OT: Best College Football Championship Game Ever?

[bags27]

maybe....

 

[HoopsFan21]

Never would have predicted that ending. A true freshman making that pass in OT in a national championship game on a 2nd and 26 and having to get a TD to win it.

 

[DaddyChoc]

was it thrown to another true freshman?

 

[eebmg]

Geno watching:

1st thought " Freshman "
2nd thought " Got to keep up with Sabin "

 

[Adios]

True freshman moved the chains on offense the most. Their leading RB, WR and QB are all true freshman. That's incredible depth.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[triaddukefan]

The last two years were better games throughout..... but the ending of this year's game was one for the ages. . Personally I like last year's result better.

 

[Sonny44]

Alabama is bad for the sport.

 

[Blakeon18]

Gutsy move by Sabin to put the kid QB in to start the second half....especially since they said he hadn't experienced even one consequential play all year.

 

[oldude]

Stayed up way past my bedtime. A couple thoughts on the game:

I’ve watched Jalen Hurts, Bama’s starting QB, a number of times. He’s like another RB in the backfield - great runner, but very average passer who frequently doesn’t see open receivers. The decision to go with the kid from Hawaii in the 2nd half was not on the spur of the moment. Bama had to be thinking about it for weeks and giving the kid lots of reps with the 1st team offense in practice.

Often big games come down to a single matchup. Once Bama switched QB’s, the matchup that absolutely killed GA involved another freshman, their undersized CB, #14 vs whichever Bama receiver he was matched up with. Bama constantly went after #14 in the 2nd half, including on the game winning TD.

 

[skilz]

Ref's missed too many calls that should have gone against Bama. Also, had one of Geno's girls went after an assistant coach on the sideline in anger, would that girl play again??

 

[RockyMTblue2]

They still play football in college?

 

[rugbymate]

Saban was visibly upset when Hurts missed a wide open receiver on a corner route(I think it was Ridley) in the 1Q . The throw wasn't even close and I though Saban said something to his OC. Since Bama couldn't run the ball, he made a wise choice replacing Hurts, a choice that not a lot of coaches at that point in time would have made.I guess that's why he has 6 NCs.

 

[Orangutan]

I'm not even sure it was better than the last couple Bama-Clemson games BUT that ending will be remembered for a very long time. Freshman QB throwing a perfect deep ball to win the game. Epic.

I haven't even heard that much talk this morning about his game-tying touchdown throw, which was equally amazing if not more so.

 

[Orangutan]

I’ve watched Jalen Hurts, Bama’s starting QB, a number of times. He’s like another RB in the backfield - great runner, but very average passer who frequently doesn’t see open receivers. The decision to go with the kid from Hawaii in the 2nd half was not on the spur of the moment. Bama had to be thinking about it for weeks and giving the kid lots of reps with the 1st team offense in practice.

This article touches on some of those topics: Tua Tagovailoa’s Rise Seemed Unlikely, but It Was Part of Nick Saban’s Championship Plan

Saban always knew that Tua was an option. They played their freshman running back and receivers more late, perhaps because they had a strong rapport with Tua. It was another freshman who caught the game-winning TD.

 

[Oldbones]

This one was better IMO.

 

[oldude]

I'm not even sure it was better than the last couple Bama-Clemson games BUT that ending will be remembered for a very long time. Freshman QB throwing a perfect deep ball to win the game. Epic.

I haven't even heard that much talk this morning about his game-tying touchdown throw, which was equally amazing if not more so.

The game tying throw on 4th down was huge, but it was also a bit lucky. On the reply, it was clear that the kid from Hawaii wasn’t throwing the ball to Ridley. He was off balance when he threw the ball in the general direction of another receiver, who was tightly covered in the back of the end zone. The ball was short and Ridley who had worked his way all the way across the end zone basically caught the pass in front of the intended receiver.

 

[JRRRJ]

I don't follow football much, but I was in a sports bar when the game ended. The composure QB under pressure and precision of the pass were impressive.

But...wasn't it obvious to everyone watching the game that the only thing that (especially with the Alabama QB running around in the backfield) would beat Georgia was a deep pass? Why wasn't the Georgia secondary deep to give better coverage to such a play?

 

[Orangutan]

The game tying throw on 4th down was huge, but it was also a bit lucky. On the reply, it was clear that the kid from Hawaii wasn’t throwing the ball to Ridley. He was off balance when he threw the ball in the general direction of another receiver, who was tightly covered in the back of the end zone. The ball was short and Ridley who had worked his way all the way across the end zone basically caught the pass in front of the intended receiver.

I just watched that play several times and I honestly can't tell who it's intended for.

I don't follow football much, but I was in a sports bar when the game ended. The composure QB under pressure and precision of the pass were impressive.

But...wasn't it obvious to everyone watching the game that the only thing that (especially with the Alabama QB running around in the backfield) would beat Georgia was a deep pass? Why wasn't the Georgia secondary deep to give better coverage to such a play?

