The only drawback? Watson and the Tigers couldn’t pull out a victory, falling to Alabama 45-40 in the national championship game Monday night.
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(AP Photo/Chris Carlson). Alabama’s Rashaan Evans (32) sacks Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson during the second half of the NCAA college football playoff championship game Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Glendale, Ariz.
The Alabama head coach took one of the biggest gambles of his career in the fourth quarter Monday in the national-championship game against Clemson.
But what a thriller it was in the desert. Henry, the running back who carried 40-plus times each in the Iron Bowl and SEC Championship Game, ran 36 times for 158 yards against Clemson.
“No question, no doubt about it”, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said when asked if Watson was the country’s best player. “But when it comes to competing and making plays when we needed to make them, it was probably as good as it gets”.
Watson led Clemson to a field goal to make it 31-27, and boom!
“All the stats don’t really matter to me”, Watson said.
Clemson, a 6½-point underdog at kickoff, had a big offensive game against the vaunted Alabama defense, outgaining the Crimson Tide 550 yards to 474. There is no media availability or welcome party scheduled, but officials say plans for a championship celebration are in the works. “A lot of people didn’t think we were going to be in this game”. We dropped some balls.
“We thought, to be honest with you, we could do a better job against their quarterback”, Saban said. “At the end of the day, this team’s on another level and next year we’ll try to get that national championship”.
What’s most remarkable is that Henry achieved topping Alabama’s career list with only one year as the Tide’s starting tailback.
Then, after Clemson responded with a field goal, the upheaval in this game’s narrative became complete when Alabama’s Kenyan Drake returned a kick 95 yards for a touchdown to give the Crimson Tide a nine-point lead and proved to be a dagger. Two plays later, the much-maligned Coker hit tight end O.J.
He added a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, running behind the lead block of defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson, who lined up as a fullback.
The Crimson Tide used four touchdowns of at least 50 yards, and a risky onside kick to hold off top-ranked Clemson, which got a spectacular performance from quarterback Deshaun Watson (four touchdowns and 478 total yards). Marlon Humphrey caught the ball in midair. “I hit it real good”. For the game, he caught five passes for 208 yards – a school record for receiving yardage by a tight end. “It won’t be 34 years before we’re going to be back, I promise you that”. Monday, he passed for 405 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 73 more.
But Coker’s 63-yarder to Howard set up the touchdown that finally put it out of reach. Clemson was involved in some controversy at the end of the second quarter when Watson picked up a first down inside the red zone with 12 seconds remaining in the half.
As gamblers know too well, that TD meant the Tigers, while not winning, beat the spread.
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“The thing about Saban is that he never asks us to do anything that we haven’t done in practice”, Drake said. “This program doesn’t take a back seat to anybody”.
