Turns out, it did not need to.
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“We had the same play against SC a year ago and caught the ball and they took it away from us”, Swinney explained after the game. “It probably wasn’t one of our best games when it just comes to flat execution”. We weren’t doing a great job of getting them stopped.
When Alabama’s Heisman victor Derrick Henry rumbled for a 50-yard touchdown to open the scoring, Watson calmly answered back with a 31-yard scoring pass that he neatly dropped into Hunter Renfrow’s arms between Crimson Tide defenders Eddie Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Jacob Coker’s 51-yard scoring pass to tight end OJ Howard, set up by a successful onside kick, gave Alabama double-digit lead with less than six minutes left.
With the game tied at 24 early in the fourth quarter, Nick Saban’s squad executed a surprise onside kick to perfection, catching the Clemson return unit completely off guard. Clemson is angling for only its second national title in the program’s history, the first coming in 1981.
A brilliant performance by superb sophomore quarterback Deshaun Watson wasn’t quite enough to save the Tigers in a 45-40 loss to the Crimson Tide on Monday night.
Watson finished with 405 yards passing, the most any quarterback has hung on the Crimson Tide this year. But a bobbled handoff by Watson, one of his few mistakes all game, derailed that drive, and Alabama pounced.
Clemson was an entirely different task, Alabama’s biggest challenge.
“Not at all. At the end of the day, I wanted the W. All the stats don’t really matter to me”, Watson said.
Heisman Trophy victor Derrick Henry rushed for 158 yards and three touchdowns and Alabama defeated Clemson 45-40 to win their fourth national championship in seven years. Led by head coach William “Dabo” Swinney, the Tigers were undefeated this season and earned the No. 1 seed. There was so much commotion following the College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl semifinal against Michigan State in which Henry was held to 75 yards rushing. There were numerous clock issues, most notably a crucial mismanagement late in the first half when Clemson was driving for a score.
His final score came with 1:21 left following a 63-yard Coker-to-Howard pass play. But Alabama’s onside kick also led to a touchdown and a missed Clemson field goal cost the Tigers three crucial points, too. Marlon Humphrey caught the ball in midair.
But Clemson’s secondary looked like they’d never played together before, and Alabama’s special teams pulled off the two biggest plays of the game.
Howard led the Tide receiving effort with 208 yards on five receptions. Then came Kenyan Drake’s dramatic 95-yard kickoff return score after Clemson had closed within 31-27. It was the first time the senior tight end had found the end zone since 2013.
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It’s Clemson and Alabama for all the marbles in the second-ever College Football Championship game tonight, in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
