I have to point out that I said this several times during the season, and even last season I pointed out the vulnerabilities in overly relying on the passing game... I just want to get that out there, since it's easy to be like yeah in hindsight that was a bad idea.
Tua's big play ability is like a cheat button. It's great, you hit it, oh look, 7 points. Done. The problem is it allows you to develop other bad habits in the process, but who cares right? So what if you don't have a smashmouth running game? Who cares if you're not taking advantage of the short stuff, I mean Tua can throw into coverage and come away with 7 points, what's not to like? It doesn't even matter if the defense gives up points because you'll just score more.
Until the cheat doesn't work, and then you're in trouble (or even worse you get punished for using the cheat). That's why you don't rely on it. Because it won't work 100% of the time and to win a championship you need to be able to win 100% of your games. No one here is saying take the deep ball away from Tua, but what they are saying, and rightly so, is Tua and the Alabama offense can not be reliant on it.
If Alabama goes into the Clemson game more focused on running the ball, and more willing to take the lower hanging fruit in the passing game (remember, Tua had two interceptions, both of which resulted in points for the other team, essentially negating everything Alabama did on offense), it would have been a completely different game. Sure, Alabama might not win most of their games by 6 touchdowns if they rely less on the cheat button, but they'd be more consistent on offense.