Georgia was in Cover 2. There is a deep safety assigned to each half of the field. The safety on that side of the field was late getting over. If you watch a replay, note that the Bama QB is looking right the entire play right up until he throws deep left in a (successful) attempt to freeze the left-side safety.

https://deadspin.com/on-final-play-tua-tagovailoa-took-everything-georgia-g-1821904908

 

[oldude]

I don't follow football much, but I was in a sports bar when the game ended. The composure QB under pressure and precision of the pass were impressive.

But...wasn't it obvious to everyone watching the game that the only thing that (especially with the Alabama QB running around in the backfield) would beat Georgia was a deep pass? Why wasn't the Georgia secondary deep to give better coverage to such a play?

GA was playing “cover 2”, a two deep zone defense that should not give up a deep pass, with 2 safeties back to double cover any receiver running a deep pattern, but 3 things happened on the winning play.

• GA’s freshman CB got beaten badly by the Bama WR off the line of scrimmage giving him a free release down the sideline
• The Kid from Hawaii at QB did a great job of “looking off” the GA safety by looking down the middle of the field, causing the safety to move towards the center of the field.
• Once he got the safety to move, the kid from Hawaii turned to the left sideline and threw a rope hitting his receiver perfectly in stride for the winning TD.

So basically it was a combination of a blown coverage by GA combined with great execution on the play by Bama.

 

[Longtime fan]

maybe....

The "best game ever" would have seen Alabama lose.

They nearly always win the national championship game because all the best players, at every position, always go there. They had, on the bench, the number one recruit in the nation at QB. He replaced the previous year's number one recruit at QB ( a true freshman replacing a true freshman from last year).. And if he had failed, they would have trotted out another one.

The reason people want to categorize this game as "the best ever," is simply due to the fact that that the underdog made a game of it. Normally ( although I know Clemson won recently ), Alabama ends the game after about the first 10 minutes.

If the NFL were wide open ( i.e. no draft in inverse order of finish, etc ), the richest team would always win. The best players would always go where the money is, so that team would, 99% of the time, be the champs. Only the fans of the richest team would ever enjoy the sport's championship game, because the team with the best players usually wins. Smartly, the NFL has a method to create balance ( unless a team has a horrible GM and coach.....as many, apparently, do ), so we get different teams competing each year, with a reasonable chance of winning. Atlanta, for example, would have won last year except for a terrible decision by their coach.

 

[Longtime fan]

True freshman moved the chains on offense the most. Their leading RB, WR and QB are all true freshman. That's incredible depth.

If you are a great HS player, want to get exposure to the NFL and ( likely ) win a national championship, you go to Alabama. Very few players recruited by Alabama choose to go anywhere else. Alabama is about 6 deep at every position. And every player would start for any other team. If an NFL team chose to only draft Alabama players, they would likely win it all, too.

 

[oldude]

I just watched that play several times and I honestly can't tell who it's intended for.]

I agree that it’s hard to tell from the sideline camera view, but on ESPN this morning there was a camera view from behind the offense. From that view, it looked to me like the QB was looking right at the receiver in the back of the end zone when he threw the ball, and never even saw Ridley sprinting across the end zone from the other side of the field.

 

[oldude]

The "best game ever" would have seen Alabama lose.

They nearly always win the national championship game because all the best players, at every position, always go there. They had, on the bench, the number one recruit in the nation at QB. He replaced the previous year's number one recruit at QB ( a true freshman replacing a true freshman from last year).. And if he had failed, they would have trotted out another one.

The reason people want to categorize this game as "the best ever," is simply due to the fact that that the underdog made a game of it. Normally ( although I know Clemson won recently ), Alabama ends the game after about the first 10 minutes.

If the NFL were wide open ( i.e. no draft in inverse order of finish, etc ), the richest team would always win. The best players would always go where the money is, so that team would, 99% of the time, be the champs. Only the fans of the richest team would ever enjoy the sport's championship game, because the team with the best players usually wins. Smartly, the NFL has a method to create balance ( unless a team has a horrible GM and coach.....as many, apparently, do ), so we get different teams competing each year, with a reasonable chance of winning. Atlanta, for example, would have won last year except for a terrible decision by their coach.

It sounds like you’re saying that, “Bama is bad for college football.” Now where have I heard something like that before?

 

[Orangutan]

The "best game ever" would have seen Alabama lose.

They nearly always win the national championship game because all the best players, at every position, always go there. They had, on the bench, the number one recruit in the nation at QB. He replaced the previous year's number one recruit at QB ( a true freshman replacing a true freshman from last year).. And if he had failed, they would have trotted out another one.

Jalen Hurts was ESPN's 13th-ranked dual threat QB in his class. There were also 11 pocket passers with grade higher than his grade of 80. So at least 23 QBs were ranked higher than Hurts in his class.

Tagovailoa, on the other hand, was ESPN's #1 ranked dual threat QB in his class. That much is true.

Alabama is currently 6th in ESPN's class rankings for 2018. The order is Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Clemson, Alabama. So maybe there is some hope that the future won't be dominated by Alabama.