Paul Finebaum 'underwhelmed' by Tommy Rees' play-calling performance in CFP semifinal vs. Michigan

Including the overtime period where Alabama failed to score, the Crimson Tide scored 20 points in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Michigan. For analyst Paul Finebaum, that point total came back to an underwhelming play-calling performance by offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

During an appearance on Get Up the day after the CFP semifinal, Finebaum reminded everyone of how far the team has come under Rees. However, he also expressed his frustrations with Rees.

“I was underwhelmed, and this is a guy that a lot of us were questioning after the Texas game on September 9th,” Paul Finebaum said. “And then the next week we all know what happened. He pulled Jalen Milroe and he went through the second and third team, especially the guy he brought with him in Tyler Buchner from Notre Dame who is now about to leave Alabama to play lacrosse, and he really was able to figure out a lot of things.”

One of the most important offensive improvements throughout the season for Alabama was the offensive line. Figuring that unit out was key to winning the SEC. However, it struggled against Michigan, and the poor play-calling and adjustments by Tommy Rees ended up costing the Crimson Tide.

“Namely, the offensive line got very good and by the time we got to Georgia a couple of weeks ago, they were great. What we saw last night was the offensive line of the Texas game and it’s hard to really put into words the morning after but Tommy Rees didn’t dial up a very good game. He didn’t adjust very well. When it came down to the biggest play of the year, he failed.”

Now, Alabama has questions to answer in the offseason, including how to build on this season from its offense.

Nick Saban explains final play of overtime in Rose Bowl

On the final play in overtime, Alabama ran quarterback power up the middle. The snap was low and he struggled to get back to the line of scrimmage. After the game, it was a play-call that head coach Nick Saban explained after the Rose Bowl.

“We called three plays. They called timeout, we called timeout and the last one didn’t work. So the fact that it didn’t work made it a really bad call, you know what I mean? But we called timeout because we had a bad look. We had a good look on the first one. They must have known it,” Saban said.

“Tommy just felt like the best thing that we could do was have a quarterback run, which was kind of our two-point play, one of our two-point plays for this game. And the ball was on the 3-yard line, which is just like a two-point play. But we didn’t get it blocked, so it didn’t work. We didn’t execute it very well and it didn’t work, and they pressured. We thought they would pressure, but we thought we could gap them and block them and make it work. And it didn’t.”