Just because we like to torture ourselves from time to time here at Alabama Football World HQ, we’ll fire up the ol’ VHS of the 2018 CFP National Championship Game to watch Clemson kick the living heck out of the Crimson Tide.

It was a beatdown from start to finish, no question. Clemson was faster, stronger, better coached. Dabo Swinney had all the answers. Nick Saban couldn’t formulate the questions fast enough.

It was destruction so complete that, in a perverse way, it inspired awe. Alabama fans actually knew what it felt like — if only for one tortuous evening — to be Auburn fans or Georgia fans or Tennessee fans.

That’s why Clemson-Alabama IV is still worth revisiting. Because not only could the matchup happen again this season, but it could also go down exactly the same way.

Most all of the same components are in place, on both sides, to replicate Clemson’s 44-16 bloodletting on Jan. 7. Trevor Lawrence? Check. Tua Tagovailoa? Check. An opportunistic Clemson offense? Check. A suspect Alabama defense? Check.

That’s right, the 2019 Alabama team is lined up just about the same as the 2018 team we last saw grasping at air in Levi’s Stadium. A dominant Tagovailoa brought the Crimson Tide all the way to the brink of an 18th national title only to see the Tigers snatch it out of the cool California sky.

The Tide offense is great this season, albeit one-dimensionally great. Alabama’s sweet Hawaiian prince seems to be rewriting the school record book every week he takes the field. And with a receiving corps that was great last year all one year older, the combination of Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith are downright scary this year.

But Alabama can’t run the ball in 2019, even less so than it could move the rock on the ground in 2018. As we have written about earlier this season, some of this is a simple offshoot of having a mega-productive passing game. Why run it when you can throw it? Another component is the old adage of taking what the defense gives you … and if the defense is keyed to the run, Tagovailoa is more than able to play catch with Jeudy/Ruggs/Smith all day long.

That said, if anyone can sit here today and say Alabama could pile up a 300-yard rushing afternoon against anybody in the country, I would counter with this: against whom? Because it has only happened once — a 318-yard day against New Mexico State. If there are more Aggies-level defenses out there on Alabama’s schedule (yes, we’re looking at you Western Carolina …) we would be surprised.

The 145-yard effort against Duke was eyebrow-raising. The 135-yard effort against South Carolina was concerning. Going for 176 yards against Southern Miss was troubling. And piling up just 155 yards against Ole Miss was downright startling.

As odd as it sounds, Alabama is scoring too quickly for its own good right now. What the Crimson Tide want — and in all practicality, need right now — is to be able to generate the old-fashioned 11-play, 76-yard drive that eats up 7:48 of play clock. The drive that once not to long ago was a staple of Alabama football: We are going to line up and punch you in the mouth on the offensive line, and our fresh running backs corps are going to stomp on your neck during their 6th consecutive 7-yard run.

The Tide can’t do that. They can’t control the 2nd half of games, beyond rolling Tagovailoa back out there to unspool a 3-play, 76-yard scoring drive that takes 93 seconds.

Using the “we will score as quickly as possible” method as your primary form of game management has the effect of wearing down your defense. In Alabama’s case, we are talking about a defense that is already starting true freshman linebackers and is showing cracks in the secondary.

That offensive strategy flies in the face of Saban’s fabled desire for “balance,” and keeps his defense on the field for unacceptable levels — up to and over 90 plays per game is a perfect way to kill your D before they even get to the College Football Playoff.

Alabama can’t do that right now. And unless they magically conjure up an offensive line capable of clearing holes for Najee Harris and Brian Robinson, Jr. — and those RBs can make it happen beyond the line of scrimmage — they won’t be able to the rest of the season.

Alabama can only fake it for so long, people. It isn’t quite a “the emperor has no clothes” situation yet in Tuscaloosa, but it does set up a potential redux of Jan. 7, 2019 on the outskirts of San Francisco. There certainly is a team out there, maybe even Clemson, that can de-pants Alabama in the same fashion on the same grand stage.

If anyone needs the VHS tape to remind themselves of how great that felt, we’d be happy to lend it to you.