NEW ORLEANS — All week, as the Bowl Championship Series title game approached, it seemed as if Alabama’s football team consisted only of the most formidable defense in the nation and a dazzling running back, Trent Richardson, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. Few mentioned that the Crimson Tide actually had a quarterback. His name is A J McCarron. And his charge Monday night was simple: for Alabama to win the title, he needed not to lose it. So there went McCarron, onto the field, against the second-best defense in college football, against a team considered before Monday as the best around, perhaps in years. McCarron did not lose the game. Just the opposite. Behind his right arm, a series of field goals and an explosive offense — explosive, in this case, being relative — he led the Crimson Tide to victory and was named the game’s most outstanding player. Drew Brees, who threw for 466 yards at the Superdome on Saturday, he was not. But that mattered little on Monday, when McCarron at his most efficient was enough. The contradiction between what was expected of McCarron and what he delivered appeared most evident at the beginning of the third quarter. First play: deep out to Darius Hanks for 19 yards. Second play: short pass to Kenny Bell that turned into 26 more because McCarron correctly identified a defender out of position. That drive culminated in another field goal and a 12-0 Alabama lead, despite the loss of Alabama’s best receiver, Marquis Mays, early in the game, and despite L.S.U. flooding the line of scrimmage with defenders aimed at limiting Richardson’s impact. Afterward, as confetti swirled on the field, defensive lineman Nick Gentry said the Crimson Tide could sense earlier in the day that McCarron would show up. “A J, he was so calm,” Gentry said. “I don’t understand it. Most quarterbacks get the jitters. He was collected. He was ready to play the game.” In the teams’ meeting earlier this season, one late errant throw by McCarron landed in the hands of a defender and led to L.S.U.’s game-tying field goal. His coach, Nick Saban, said McCarron “wasn’t himself” in that game. In the rematch, McCarron turned momentum by turning to his less-heralded options. Wide receiver Kevin Norwood, who had only seven regular-season catches, gained 78 yards on four receptions. Tight end Brad Smelley even outgained L.S.U.’s offense, 37 yards to 36, late into the second quarter. In a game that was at once a defensive masterpiece and an offensive travesty, McCarron lifted Alabama to a 9-0 halftime lead. He anchored the early game plan, which mostly called for short-to-intermediate passes and heavy doses of play-action. McCarron threw 25 times in the first two quarters, and the more passes he completed, the more the L.S.U. defense was forced to allow him a smidgeon of respect. This opened lanes, once closed, for Richardson, which later opened up the occasional pass downfield. Saban later said Alabama knew it needed to throw on first down in order to win. “We’ve been leaning on No. 3 all year,” McCarron said of Richardson. “He’s our workhorse, he’s our guy.” By the end of the second quarter, McCarron had completed 18 passes for 156 yards and helped Alabama control the ball for nearly twice as long as L.S.U. For all the talk about these defenses — Alabama’s had yielded all of 43 yards at the half — McCarron was, if not an offensive stalwart, then a serviceable option in a game like this one. All this from a quarterback who, at age 5, nearly died in a WaveRunner accident. This past week, he recalled what happened: the crash into a pier; the left side of his face crushed; his left eye hanging by a tendon; the 86 staples he ultimately required. Yet there stood McCarron late Monday night, the first Alabama player to climb the stage. In one hand, he held a newspaper that proclaimed the Crimson Tide the top team in the land. The quarterback who won the game when some expected him to lose it was now the unlikely champion.
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