The Alabama Crimson Tide started 2015 by getting shocked by Ohio State in the first college football playoff. They sure weren't going to end 2015 the same way. The Tide came out and crushed Michigan State 38-0 in the Cotton Bowl, and there are a ton of good reasons to believe they're 60 minutes away from winning yet another National Championship at the expense of the Clemson Tigers.
College Football Odds at BookMaker.eu
Alabama Crimson Tide -7
Clemson Tigers +7
Over/Under 53
Alabama's offense has officially become incredibly frightening. At the outset of the year, the big question was whether someone was going to be able to throw the football. For a while, we wondered whether there was a good answer to that or not. Now we know there's a really good one.
Jake Coker lost his job as the starting quarterback after just three games, but after Cooper Bateman got the Crimson Tide off to a slow start against Ole Miss, it was back to Coker once again. Since then, the Florida State transfer never looked back.
Coker's best game was his most recent one. He went 25-of-30 for 286 yards and two TDs, and he did so on a rare night where Derrick Henry wasn't able to get anything going. He threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Ridley to essentially throw the dagger at Michigan State. However, if he's going to go 25-of-30 again in this one, the Crimson Tide are going to walk away from this game.
Clemson's history against big time running backs is really good. The Tigers did allow Dalvin Cook to come up with almost 200 yards against them, but Samaje Perine only had 58 yards on 15 carries in the national semifinal. However, never has Clemson seen a rambler quite like this. Henry is going to get the ball in his gut as many times as needed, as he isn't afraid to carry the rock 40+ times, something he did both against Auburn and in the SEC Championship Game against Florida.
The real key for Alabama though, is its defense. The Crimson Tide had a prototypical game against the Spartans in the Cotton Bowl. Sure, they weren't great offensively, but they were dominant defensively, made a big play on special teams with a punt return for a touchdown and walked away with a comfortable victory.
The Crimson Tide have allowed just 1.4 points per game in the first quarter this year, including just one touchdown against Tennessee. Clemson's offense averages almost 11 points per game in the first quarter, and getting off to a good start is crucial. We see no reason why Alabama won't be able to at minimum frustrate and at maximum completely overwhelm the Tigers.
Sure, Alabama's offense might get off to a slower start offensively, but as long as Henry is getting the ball in his hands, that will inevitably wear down the Clemson defense and setup chances for the deep ball to go over the top. If the defense holds the fort as we expect to be the case, the Crimson Tide should be fine.
Keep in mind that their last five bowl wins have been by 16, 42, 21, 28 and 38 points, so don't have any fear about laying the touchdown if you believe Alabama is the right side in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
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