Alabama football set up a date with Clemson for the fourth straight year in the College Football Playoff after downing Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
Through the first half of the Orange Bowl semifinal between Alabama and Oklahoma, it looked like we were due for another blowout on par with the Clemson-Notre Dame Cotton Bowl in the first semifinal game of the day. The Crimson Tide rolled up a 31-10 lead by the intermission, making the Sooners look like an overmatched foe.
Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray showed why he was named the most outstanding player in the country as he tried in vain to pull the Sooners back in the second half. But the Alabama defense proved incapable of pulling things back entirely, as Tua Tagovailoa and crew continued putting points on the scoreboard deep into the fourth quarter.
Ultimately, Alabama walked away with a 45-34 victory that somehow masqueraded just how dominant the Crimson Tide were on the final Saturday of 2018. They will now prepare for a January 7 date with a Clemson team that they have faced in each of the past three preseasons.
What should we take away from the double-digit takedown of the Sooners a few days before the new year? Here are three things we learned from Alabama’s decisive Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma that sends Nick Saban’s crew through to the College Football Playoff national title game in Santa Clara in a week and a half.