how important those guys are to each other and how they play well together."
While most of America yawned at another convincing Alabama win, the Crimson Tide played for each other again.
Good luck breaking that defense. Good luck breaking that bond.
