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Alabama pass offense dominates Clemson after Alexander injury
By John Brasier
Published:
Clemson’s Mackensie Alexander got the best of his highly anticipated duel with Alabama’s Calvin Ridley.
But the battle lasted only one half. Once Alexander was gone, Alabama’s passing game took over, leading the Tide to a 45-40 victory and its fourth national title in the last seven seasons under coach Nick Saban.
With Alexander, Clemson’s shutdown cornerback, on the sideline with a leg injury in the second half, Alabama TE O.J. Howard wreaked havoc on the suddenly porous, mistake-plagued Clemson secondary.
Howard, who entered the game with only 33 catches for 394 yards and no touchdowns this season, caught five passes for 208 yards, including touchdown receptions of 53 and 51 yards, respectively, and a 63-yard catch that helped seal the victory.
How much Alexander’s injury contributed to Howard’s big second half is tough to judge. But in the second half, the Clemson pass defense transformed from smothering to smithereens without its star cornerback.
“Yeah, well, we just had three busts,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney in his short news conference. “We just had three critical errors where we just didn’t do our job.”
Howard’s second TD showed the remarkable riches of playmaking talent at Alabama. Catching a short pass in the left flat, the tight end avoided a tackler, looped back and beat defenders to the corner and outraced several Tigers down the sideline, diving to the pylon before a final defender could track him down.
Alabama QB Jacob Coker, who passed for only 82 yards and was the victim of two “coverage” sacks in the first half, suddenly had open receivers. He threw for 253 yards — 167 on three passes to Howard — in the second half.
The passing onslaught began when Howard, left open lined up wide to the right in a busted coverage, scored on an easy 53-yard TD pass to give the Tide a 21-14 lead on its first possession of the third quarter.
Tide receivers took over. ArDarius Stewart, blanked in the first half, contributed 63 yards on two catches.
The Tide’s offensive focus changed dramatically. Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, who carried the offensive load in the first half rushing for 128 yards, added only 30 more in the second half.
Though Clemson QB Deshaun Watson kept the Tigers in the game, Alabama dominated the line of scrimmage. The Tide defense held Tigers RB Wayne Gallman to 45 yards on 14 carries.
Coker’s 16-for-25, 335-yard passing performance was misleading. He wasn’t as sharp and he had been against Michigan State and held the ball too long a few times, but his stats were boosted by the busted coverages and yards after the catch. Still, it was another solid game for the quarterback.
Alexander backed up his pregame comments, shutting down Ridley in what was billed as the premier individual matchup. Unable to get open downfield, Ridley was held to 9 yards on five catches as Alexander made aggressive stops on short passes before suffering a hamstring injury in a pile-up late in the half.
Alexander was already playing with a hamstring injury in his other leg suffered against Oklahoma in the semifinals.
Battling Alexander’s replacement, Adrian Baker, in the second half, Ridley added only one more short catch, finishing with only 14 yards.
Alabama got two big plays on special teams — an onside kick recovery by Marlon Humphrey and a 95-yard kickoff return by Kenyan Drake.
But it was the passing game that did most of the damage for the Tide in the decisive second half.
Alabama had enough weapons to win without a big performance from Ridley. The Tide was better at the line of scrimmage.
There was no victor in the Ridley-Alexander duel, though Alexander was ahead before his injury. But Alabama was the clear winner once Alexander was knocked out.
