Clemson brings it home
TAMPA — Alabama’s Crimson Tide had two goals in mind last night: win the national championship and make Clemson quit. They failed at both.
“Our motivation is going in there and suffocate the offense and dominate, make them quit,” Alabama defensive end Jonathan Allen said two days before this classic championship match up. “Make them not want to play us anymore.”
Unfortunately for Allen and Alabama, that proved impossible. If there was one thing Clemson was going to do it was play to the final whistle and that is what it took for Clemson to win its first national championship in 35 years. After losing to Alabama, 45-40, in a game in which 40 points were scored in the fourth quarter and an unheralded Alabama tight end named O.J. Howard scored two touchdowns and piled up over 200 unexpected yards last year, the Tigers battled literally to the final moment this time before Deshaun Watson rifled home a 1-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow with one second to play for a 35-31 victory at Raymond James Stadium.
It was a score that sent half the crowd of 74,512 into a frenzy and the other into stunned silence. Alabama had led until only 4:38 was left to play, a score aided by a 26-yard completion from Watson to Mike Williams followed by a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct call on Da’Ron Payne that put the ball on Alabama’s 16-yard-line seeming to undo Alabama this time. Soon it was in the end zone and Clemson had their first lead of the game but it lasted barely two 21⁄ minutes.
When Alabama freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts scrambled 30 yards, eluding two Clemson tacklers along the way, for a stunning touchdown run that seemed to knock Clemson back on its heels, the moment was there to fulfill Allen’s goal. Had he succeeded in his quest to break Clemson’s spirit that moment should have done it but instead Watson did what he’s done since the first day he stepped into Clemson’s huddle three years ago. He took control not only with his tremendous skill and will but also his demeanor.
“It was calm,” Watson said of his feeling as he trotted back out to face Allen and the rest of the Alabama defense that all season had harassed and tormented opponents, limiting them to 11.4 points a game and 244 yards.
“No one ever panicked,” he continued. “I said ‘Let’s be legendary. Let’s be great.’ That’s what I want to be. I want to be great.”
Great he was, completing five passes on a 68-yard drive, including a 24-yard throw where Mike Williams made a leaping catch over Alabama cornerback Anthony Averett. But the big throw was the shortest, a 1-yard toss to Renfrow, who got open behind a perfectly executed pick at the goal line that allowed him to find open space to the flag.
The moment he did, Watson didn’t hesitate. Nothing Alabama had done to him during a long night in which he was often hit hard and knocked to the ground had made him flinch.
This was his moment and he knew it, unleashing the throw that would bring a national championship to Clemson and allow him to leave with a 32-3 record in three seasons and with one final night in which he passed for 420 yards and ran for another 74. That’s 494 yards of total offense for a team that piled up 511 yards on Alabama’s vice-like defense.
To put those numbers in perspective, in the two times they squared off for the national championship against Alabama Clemson piled up over 1,000 yards of offense and scored 75 points and Watson was responsible for 90 per cent of them.
A year ago Allen and the Tide won the national title from Clemson but Watson gave them a personal beat down. Last night he did it again while this time also leaving with the hardware.
“They made the plays and we didn’t,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “We could have done a lot of things a lot better but I have to say that I was proud of the way our guys competed in the game, and just sorry for all of them that we didn’t finish it better.
“But I will say this: you have to give a lot of credit to Clemson, because they made some really good plays down the stretch. They made some great catches, and we never got the ball down and we never got done what we needed to do. We had our chances, and there’s nobody that we can blame but ourselves.”
Themselves and a kid who wouldn’t break no matter how hard he was hit. Deshaun Watson has finished third and second the last two years in the Heisman Trophy balloting but if there is a better college football player in America no one has seen him.
“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Allen said of Watson after so bitter a defeat. “He’s a competitor and that’s what you expect. He made the plays when they needed and we didn’t, so you’ve got to give Clemson the credit; they won the game.
“I never got the sense that he was rattled. I know Deshaun Watson through secondhand people, and he’s such a great competitor. I knew he was going to come back strong in the second half. They made the adjustments they needed to and we didn’t. The last play of the game I’m not really sure what happened.”
Actually, yes he did. Watson didn’t quit. Two great teams went at each other hammer and tong for four quarters, fighting and scraping and giving all they had. The difference this tie was one guy had a little more fight than the rest of them.
“What a fight,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “They fought for every play. We put it in No. 4’s hands. We were playing to win.”
Right to the end.