The 5 plays that propelled Alabama to another College Football Playoff title game
Alabama made it clear very early in the Orange Bowl that it wasn’t going to mess around against Oklahoma.
From the very first snap, Tua Tagovailoa and the Alabama offense was in high gear as it jumped out to a quick 28-0 lead. And though Oklahoma made things interesting in the second half, the 28-point barrage in the game’s first 17 minutes ultimately proved to be too much for the Sooners to overcome.
As a result of the 45-34 victory, Nick Saban’s team is heading back to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Here are the five key plays that made it happen.
Tua Tagovailoa to DeVonta Smith on the first play
On the first offensive play of the game, Alabama went to its passing attack. Tua Tagovailoa, coming off an ankle injury, delivered a strike off of play action to DeVonta Smith. The Tagovailoa-Smith duo famously connected for the winning score in the CFP title game win over Georgia last fall.
This time, the two set the tone of the game. Tagovailoa hit Smith in stride over the middle and Smith took off for a 50-yard gain. Six plays later, Alabama (after a fumble was overturned) was on the board via a Damien Harris touchdown run. That made it 7-0 after just 3:06 of regulation.
Henry Ruggs’ controversial touchdown catch
Oklahoma went three-and-out on its first drive to put the ball back in Tagovailoa’s hands. He quickly led the offense back into the red zone, but an Oklahoma sack put the Tide in its first third-down situation — a third-and-6 from the 10.
It didn’t bother Tagovailoa. He dropped a dime to Henry Ruggs for a touchdown. But it wasn’t without some controversy. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field. After a lengthy review, the call stood when it looked like it could have been overturned.
Josh Jacobs’ pulverizing catch-and-run
Alabama increased the lead to 21-0 on its third drive, and Oklahoma quickly went into desperation mode. The Sooners opted to go for it on fourth down near midfield, but came up short. That gave the Tide a short field.
The offense needed only four plays to reach the end zone yet again. This time was a bruising touchdown catch from running back Josh Jacobs.
Here’s another angle of Jacobs barreling through the OU defender to make it 28-0 early in the second quarter.
Tagovailoa to Smith for 6
Alabama went into halftime with a 31-10 lead, but Oklahoma made things interesting with 10 points in the third quarter. With the lead now 31-20, Alabama needed to put a drive together to swing the momentum back to its side. The offense did just that, casually marching 75 yards on nine plays in 4:55.
The drive, which did not include a single third-down play, was capped off with this easy pitch-and-catch touchdown pass to Smith from 10 yards out to put the lead back to 18 points, 38-20, with 13:08 to play.
Tua’s game-sealing TD pass
Oklahoma’s offense scored every time it touched the ball in the second half, so that meant Alabama needed to keep its foot on the gas pedal.
To finally put the game on ice, Tagovailoa threw his final touchdown of the game to Jerry Jeudy with 6:08 to play. Once again, it was a perfectly placed ball.
Another Oklahoma touchdown followed, but Alabama was subsequently able to run out the clock and seal another title-game berth against Clemson.
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