Alabama has punched its ticket to another national championship appearance with a 45-34 win over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The Crimson Tide will now meet familiar Playoff opponent Clemson in the title game.

Nick Saban’s team jumped out to a big lead in the game, going up 28-0, and the Sooners were in catch-up mode the rest of the night. While Oklahoma refused to give up, the efforts by Lincoln Riley’s club were ultimately in vain after getting down by four touchdowns.

After the game, Saban offered his thoughts on his team’s outstanding performance in the Orange Bowl against the Sooners.

“Really proud, Oklahoma has a great program and a great team, great offensive team for sure, lots of weapons, lots of firepower,” Saban said. “There is a lot of things we can do better, a lot of untimely penalties in the game that really extended drives for them or stopped us so there are a lot of things we need to focus on.”

The Alabama coach then offered up these comments on his team’s focus entering Saturday’s game.

“Well, they were very focused today and they stayed focused that way all year long,” Saban commented. “Anytime you win 14 games, that’s a pretty good thing. We haven’t always played our best but we played against a good team today and won and I’m really proud of our players.”

Tua Tagovialoa finished the game completing 24 of 27 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns. The Tide racked up 518 yards of total offense, 328 passing and 200 rushing in the game. Saban offered up his thoughts on his team’s outstanding offensive effort following the game.

“I think our offense really controlled the tempo of the game. The only time we got stopped in the game is when we stopped ourselves,” Saban noted. “It would have been much harder for them to comeback in the game if that didn’t happen but you have to say something about the great execution we had to control the tempo of the game like we did.”

Finally, Saban added his thoughts on facing Clemson once again in the College Football Playoff.

“They have a great program and a great team,” he continued. “Dabo has done a great job there, they have a great program. I’m sure it will be a good challenge for us and I’m sure we will need to play better than we did today.”

The 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship Game will be held Monday, Jan. 7, 2019 in Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California.