Alabama beat the Clemson Tigers in a rematch of last year’s National Championship game.
Credit: @ESPNPR
For college football fans out there, New Year’s day is the best way to start off the coming year. Ever since the creation of the college football playoff system, both the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl act as the semi-finals for the top four teams in the country to see who will face off in the National Championship game. The Rose Bowl featured the University of Georgia defeating the University of Oklahoma, which ended up being the highest scoring matchup in that game’s history. Unfortunately for fans of the sport, the Sugar Bowl was played later on in the day but did not even come close to being as great of a game as the Rose Bowl. The University of Alabama faced off against Clemson University in a rematch of last year’s college football championship game, but this time the Crimson Tide came out victorious.
Georgia and Oklahoma scored a combined 102 points in one of the most exciting games of the year, but unfortunately, the Sugar Bowl matchup was not as exciting with Alabama and Clemson only scoring a combined 30 points. Viewers were probably left pretty bored at home as Alabama showed the country why they are still a force to be reckoned with as they held their opponents to a mere 188 total yards in a 24-6 victory. The game remained close at halftime with Clemson down 10-3, but the Crimson Tide pulled away in the second half and played lockdown defense to keep the game out of hand.
The offensive numbers remained subdued for both teams, but Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts was very efficient completing 16 passes on 24 attempts for 120 yards and two touchdowns in the contest. The Tigers’ offense was held to 1.9 yards per carry on 33 rushing attempts and also averaged a mere 3.4 yards per attempt in the passing game.
Alabama will be advancing to the national title game against the Georgia Bulldogs and will look to get head coach Nick Saban his sixth championship victory. The Crimson Tide will go into the big game next week with what is arguably the nation’s best defense but will have their hands full stopping a Georgia run game that averaged 9.3 yards per carry and scored five touchdowns on Monday. The Sugar Bowl didn’t live up to expectations, but it did set the stage for the biggest college football game of the year January 8th when two of the best teams in the country will play for the national title.
