In the game that mattered the most, Howard delivered an MVP performance with 208 yards and two touchdowns on just five catches in the Tide’s 45-40 win over Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T. For Saban, it is his fifth national championship – four in his nine seasons at Alabama – leaving him only one short of former Tide coach Bear Bryant for the most titles in history.
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Watson, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, had carried the Tigers (14-1) all season.
Quarterback Deshaun Watson’s 24-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Leggett with 12 seconds remaining brought Clemson to within a score, but the ensuing onside kick went out of bounds.
Clemson’s offense threw the Alabama defense all they could handle, gaining 550 yards of total offense and running 85 plays.
After hauling in touchdowns of 53 and 51 yards, Howard saved his most impressive for last.
It was a far different scene Monday night as reporters mobbed one of the unlikely heroes of Alabama’s 45-40 win against Clemson in the national championship game. He had two touchdowns – including a 50-yarder – and 128 yards at halftime but only 21 yards in the third quarter.
The Tide drove 42 yards on their next eight plays and watched Derrick Henry cap off the drive by diving into the end zone on a gain of one.
Nope, to this day, dating all the way back to the beginning of the BCS era in 1998, this still stands alone as the best National Championship Game that we have ever seen.
After Alabama saw Clemson line up the way it wanted in the first half, the coaches decided they’d use it at some point in the game. Another Alabama big play. “But like Coach Swinney said, there were a few plays that we didn’t really capitalize on, and I missed some throws, we dropped some balls, and just had some missed miscues”.
I thought we needed to do something that was going to change the momentum of the game.
Jake Coker was 16 of 25 for 335 yards and two touchdowns.
But the Crimson Tide were rolling hard as on the next kickoff, Kenyan Drake ran the ball back for yet another Alabama TD, putting them up 37 -27.
The Tigers had won 51 consecutive games when leading after three quarters but could not hold on against Alabama after taking a 24-21 lead into the final period. Both Alabama and Clemson played extremely well and gave you everything you could have asked for.
The Tigers had more trouble in the secondary, particularly after Mackensie Alexander questionable to start because of hamstring problems did not play in the second half after having to be supported to get off the field late in the second quarter.
“This is something I’ve dreamed of since I was little, ” Coker said in a postgame interview.
In the end, the Tigers (14-1) just couldn’t keep up with the huge chunks of yards Alabama gained throughout the evening, especially in the final quarter. Watson also had 73 yards on 20 carries.
Clemson had allowed only two 100-yard rushers all season, but Henry made it apparent early he would be the third in front of an orange-heavy crowd of 75,765 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. And Clemson responded with a field goal.
Alabama tied it with Adam Griffith’s 33-yard field goal with 10:34 to play, then caught the Tigers by surprise with an onside kick.
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Alabama and Saban are college football’s gold standard.
