The plays that helped Alabama win a national title
GLENDALE, Arizona – Alabama scored four touchdowns of over 50 yards in its 45-40 College Football Playoff National Championship Game win over Clemson on Monday night.
The Tide scored 31 second-half points in the game after the score was tied 14-14 at halftime. Here are the key plays from that second half as Alabama won its fourth national championship in the last seven seasons.
• O.J. Howard’s 53-yard touchdown catch
Clemson messed up the coverage on the play and left one defensive back to cover two receivers. Howard went deep as the other Alabama receiver went short. The result was this wide-open catch for a touchdown.
“Yeah, well, we just had three busts,” Dabo Swinney said. “We just had three critical errors where we just didn’t do our job.”
• Adam Griffith’s onside kick
After Alabama tied the game 24-24 in the fourth quarter, the Tide elected to go for the surpise onside kick. It was executed perfectly, as Griffith dropped it into the arms of cornerback Marlon Humphrey in the empty right flat.
“I thought we had it in the game any time we wanted to do it,” Saban said. “I made the decision to do it because the score was [24-24] and we were tired on defense and weren’t doing a great job of getting them stopped, and I felt like if we didn’t do something or take a chance to change the momentum of the game that we wouldn’t have a chance to win.
Alabama had the ball at the 50 and two plays later …
• O.J. Howard’s 51-yard touchdown catch
…. Alabama QB Jake Coker hit Howard for a second touchdown.
• Kenyan Drake’s 95-yard kickoff return touchdown
Clemson responded to the Howard TD with a field goal to make the game 31-27. Drake responded with a fantastic kickoff return, finding the corner on Clemson’s kick coverage team. He had nearly broken a kickoff return for a TD earlier in the game — only a tackle from kicker Greg Huegel stopped him. There was no stopping Drake this time as Alabama took a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
speed kills pic.twitter.com/pNUObSRDFZ
— Sam Cooper (@SamDCooper) January 12, 2016
• O.J. Howard’s 63-yard catch
Howard’s longest catch of the night didn’t go for a touchdown. But it was a fantastically executed catch and run on a play that Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said didn’t exist before halftime. Howard motioned cut across the formation after the snap. He caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage and had two blockers ahead of him on two Clemson defensive backs.
Howard was pushed out of bounds at the Clemson 14. Six plays later, Derrick Henry scored his third rushing touchdown of the night and Alabama had a 45-33 lead with 1:07 remaining.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
