Notre Dame vs. Alabama: Postgame Grades from Tide's Win in 2013 BCS Championship

Alabama and Notre Dame have finished the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game, and Alabama has repeated as national champion.

Alabama just made history as the first team to repeat as national champions in the BCS era. The Tide have joined the elite through history as one of the few teams to win three national championships in four years.

Nick Saban is on pace to win 12 national championships if he should stay at Alabama for the same 25-year span that Bear Bryant was there. (It's unlikely, but the pace is set at three every four years.)

Alabama just brought championship No. 15 to Tuscaloosa, and did it in commanding fashion. The Tide posted the second-biggest margin of victory in a BCS title game. (First place is the 2004 season's USC team, whose championship has been vacated.)

Click through the slideshow to see how Alabama graded out while winning national championship No. 15.

*Stats not from memory of in-game notes are from ESPN.com.

Quarterback

Overall Grade: A+

A.J. McCarron had one of the best games of his career, and it was in the BCS title game...again. McCarron has risen up the ranks of the football elite, and there's no denying his ability. Even in the second half, when he encountered some issues with his receivers, he led the Tide to two more touchdowns.

McCarron took the Tide to a 28-0 halftime lead, and held the team together long enough to get the win. Even in the raucous stadium during the first 20 minutes of the game, McCarron remained unflappable in the face of distraction.

McCarron did the one thing that no other quarterback in the BCS era could do: win back-to-back national titles.

McCarron passing: 20-of-28 for 264 yards and four touchdowns.

McCarron rushing: one carry for nine yards.

Running Backs

Overall Grade: A+

The running backs were stellar for almost the entire game. There were a couple of short passes that bounced off their hands, but that covers the negatives of the night.

Eddie Lacy led the way in the run game, and T.J. Yeldon got a ton of touches as well. Yeldon's plays were almost exclusively called up the middle, but he had to bail out of a few and gain on the outside of the pack.

It was nice to see Saban grooming him to be the feature between-the-tackles tailback in the near future. Yeldon did not disappoint, and he turned in a 5.1 yards-per-carry performance against one of the best defenses in the country.

Eddie Lacy: 20 carries for 140 yards and one touchdown. He also had two receptions for 17 yards and another touchdown.

T.J. Yeldon: 21 carries for 108 yards and one touchdown.

2013 Discover BCS National Championship Offensive MVP: Eddie Lacy.

Wide Receivers

Overall Grade: A

Alabama's wide receivers are a pleasure to watch. Teams prepare relentlessly to stop them from doing what they usually do. What happens? Alabama breaks open the proverbial case marked “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: BREAK GLASS” and pulls out every one of its unsung heroes to make plays.

A.J. McCarron found seven different targets for no less than five yards apiece. Four of those targets are wide receivers, one was Eddie Lacy and the other two will be covered in the next slide.

Alabama spread the ball around the field through the air and on the ground, and the receivers were there to catch over 70 percent of them. Alabama totaled 225 yards and two aerial touchdowns from its true wide receivers, and they were anywhere between the sidelines. Two freshmen, one sophomore and a junior caught passes against Notre Dame.

Amari Cooper: six receptions for 105 yards and two touchdowns.

Kevin Norwood: three receptions for 66 yards.

Christion Jones: two receptions for 40 yards.

Marvin Shinn: two receptions for 14 yards.

Tight Ends

Overall Grade: A+

The tight ends did a lot of work in the blocking aspect against Notre Dame. If you didn't notice, McCarron practically had time to play a quick game of Scrabble between the snap and the time he felt pressure. Even when Notre Dame brought everything it had, it didn't matter. The offensive line took care of business, and the tight ends either blocked the spillover or scooted around it for the catch.

The best-performing tight end may have been on the gold side of the ball, but there were two major factors in Crimson and White.

Michael Williams: three receptions for 17 yards and a touchdown.

Kelly Johnson: one reception for five yards.

Offensive Line

Overall Grade: A+

There were no major mistakes made by the offensive line. McCarron had all the time in the world to pass, the running backs had holes the size of Buicks to run through and the line of scrimmage moved toward the Tide's goal line on almost every play.

The offensive line executed so perfectly that Alabama did whatever it wanted to Notre Dame's defense. This showed up in the box score at the end of the night. Alabama played an unbelievably balanced game.

Alabama rushing: 45 carries for 265 yards and two touchdowns.

Alabama passing: 20 receptions for 264 yards and four touchdowns.

Total offense: 529 yards for six touchdowns.

