ATLANTA -- It didn't happen quickly. Florida State had too many athletes to get beaten out of the chute quite like that. Rather, No. 1-ranked Alabama kept chipping away until all that was left was the familiar sight of a broken opponent and the inevitable conclusion that a Nick Saban-coached team wasn't going to lose a game of this magnitude to start the season.
It was vintage Saban: defense, special teams, ball control. It was slow, methodical and brutally physical at times. Four of Alabama's linebackers were knocked out of the game with injuries in the second half, but so too was Florida State star quarterback Deondre Francois, who left the field on crutches late in the fourth quarter.