There are a couple of different ways to look at Alabama’s 34-24 win over Oklahoma in the first-round of the College Football Playoff on Friday night. The first is that Alabama silenced the critics and justified the CFP committee’s decision to put them in the field when their inclusion was heavily scrutinized. It was a fair criticism at the time. It still is now. But Alabama did what it needed to, proved its point and is advancing to the quarterfinal, where it will play No. 1 Indiana. The other way to look at this game is that Oklahoma missed a great opportunity to make a run of its own and self-destructed in a staggering way. Because that is the big story of the game itself. Early in the second quarter, it appeared as if Oklahoma was going to run away with the game, run Alabama out of the stadium and validate all of the people who criticized the Crimson Tide’s inclusion. Oklahoma jumped out to a 17-0 lead and looked to be in full control. Even after Alabama scored on a fourth-down conversion mid-way th
