re: the 800 pound gorilla with a chainsaw for a penis

Sadly, I believe this conspiracy theory has weight. You watch the first game, and then compare to the BCS game, and you can see the following:

Bama made some adjustments, but still couldn't move much against our defense. Like you point out, it was still a 2 possession game with 5 minutes to go.

Meanwhile, their defense was in 100% perfect position on just about every single play. We couldn't drive the ball 25, 30 yds on any series. If we get one or two drives that get us field goals, the game is a repeat of the prior matchup... we get some points, and Bama loses field position and doesn't get points on those drives. They might still win, but it doesn't look so lopsided in the final result.