Late to thread but I'll just say Bama played poorly and Ohio State played well. They totally earned their trip to the NC game and their 3rd stringer could definitely start for a few teams (Texas/OU I'm looking at you).
I had doubts about Bama this year but they just kept winning and thought "maybe" they could pull it off again with this team. That was clearly wishful thinking because this years team wasn't nearly on par with some of their past teams. Sims was a real hit and miss QB (more more hit than miss mind you), but he picked a terrible time to have a bad game. He was under a lot of pressure (credit to the Buckeyes), but his passing accuracy was way off. He was like a golfer shanking it or something. Really disappointed Bama didn't stick to the run more because I think that might have kept them in the game and kept Ohio state off the field. They just got outplayed by the Buckeyes, and maybe even out-coached. "shudder"