The Clemson vs. Alabama sequel not only lived up to the hype but delivered an amazing finish on Monday night at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Florida as Clemson won 35-31 to win it’s first National Championship since 1981. This win shows that Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is an elite head coach. After Clemson came oh so close beating Alabama in last seasons College Football Playoff National Championship losing 45-40, they wanted a rematch. Deshaun Watson the amazing Clemson quarterback in last seasons Championship game went 30/47 for 405 yards with 4 touchdowns and 1 interception while also adding 73 yards on the ground against a really good Alabama defense.After Clemson made a very loud statement against Ohio State in the in the Fiesta Bowl shutting out the Buckeyes 31-0 while Alabama won 24-7 against Washington in the Peach Bowl setting up the rematch everyone wanted to see Clemson vs. Alabama part II. Deshaun Watson was as good as last seasons Championship game going 36/56 for 420 yards and 3 touchdowns with 0 interceptions while also adding 43 yards on the ground with 1 touchdown.
Alabama scored the first two touchdowns of the game thanks to Bama running back Bo Scarbrough who is a bruising running back to give Alabama an 14-0 lead. Deshaun Watson took some hard hits against a very stout Alabama defense which has so many future NFL players like Jonathan Allen, Rueben Foster, Tim Williams, Ryan Anderson, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Marlon Humphrey and many others. Watson was able to get the Tigers offense going before halftime when scored from 8 yards out on a run to cut the Tide lead in half.
In the third quarter after Clemson cut the lead to three after Watson hit Hunter Renfrow for a touchdown, Alabama struck right back, just like in last years Championship game between these two teams, Alabama tight end OJ Howard was wide open for a touchdown to make it 24-14 Tide lead. Usually when Alabama leads by double digits heading into the fourth quarter their in good shape as Alabama under head coach Nick Saban has a double digit lead heading into the 4th quarter their 97-0.
This 4th quarter was crazy back and forth. Watson found star wide out Mike Williams for a touchdown where one of the Clemson wide outs set a pick on an Alabama defender to free Williams. When Clemson took the lead after Wayne Gallman to give Clemson its first lead of the game at 28-24, I had a feeling Alabama would score. Freshman Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts led the tide on a drive which included a trick play where Hurts threw a lateral pass to ArDarius Stewart who then threw the ball to OJ Howard. Later Hurts scored on a scramble to give Alabama an 31-28 lead, as he scored I said to myself they scored too quickly and left too much time for Watson to drive down for the game winning touchdown.
As Clemson was getting ready for the game winning drive Watson told his teammates “Let’s be legendary” in the huddle. Watson threw a high pass to Mike Williams who went up high to grab a 24 yard catch. A couple of plays later tight end Jordan Leggett caught a 17 yard pass to get the Tigers into position for the game winner. When Watson threw a high pass for Mike Williams which was incomplete, Williams drew a pass interference penalty on the Bama defense. On the next play Watson rolled to his right and found Hunter Renfrow for the game winner as the Clemson bench and fans went crazy with one second left. On the touchdown one of the Clemson wide outs set a pick on of the Alabama players in the secondary which made Renfrow free. It’s tough to say whether a pick is an offensive pass interference play. Clemson denied Alabama from repeating as National Champions and prevented Nick Saban from winning his sixth National Championship which would have tied him with longtime Alabama head coach Paul Bear Bryant.
Not only was Deshaun Watson was the big star of the game for Clemson but he had plenty of help around him on both sides of the ball. Running back Wayne Gallman with 46 tough rushing yards with a touchdown run along with 39 yards receiving while Mike Williams who missed most of last season with a neck injury was huge with 8 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown while tight end Jordan Leggett had 7 catches for 95 yards. Hunter Renfrow in last seasons Championship game against Alabama had 7 catches for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns, on Monday night he had 10 catches for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns and of course the game winner. Linebacker Ben Boulware had 6 tackles which included 2 behind the line of scrimmage as he won the defensive MVP of the game.
Here is a stat I saw from the game that caught my eye Clemson ran 99 plays on offense as the Alabama defense got tired. At one point after Alabama took a 14-0 on Clemson, Alabama on 7 drives ran 23 plays for 47 yards, I think it was a mixture of bad Alabama offense and good Clemson defense. Clemson held the ball for nearly 35 minutes while only 25 mins for Alabama. Clemson was 7-18 on third downs while Alabama went 2-15. I personally think the only offense Alabama had was Bo Scarbrough running for 93 yards and two touchdowns before exiting the game with a broken bone in his foot and made the Alabama rushing attack quiet. Outside of the long OJ Howard touchdown in the 3rd quarter Jalen Hurts was held in check in the passing game.
This was probably the best College Football National Championship game I have seen since the epic 2006 Rose Bowl when Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns took down Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and the USC (University of Southern California) Trojans. This game was amazing from start to finish as USC had a 34 game winning streak going for their 3rd straight National Championship while Texas had a 19 game winning streak. On 4th and 5 from the 8 yard line Texas QB Vince Young scrambled for the game winning touchdown which followed with the two point conversion to give Texas a 41-38 win. The Clemson vs Alabama game from Monday night would rank #2 for me behind the Texas USC epic clash.