Defensive Line

Overall Grade: A+

The defensive line did an astounding job holding Notre Dame in the first half. In fact, the Irish couldn't get a rushing attack going for the entire match.

The line was so completely dominated by Alabama jerseys that Notre Dame only attempted 19 rushes. Compared to Alabama's 45, that's an obvious deficiency.

Notre Dame found some success in the second half, but the Alabama offense had been scoring or punting quickly through that stretch. It was either feast or famine, and Alabama's defense suffered the consequences.

The humidity in Miami contributed to the issues, of course, but the defense was simply playing flat for a short stretch in the second half. You have to give it to them for buckling down and regaining the field toward the end, though.

Usually, when a defense gets flat, there's no going back. The wheels come off, and the other team mounts a comeback. Just ask Pittsburgh.

Alabama's defensive line would make no such mistake, and Notre Dame's rushing stats will show you the kind of dominance the Tide enjoyed over the line of scrimmage.

Notre Dame rushing: 19 carries for 32 yards and one touchdown.

Linebackers

Overall Grade: A-

The linebackers did a wonderful job throughout the game, and Notre Dame only managed one rush of note. That was a 20-yard scamper by Theo Riddick that led to a three-and-out. The linebackers contributed to Notre Dame's passing success, but not nearly as much as the defensive backs.

When Notre Dame mounted what looked like a comeback, it was not the linebackers in the middle of the battle. Generally, the linebackers were in Notre Dame's grill wreaking havoc on the Irish's timing and shredding the game plan.

2013 Discover BCS National Championship Defensive MVP: C.J. Mosley.

Defensive Backs

Overall Grade: B+

While Alabama held Notre Dame's rushing attack in check, the secondary was the loosest part of the defense during the two Irish scoring drives. On two occasions, Everett Golson completed passes of 31 yards. On the two scoring drives, the Irish were far more successful through the air than on the ground.

Notre Dame scoring drive No. 1: 73 passing yards on an 85-yard drive.

Notre Dame scoring drive No. 2: 76 passing yards on a 75-yard drive. (Tackles for loss were involved.)

Now that we're through with the negatives of the Alabama secondary, let's discuss the positives. The secondary allowed yardage, yes, but the two scoring drives accounted for 160 of the Irish's passing yards.

The Irish kept going after Dee Milliner, and Milliner destroyed Notre Dame's passing attack for the majority of the game. The Irish came into the third quarter with a comeback on their minds, and Milliner ended that drive three yards from the end zone.

Notre Dame was 36 yards from paydirt, and Golson launched a great pass to what he thought was an open receiver. Milliner apexed the ball, and knocked it away from the receiver. Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix responded by laying out and catching the spirit-crushing interception.

Had Notre Dame gotten back into the game at that point, anything could have happened.

Notre Dame passing: 21 completions for 270 yards and one touchdown.

Special Teams

Overall Grade: A+

The special-teams unit attempted zero field goals, and Shelley was perfect on all six of his PATs. Only one Irish punt was able to be returned, and Christion Jones only got one yard out of it. Kickoff returns were slightly more successful, and Jones returned two for 14 and 17 yards.

Cody Mandell was the star of the special-teams unit by far. He punted only four times, but he averaged a gigantic 49.3 yards per punt. His long was 55 yards, and his second-longest was for 52.

Out of the four punts, two were downed inside the 20, and one was a well-played misdirection by the Irish that bounced into the end zone for a touchback.

Coaching

Overall Grade: A+

Nick Saban had his team prepared for battle. Alabama started to lose control of the battle after getting out to a 28-0 start, but the players calmed down and returned to form after two Notre Dame scores. Saban brought his best scheme, and the Tide all showed up to execute.

The coaches called a perfect game, and the only issue was a short span of time that Notre Dame used to score its 14 points. Alabama rushed, passed, tackled and intercepted the football for the second-largest margin of victory in the BCS era. (The first was UCS's vacated 55-19 victory over Oklahoma in the 2005 BCS title game.

Alabama just became the third team in history to win national championships in three out of any four years. The first was Notre Dame in the '40s, and the second was Nebraska in the '90s. Saban has built a program worthy of consideration in “greatest of all time” discussions. Maybe it's not quite there, but it's certainly in the conversation.

Everywhere the Irish turned, there was an Alabama uniform already there. Whether it was on offense or defense, Notre Dame was just one step behind the Tide for 50 of the game's 60 minutes. Saban, Smart and Nussmeier will make a lethal combination like this for seasons to come.

In the meantime, enjoy the championships they will bring to the Capstone. At least enjoy No. 15 for a while. RTR!