Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
National championship
Clemson rolls over Alabama with dominating win, 44-16.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It was insinuated by many that 2018 was a season-long coronation for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Clemson Tigers were the only ones wearing a crown Monday night.
Clemson (15-0) scored 30 unanswered points after falling behind 16-14, handing Alabama its worst loss in Nick Saban’s 12 seasons as coach in a 44-16 victory in the College Football Playoff title game.
Alabama (14-1) had lost by 14 points on three separate occasions during Saban’s tenure, with the last coming during a 45-31 defeat to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2014. Monday was the sixth time in 167 games at Alabama that Saban was defeated by 10 or more points.
True freshman Trevor Lawrence was 20-of-32 passing and threw for 347 yards and 3 touchdowns without an interception, severely outplaying Tua Tagovailoa, his sophomore counterpart for Alabama. Tagovailoa finished 22 of 34 for 295 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions before getting pulled for Jalen Hurts early in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers led 31-16 at halftime, but they were not inclined to rest on their laurels.
Lawrence threw a 74-yard touchdown pass to Justyn Ross three plays after Clemson stopped Alabama on a fake field goal attempt to give the Tigers a 37-16 lead with 8:26 left in the third quarter.
Ross got loose on the big play after cornerback Saivion Smith went down with an injury.
It was a dramatic turnaround after Mark Fields broke up a third-down pass that led to Alabama sending out the field goal unit on the opening drive of the second half. Saban called for a fake, but holder Mac Jones was stopped for a 2-yard loss on a fourth-and-6 run up the middle.
Clemson extended its lead to 44-16 on Lawrence’s TD pass to Tee Higgins with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.
Travis Etienne scored three TDs in the first half for Clemson.
The Tigers matched the most points scored in the first half against the Crimson Tide since Saban became coach in 2007.
Etienne ran for two scores and also caught a 5-yard TD pass from Lawrence after Tagovailoa’s second interception of the game.
The Tigers opened the scoring with a 44-yard interception return for a TD by A.J. Terrell on Alabama’s opening play.
Tagovailoa recovered to throw two TD passes to put the Crimson Tide up 16-14 before the Tigers scored the final 17 points of the half to hand Alabama its biggest deficit of the season.
Etienne finished with 14 carries for 86 yards and 2 TDs. Ross contributed 6 catches for 153 yards and 1 TD for the Tigers.
Jerry Jeudy had 5 catches for 139 yards and 1 TD for the Tide.