GREAT football game......

[UPitt '89]

...and Alabama won it with special teams, unexpectedly.

Clemson outplayed Alabama at the line of scrimmage, which was a surprise.... but Saban's onside kick call changed the direction of the game, and the kick return TD was the fatal blow.

Saban has big hairy ones. And he put them on display in front of 30 million viewers. That's why he's the best.

 

[UPitt '89]

They covered! Woohooo!!!!! My parlay paid off.

Nice.

 

[UPitt '89]

This was clearly the two best teams in America. Without a shadow of a doubt.

Fantastic football game.

 

[Pittx9]

No doubt. Really only a few key plays won that for Alabama. It really was never over until Alabama recovered the kick up 5 with under 30 seconds left.

 

[thebadby2]

They covered! Woohooo!!!!! My parlay paid off.

Nice.

Wow dude. Congrats on winning both your bets. That last TD cost me 100 but I know it cost a lot of people a shit ton more than that in Vegas. WOW what a game. Best NC in years. For sure the 2 best teams in the country in a heavyweight fight. Dabo has built himself a program, and they are young.

 

[Pittx9]

Best NC in years.

Last really great one was probably Auburn-Oregon.

 

[UPitt '89]

Watson is only a sophomore. Yikes.

This is my hope for next season: A small, nagging injury to Watson that makes him miss one game.... which happens to be the Pitt game.

 

[BFo8]

As far as I know the question hasn't been asked yet, but I'm pretty sure Saban would have gone for it on 4th down if they ruled Henry didn't make it in. FG obviously would have made it 8, but I think he would've gone for the win right there and rolled the dice if Clemson got the ball on their own 1 yard line down 5 with very little time left.

The books here didn't have the greatest of outcomes, as the sharp money came down mostly on the Clemson side, and the public had the over on most of their parlays. Clemson winning outright would have been a worst case scenario

 

[UPitt '89]

If these teams played 100 times... I think Alabama wins 51 or 52 of them. I really thought the line of 6.5 was too high, because Watson is clearly the best QB in college football and exactly the kind of player that Alabama can't stop.

Deshaun Watson threw for 405 and ran for 73. And he would've been the MVP and what was regarded as the greatest performance in championship game history if not for two special teams plays.... a surprise onside kick and a kick return for a touchdown. If Clemson's special teams didn't screw up, Watson's performance would've gone down in history.

That guy is scary good.

 

[TD_6082]

No love for Auburn/FSU?

 

[UPitt '89]

No love for Auburn/FSU?

I think Auburn was kind of a fluke participant in that year's title game. It wasn't at all clear that they were the second best team in America, they just had an incredible miracle play against Alabama.

It was a great game..... but the difference is that tonight was CLEARLY, without any doubt, the best two teams in America. Both completely worthy of being in the game.

 

[BFo8]

Eerily similar to Texas vs USC / Vince Young vs Pete Carroll albeit with a different final outcome.

 

[Pittparade]

No love for Auburn/FSU?

I liked that game (FSU over Auburn in the 2013 season) far better than the Oregon-Auburn NC game from the 2010 season.

Many of the NC games have been snoozers because the SEC was either too dominant and made the game lopsided or simply not a fun team to watch. Last night's game was undecided until the last couple of minutes and both teams played well enough that they were relatively fun to watch, especially Clemson. Alabama is typically NOT fun to watch in most years unless one is an Alabama fan (not me).

Could have done without another SEC representative winning the NC again but that probably isn't going away anytime soon. I take some mild delight in pointing out that the ACC champion played in the NC game 2 out of the last 3 years.

 

[Pitt79]

I think Auburn was kind of a fluke participant in that year's title game.

I like when fluke participants get in, only then do I have interest in seeing it. When it's the EXPECTED team, I have no interest to see it. just IMO. Like when Butler made the NCAA final in hoops, I'm more pumped to see what a team like that can do, rather see a predictable Duke/Kentucky game.