Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide won their fourth National Championship in seven seasons on Monday night with their 45-40 win over the Clemson Tigers at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
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Alabama went on to win the game, 45-40, securing their fourth national title in seven seasons.
With the score 24-24 and 10:34 remaining, the Tide’s Adam Griffith surprised the Tigers with an onside kick that was plucked out of the air by Marlon Humphrey. Two plays later, Tide QB Jacob Coker hit tight end O.J. Howard on a 51 yard touchdown pass to put Alabama up 31-24, a lead they’d never relinquish.
Clemson used a 31-yard field goal to get within 31-27, but Alabama kick returner Kenyan Drake carved through the coverage on the ensuing kickoff, taking it 95 yards and stretching out the ball to hit the pylon for a touchdown with 7:31 left.
The Tigers, who suffered their first loss of the season and finished 14-1, came back with a 15-yard touchdown pass from DeShaun Watson to Artavius Scott to cut the Alabama lead to 38-33. However, after some early jitters, Coker settled down nicely and made the plays he needed to in order to win the game, including a huge scramble on a third down in the final few minutes to set up Henry’s final touchdown.
For much of the night the game was a highlight reel battle between Deshaun Watson of Clemson and Alabama’s Derrick Henry, two of the three Heisman Trophy finalists this season. Watson finished 30-for 44 and 405 yards with four touchdowns. Clemson has the ball on Alabama’s 24-yard line.
“It was worth the risk, I felt”, Saban said.
And not Alabama defensive back Maurice Smith who took this crushing blow to the head.
“This team made a tremendous commitment to one another and that is why I am so happy for them”, said coach Nick Saban, who earned his fifth career national title. The Tigers had a chance to break the 14-14 tie late in the quarter but Greg Huegel missed a 44-yard field goal attempt. When that alone couldn’t do it, it was up to one gutsy trick to help win the fourth national title of the Saban dynasty. A lot of people thought Alabama was going to just roll over us.
“All the stats doesn’t really matter to me”. Howard revealed before the title game that Alabama players voted to withhold opening letters from the board until the national championship game had been played. TCoker completed 66.9 percent of his passes for 3,110 yards, 21 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, while running for two scores as well.
It was a remarkably high-scoring game for the teams – Alabama had allowed an average of 13.4 points coming into the game, while Clemson had allowed 20 points per game.
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Especially the onside kick, which stoked memories of the one Payton called that was so instrumental in the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl victory over Indianapolis in 2010. He called a play named “pop kick”, where Griffith lofted a soft, arcing kickoff to the right side of the field.
