A little better. In 2010 it was 49-7.
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Tigers headed to national title game
No. 1 Clemson dominated No. 4 Oklahoma in the second half of Thursday’s Orange Bowl en route to a 37-17 win. The second quarter followed a similar path until Jake Coker hit Calvin Ridley for a 50-yard pass.
But the Spartans, somber and sullen in the AT&T Stadium locker room following the 38-0 pounding by Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinal, remained proud of what they’d done.
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We hope that he can recover as soon as he can, but it’s very important until we solve this to defend the way we did in this game”. And pressed on his January plans, Pellegrini said: “I think the squad is complete”.
The Cotton Bowl’s next turn as a CFP semifinal will be on December 31, 2018.
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The No. 2 Crimson Tide will play No. 1 Clemson in Arizona on January 11. Alabama won 38-0 to advance to the national championship game.
There was a brief injury scare involving Cyrus Jones, but he came back into the game and showed no ill effects.
For Alabama, Heisman victor Derrick Henry was a footnote in the sparkling performance by quarterback Jake Coker. “They wanted to do something different and try to take over the game”. Henry had five carries for 15 yards. Coker, who came into the game ranked 42nd nationally in passing efficiency, played his best game of the season and picked apart Michigan State despite operating under heavy pressure.
Once Alabama scratched like cat claws against the Spartan defense – none of Coker’s first eight passes were completed for more than seven yards – Saban and his staff saw something to take advantage of in the Michigan State secondary. Scoring grabs of 50 and 6 yards by Ridley were sandwiched around cornerback Cyrus Jones’ 57-yard punt-return touchdown. The first six plays for Alabama were pass plays.
Connor Cook finished 34-5 as Michigan State’s starting quarter. Michigan State’s longest completion covered 28 yards. The big tailback who has carried the Crimson Tide offense most of the season was just a role player against a Spartans defense stacked to stop him. Dabo Swinney’s undefeated Tigers are solid in rush offense, pass offense, rush defense and pass defense. All three catches went for first downs. The Spartans chose Henry, but the way things played out there obviously wasn’t a correct answer. But Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin expected Michigan State to key on Henry.
The big fellas, Robinson and Jarran Reed, even got to put Alabama on the board first. But this blowout loss provided a dose of reality, similar to when Alabama clubbed the Spartans 49-7 in the Capital One Bowl after the 2010 season. Tim Williams also had a sack for 10 yards.
“(MSU) played a hard physical game”, Coker said. The first quarter ended 0-0.
But midway through the second quarter Bama gained momentum on both sides of the ball.
“Alabama had a great game”. He had three consecutive misses on passes, forcing a punt. After a penalty of a few inches for too many men on the field, Henry bulled over for a touchdown. “When a team gets a sack, it’s really a team effort”.
With a stalemate under way and a scoreless game halfway through the second quarter, he lofted a beauty up the middle of the field toward a spot near the goal line, where soon there would appear Calvin Ridley, the onrushing freshman aiming to continue Alabama’s recent penchant for sublime receivers. Coker found Ridley in the end zone. This one went for a touchdown and turned an easy win into a rout.
Michigan State couldn’t move on its next two possessions, unless one counts moving backwards. The punt went to Jones at the Alabama 43.
Griffith’s kick made it 10-0, a margin that looked wider than the usual 10-0 because of how Alabama’s peerless defensive front was complicating the final mission of a veteran, 39-start quarterback. The early odds have the Crimson Tide favored by a touchdown.
We quickly learned in the first quarter of this one that it would be the battle we all assumed it would be.
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Oklahoma fullback Dimitri Flowers (36) congratulates Oklahoma tight end Mark Andrews (81) after Andrews scored a touchdown during the first half of the Orange Bowl NCAA college football semifinal playoff game against Clemson, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Miami Gardens, Fla. It had been a three-play, 69-yard drive that took 1:38.
