Alabama remains the team to beat in college football
Alabama’s demise was greatly exaggerated.
Remember when the Crimson Tide’s reign atop college football was over? When Clemson had surpassed Alabama as the nation’s premier program? When its inclusion in the College Football Playoff for the fourth year in a row was as much, if not more, the result of its reputation instead of its resume?
Never mind.
Clemson bore the brunt of Alabama’s pent-up rage in the Sugar Bowl on Monday night, made to look a pretender by coach Nick Saban and his ferocious defense in the 24-6 victory. The Alabama defense harassed Kelly Bryant from the opening play — don’t be surprised if he’s still flinching in June — and essentially ended the game with five minutes left in the third quarter, picking him off on back-to-back plays and turning the miscues into 14 points.
Adding insult to injury, Tide nose guard Da’Ron Payne, who conservatively is listed at 308, scored a touchdown seven plays after picking off Bryant. Linebacker Mack Wilson returned the other interception 18 yards for the score.
The narrative in the leadup to the Sugar Bowl, the third consecutive year Clemson and Alabama have met in the Playoff, was that this could be a passing of the torch. After stunning the Tide in the final seconds of last year’s title game for their first national championship since 1981, the Tigers showed this season that they had, indeed, become every bit Alabama’s equal.
Despite losing Deshaun Watson and five other NFL draft picks, Clemson not only returned to the playoff, but did it as the No. 1 team. This was a program with a solid foundation, built to contend for the national title year in and year out.
Alabama, meanwhile, was showing signs of the decline that eventually fells all dynasties.
It wasn’t simply the loss in Iron Bowl, which kept the Tide out of the SEC title game for the first time since 2013. Alabama also struggled to beat Mississippi State and Texas A&M, and didn’t have a statement victory after Florida State folded like an origami crane.
Sure, there were injuries, the defense particularly decimated. But the Saban teams of old had faced adversity, too, yet managed to keep on rolling.
That the argument could even be made that Ohio State was more deserving of the fourth playoff spot would have been considered heresy in years past. Not this year. The Tide might have been favored in Las Vegas, but they were most definitely not the favorite.
All week, Alabama players were asked about being underdogs and whether Clemson could make a case for being the best program in the nation.
Oh, did we all get played.
This wasn’t simply a team motivated by slights and an untimely loss. This was vintage Alabama, bludgeoning Clemson in a manner that Texas, LSU and Notre Dame surely recognized. The Tide went after Bryant and Clemson from the opening kickoff, treating every inch of the field like it was their personal property.
When Raekwon Davis sacked Bryant to end the first quarter, it gave Clemson negative-7 yards of total offense. Yes, you read that correctly. Negative-7 yards. Not until early in the second quarter did the Tigers get a first down.
Clemson never did make it into the end zone, stuffed at the Alabama 6 late in the fourth quarter. The Tigers finished with just 188 yards of offense.
And remember Hunter Renfrow, the Alabama killer from the first two meetings? The first time Bryant threw to him, two Alabama defenders were there to knock the ball away. The message was clear: college football remains Alabama’s game, and everyone best remember that.
Lopsided as the game was, it could have been even worse if not for Clemson’s defense. It came up with big stops time and again, keeping the score respectable.
But make no mistake, this was a rout. Alabama was, and still is, college football’s king.
Source:- https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2018/01/02/alabama-remains-team-eat-college-football/995025001/
