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Clemson Football: Dabo’s Tigers crush Alabama, stun Saban and win title

By Gavin Jernigan

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: James Edwards #95 and Hunter Renfrow #13 of the Clemson Tigers celebtate their teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: James Edwards #95 and Hunter Renfrow #13 of the Clemson Tigers celebtate their teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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Clemson football dominated the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship. Here’s what we learned from the big win.

The battle of the unbeaten. ACC versus SEC. Saban and Swinney.

For the fourth time in four years, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers collided in the College Football Playoff. Two of the meetings have come in the National Championship Game. The 2018 meeting was a semifinal game.

This matchup represents so much of today’s college football as we know it. Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney are the two best coaches in the sport, atop the two best programs. The quarterbacks leading these teams are young, talented, and returning to college next season.

As fans, we always hope for an exciting shootout (except for those old school “Defense wins championships” folks). But, many were skeptical of this possibility given the past dominance of these two defenses. However, after five minutes of action, we were pleasantly surprised to see the scoreboard read,14-7.

Against all odds, the Tigers went into halftime with a 15 point lead over Alabama, 31-16. Clemson running back, Travis Etienne, made the most noise with two touchdowns in the first half. Crimson Tide quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, uncharacteristically had two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

More of the same continued for Alabama in the second half. The offense was shutout, Jalen Hurts had to takeover at quarterback, and the defense gave up 13 more points. In the end, the Clemson Tigers finished as champions with a win over the Crimson Tide, 44-16.

We learned more from this game than just Clemson being the top team in college football. Let’s take a look.

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