TURNED THE TIDE
TAMPA, Fla. — Damned if he wasn’t open. Wide open. There had been six seconds left in this heart-stopping game when Clemson’s Deshaun Watson took the snap, and he needed to make sure this play took place in a hurry if the Tigers couldn’t cover the 2 yards separating them and the end zone.
Separating them and a national championship.
Take a look, then throw it away with enough time to kick a tying field goal. But when Watson peeled around the right side ... well, damned if Hunter Renfrow wasn’t open, a step across the goal line. Damned if this wasn’t going to end for the Cinderella Clemonsers, a 35-31 win for the ages.
Damned if the damned Crimson Tide weren’t the ones limping off the field in sorrow for a change.
Because, man, they can break your heart. Clemson had the Tide staring at third-and-16, then fourth-and-1 on Bama’s final drive ... and had somehow kept the drive alive. Then Jalen Hurts, unable to touch Clemson with his arm all night, did them in with his legs, a 30-yard burst with 2 minutes and 7 seconds left to give Alabama a 31-28 lead.
The explosion you’d heard just past midnight a few minutes earlier were all the Clemson fans — inside the stadium, back home in South Carolina, everywhere — roaring when running back Wayne Gallman leapt over from the 1-yard line with 4 minutes and 38 seconds left in the game. Six plays in 88 yards, and suddenly the Tigers were on the brink of the impossible, up 28-24 on Alabama.
Impossible because the Tide has been the dominant team in the sport these past nine years. Impossible because the Tide entered this game 97-0 under coach Nick Saban when leading by 10 or more points entering the fourth quarter, and they entered this one up 24-14. Impossible because as much as America may have wanted to see the Crimson Tide humbled — and Clemson had come so close last year — it was hard to see this Alabama team being the one to spit the bit.
In fact, it had been one haunting play that had conjured that game last year: O.J. Howard sneaking behind the Clemson defense — again. Surely after the way Howard had propelled his Alabama Crimson Tide to victory in last year’s College Football Playoff Championship game, that was a mirage on the field at Raymond James Stadium. Right? Had to be. Except that was Howard, all right. To that moment the Alabama passing game had generated all of 47 yards. Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts had looked very much like a freshman quarterback, looking puzzled some downs, overwhelmed others, mostly finding comfort handing the ball to Bo Scarbrough and getting the heck out of the way.
The Tide led 17-14, but it seemed an oddly tenuous advantage. Clemson had spotted Bama a 14-0 lead, had looked overwhelmed in its own right and yet here they were, nose-to-nose, toe-to-toe, same as they’d been a year ago when Alabama had claimed a classic 45-40 shootout in Glendale, Ariz.
There was little doubt who the neutrals among the 74,512 people inside this stadium were pulling for. And so it was those neutrals grew silent and still as they watched Howard beat three different Tigers to the sideline, gather in a pass all by himself from Hurts, and dash the remaining yards to finish off a 68-yard scoring play.
A year ago, at almost exactly the same point of the game, Howard had stunned Clemson by finding himself wide open when Tide quarterback Jake Coker pump-faked beautifully, then de- livered a 53-yard strike that broke a 17-all tie. A quarter later, tied at 24, the pair hooked up again, this time from 51 yards.
Both moments were, in their own way, remarkable, because Howard had been little-used by Alabama last year, serving mostly as a physically imposing decoy. And while he caught only two touchdowns this year, there is little doubt that Howard will be taking his talents to Sunday afternoons next year.
(And wouldn’t he look good bedecked in blue, serving as a target for Eli Manning …?)
And yet there he was, wide open. There he was, dashing for the end zone.
There the Tide was, sprinting toward a 17th national championships, its fifth under Nick Saban (one shy of Bear Bryant’s total) and fourth in five years. Except the Tigers had other ideas. Damned if Hunter Renfrow wasn’t wide open when he absolutely needed to be. Damned if Clemson didn’t get it done. Damn.