Irish/Tide: Season-defining moments

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Two of the most storied programs in college football will meet on Monday in the Discover BCS National Championship. It doesn't get much bigger than Notre Dame vs. Alabama. How did they get here? Here's a look at five plays this season that paved the way:

No. 1 Notre Dame	No. 2 Alabama
1. Kevin Harper's missed field goal. Tied 23-23, the Pitt kicker lined up from 33 yards out in double overtime. A week after upsetting Oklahoma to get to 8-0, the Irish were about to suffer their most devastating defeat in nearly 20 years. The snap was sub-par and the kick sailed wide right. The next day, it was discovered that the Irish should have been penalized for having two No. 2s on the field.	1. C.J. Mosley's tipped pass: Georgia was marching down the field in the closing seconds of the SEC championship game. With no timeouts, Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray lofted a pass from the Alabama 8 that he thought was going to be a game-winning touchdown. Instead, a blitzing Mosley made a game-saving play when he leaped up and tipped the pass. It dropped into the hands of Georgia receiver Chris Conley, who slipped and was tackled at the 5 as time expired.
2. Goal-line stand vs. Stanford: The fourth and final stop of Stepfan Taylor, this time from the 1, ended the game amid rain, setting off a celebration like no other. Stanford had been the bar for the past three seasons, embodying everything Notre Dame wanted on and off the field. The Irish answered the physical test to improve to 6-0, and AD Jack Swarbrick went on to call the victory the moment he felt this season could be special.	2. T.J. Yeldon's screen pass: Alabama had done nothing offensively in the second half against LSU and trailed 17-14. But with one last shot, quarterback AJ McCarron quickly moved the Crimson Tide to the LSU 28 in four plays and then caught the Tigers in a blitz with a perfectly executed screen pass to Yeldon for a touchdown with 51 seconds to play. Until that game-winning drive, McCarron was 1-for-7 for no yards in the second half.
3. Chris Brown's catch at Oklahoma: Notre Dame's biggest offensive play of the season was Brown's first career catch. Tied at 13 with less than 10 minutes to go, Everett Golson heaved a deep ball that Brown caught 50 yards from scrimmage, setting up a run of 17 unanswered points to deliver arguably the biggest Irish win in 19 years.	3. Amari Cooper's bomb: McCarron's 45-yard touchdown pass to Cooper put Alabama ahead to stay in the SEC championship game with 3:15 remaining. Cooper lined up wide left and beat Georgia cornerback Damian Swann. McCarron hit Cooper in stride after the play fake, and senior center Barrett Jones, playing on a bad foot, had the key block when he stood up Georgia nose guard Kwame Geathers and gave McCarron time to throw the deep ball.
4. Goal-line stand vs. USC: Up nine with less than six minutes to play, Notre Dame watched Marqise Lee catch a 53-yard pass, setting the Trojans up at the 2. Eight snaps later, the celebration had begun. The Irish stuffed a Pac-12 team on the goal line, again. They had watched more than four minutes bleed off the clock in the process, and they had all but booked their ticket to South Beach.	4. D.J. Pettway's fourth-down stop: The biggest tackle of the season for Alabama came on LSU's fourth-and-1 gamble from the Crimson Tide 24 midway through the fourth quarter. The Tigers probably could have put the game away with a touchdown and had the Crimson Tide on their heels at that point, but Pettway stuffed LSU running back Spencer Ware for no gain after Ware took the snap under center and tried to plow over right guard.
5. John Goodman's third-and-6 catch vs. Purdue: This one won't be on replays, but think of the possibilities had it not happened. Tommy Rees, fresh off a suspension, started the Irish's final drive and was booed by his home fans. Tied at 17 and at his own 49, he appeared to get the snap after the play clock had expired, then launched the ball near his sideline while absorbing a hit. Goodman caught it for 10 yards, leading to an eventual winning field goal. If this play doesn't happen, and if Notre Dame then loses in overtime, Kelly would still be taking heat for putting Rees in, and who knows how the Irish recover from a home-opening loss to a team that ended up firing its coach.	5. Christion Jones' kickoff return: Alabama wasn't pushed early in the season. But against Ole Miss in the fifth week, the Rebels took a 7-6 lead early in the second quarter and had all the momentum. Fifteen seconds later, Jones was standing in the Ole Miss end zone after a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. It was the first of three unanswered touchdowns by the Crimson Tide, who never trailed again until five weeks later at LSU.

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Matt Fortuna | email

College Football

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• ESPN.com Notre Dame blogger
• Joined ESPN.com in 2011
• Wrote for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Chris Low | email

College Football

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• ESPN.com SEC blogger
• Joined ESPN.com in 2007
• Wrote for The (Nashville) Tennessean