Nick Saban’s halftime comments as Alabama is down 31-16 to Clemson heading into the break
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The game we’ve all been waiting months to see has lived up to the hype as the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship Game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Clemson is halfway to becoming an all-timer.
At the halftime break, Clemson leads Alabama 31-16.
The story of the game to this point is the struggles Alabama’s defense is experiencing going up against Trevor Lawrence and Clemson. Lawrence is 12 of 21 for 197 yards and one touchdown, while running back Travis Etienne has scored two touchdowns and rushed for 24 yards on seven carries. The Tigers have five receivers with multiple catches at the half.
Starting with Tua Tagovailoa’s pick-6 to open the game that put the Crimson Tide in a hole early, both teams haven’t let off the gas from that moment. The first quarter alone lasted for 50 minutes, as the two teams went back and forth, marching up and down the field with the score at 14-13 after one quarter.
Things slowed down a bit in the second quarter but both teams still managed to get on the board in the second stanza of the game. One call of note from Saban, the Alabama coach decided to go for a fourth and one from his own 34 with over nine minutes remaining in the second quarter. That really spoke to the struggles Saban’s defense has had in this game, as Saban likely felt the need to keep his offense on the field at that time.
While the bold call worked, the Tide converted the fourth down thanks to a Josh Jacobs run, Tagovailoa threw an interception later in the drive. Tua has completed 13 of 16 passes for 158 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Here is what Saban had to say about his defense’s struggles in the first half against Clemson.
“Well, first of all, we aren’t doing a good job of getting off the field on third down on defense,” Saban said. “We’ve turned the ball over twice, aight. We had the ball on the half-yard line and had a penalty, took points off the board. We’ve executed well enough on offense, scored some points but turned the ball over and shoot ourselves in the foot. Defensively, we are going to have to play a lot better, aight, then what we are playing. They are doing some things — that other people have done to us, we haven’t practiced against that we are going to fix at halftime.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
