Ingram Carries Tide, and Few Gamecocks

When his team needed him most, when it couldn't move the football if they'd been allowed to use a Ryder truck, Mark Ingram put the Crimson Tide on his back.

Then, just for good measure, he put the Gamecocks on his back, too.

Only one of those was metaphorical.

"We all make plays when we get the balls in our hands," said Ingram, who rushed for 246 yards, mostly through the South Carolina defense. "I was able to score and make some things happen when they gave me the ball."

That, of course, was the overly modest version that probably ended with a parable about a cherry tree. The truth is that if Alabama public transportation carried that many men every day as Ingram did Saturday night, General Motors would be out of business in the state.

Heck, bowling pins have made better group tackles than the Gamecocks did on Ingram.

Ingram finished with 269 yards of total offense, one touchdown and a 20-6 do-it-yourself victory over South Carolina, most on rushes that looked more like something out of a strongman competition than a play from scrimmage. According to ESPN research, a full 118 of his rushing yards came after contact from the defense.

Mob bosses aren't this hard to bring down.

"Mark Ingram was fantastic," Alabama coach Nick Saban said after watching his sophomore running back set the Bryant-Denny Stadium rushing record. "The guy ran with tremendous passion and heart and did a wonderful job out there. ... I can' tell you, if we had guys that could play like that, the sky would be the limit in terms of heart and character that he plays with."

Even with just one Ingram, the Tide were still sky high in the fourth quarter.

With Alabama clinging to a 13-6 lead with just over eight minutes remaining, and with the passing attack a broken heap in the playbook, Ingram carried Alabama all the way to the finish. From his own 32-yard line, he broke a 24-yard run on the first play, then ran three more times for 18 yards. Then, on first-and-10 from the South Carolina 26, he ran for 22 yards out of a direct snap, the last five of which were with the right side of the South Carolina defense attached to his person like four oversized mittens tacked to a kids' coat.

Consider them human helmet stickers.

One player later, he was in the end zone and Alabama was on its way to its seventh win.

Six plays, six rushes, 68 yards.

Fortunately for all parties involved, the field was only 100 yards. If it had been longer, Ingram might've become the only player to complete a marathon in football pads.

"That drive was probably the best drive we had all game as an offense," Ingram said. "We struggled a bit, but when the time came, we came through in the clutch. There were times where I thought about coming out, but I stayed with it."

For an encore, Ingram led the team in receiving yards, too. Two catches, 23 yards.

If only he could break through college football's voting patterns like he did wannabe tacklers, Alabama, not Florida, would be No. 1 after Saturday's grind-it-out performance.

While the top-ranked Gators were playing poorly and struggling to beat Arkansas, a team Alabama popped 35-7 earlier in the year, the Tide were playing poorly, at least offensively, and winning convincingly.

Their quarterback completed a lousy 50 percent of his passes, tossed two interceptions and, by the last drive, was essentially a coxswain in a helmet. Their top special teams player and cornerback, Javier Arenas didn't play because of a rib injury. They committed four turnovers and were whistled for 113 yards worth of penalties.

And they did what good teams do.



They found a way to win, not because an opposing field goal kicker shanked a makeable kick way somewhere into the Gulf of Mexico, like Arkansas did against Florida, but because even when everything was going wrong, there was still too much right about Alabama to get the Tide in serious trouble.

Florida, of course, deserves its due. If Saturday proved anything -- as Georgia Tech ran all over Virginia Tech, and Texas all but drowned in its Red River win, it was that the two best teams in the nation play in the SEC. Which team is the best is a question likely reserved for the SEC title game, with the winner moving on to the BCS title team to face a team that will be No. 2 in BCS ranking only.

But Alabama has found a way to win convincingly every week, blowing apart a Bud Foster defense, turning a supposed Heisman candidate quarterback into a piñata, and, when it mattered most, throwing body blow after body blow with Ingram until it kayoed the Gamecocks. They've toppled two teams ranked in the top five at some point in the season and now beaten a South Carolina team oh-so-close to being undefeated.

And they have Ingram, exactly the sort of power back who can run down clocks and run up yards. Each time he's broken 20 carries this season, he's cracked 140 yards. In his last three games, he's rushed for 141 yards, 172 and now 246 yards.

How's that for a trend line?

He's even got the offensive line doing public relations for him, when not turning defensive lines into pieces of movable furniture.

"He's a hard worker and a great football player, "said senior left guard Mike Johnson. "As an offensive line, we're lucky to be blocking for him."

Of course, the Tide have problems to correct, most stemming from the quarterback position, but Saban sounded thankful he could make a point to his team while still protecting its unblemished loss column.

"Hopefully our players learned a few things about what it takes on a consistent basis to not only play but to prepare and do things right," Saban said, "to make the right choices and decisions so that you are prepared to play ... in terms of your intensity and sense of urgency."

Alabama will get there. Even if Ingram has to carry them, too.