Alabama, Clemson advance to national title game

The overnight ratings showed why having the sport’s biggest games of the season on December 31 was a bad idea: the ratings were down 33% from the initial Playoff last season.The Cotton Bowl earned a 9.9 rating and the Orange Bowl a 9.7.

Clemson enters the game against Alabama as six point underdogs, but in the playoffs anything can happen.

Saban will be bidding for his fifth national title, which would put him on a pedestal with the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant.

“Coming into this game, I had a feeling that we were about to play the best game of football we’ve ever played”, Darlington said.

The Clemson junior defensive end sustained a left knee injury on Oklahoma’s first drive in the Orange Bowl victory.

Lawson, who intends to turn pro after this season, said he’ll be ready to go in his final college game. NBC 6’s Ari Odzer has the story.

Why is Clemson’s winning streak so quiet, I wondered, and Swinney said: “We’re just little old Clemson”. For the remainder of the half, Oklahoma collected five more plays of 15 or more yards including a 42 yard pass caught by Dede Westbrook taking the Sooners into the red zone.

Clemson, chasing its second national title – the other was in 1981 – beat Oklahoma 37-17 in the Orange Bowl, with quarterback Deshaun Watson running for one touchdown, passing for another and accounting for 332 yards.

Clemson’s 13-game unbeaten streak this season seemed in jeopardy early in the week when Swinney announced that three players had been suspended from the team and sent home. Watson, who was named the game’s offensive MVP, passed for one touchdown and ran for another.

Even with the loss of Lawson, arguably the best player on the Tigers’ entire defense, Clemson held Oklahoma to 17 points, tying the score to which the Sooners were held by Texas in their only previous loss this season. “But, we knew at some time that we would need these guys like they did today and in the Florida game” for the SEC championship on December 5.

Oklahoma senior center Ty Darlington believed he and his teammates were about to play the game of their lives.

The first day of 2015 could not have gone more perfectly for College Football Playoff organizers.

While quarterback Deshaun Watson gets a lot of credit for Clemson’s success, and deservedly so, it was the Clemson defense that has the Tigers headed to Arizona.

Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said there was only one game of this magnitude that he could remember when the Tide defense was as dominant.

There were two big plays on the drive: a 46-yard run by Watson to start the march and a 31-yard pass from punter Andy Teasdall to defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. Alabama went up 17-0 on a Ridley touchdown and 24-0 on the 57-yard punt return from Jones that made sure the Spartans didn’t have another improbable comeback in them. The Tigers are now 14-0 and the season has essentially been one giant dance fest for Swinney. “They were calling it like a sprained MCL, I think is what they were saying, but he just couldn’t quite push off on it like he needed to, so I don’t know. They made a great play”. “As much as we hit him, when you hit them enough, they become inaccurate and get antsy and want to leave and escape the pocket”.

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