Top 5 Plays of the 2019 National Championship (in no particular order)
5. Justyn Ross makes one-handed snag
Despite the fact that Ross is only a freshman, he makes plays like a senior. Two consecutive catches saw him tip a ball to himself and pull that ball out of the air with one hand as he fell toward the sideline.
The key to this entire play was that, as he fell backward, he had the presence of mind to keep one foot in-bounds. It will remind some of a play that current New York Giant Odell Beckham Jr. made two years ago, yet Ross is just a freshman.
4. Nyles Pinckney blows up fake field goal
What isn’t surprising is that Alabama tried a fake field goal while down two scores with less than a half of football remaining. What is surprising is that they tried it when Clemson not only knew it was going to happen, but also didn’t even send out the field goal unit.
The base defense was out there with four on the line and seven behind the line of scrimmage by at least four yards. Alabama tried to run it up the gut with the kicker as the lead blocker, but Pinckney got in there and made Alabama wish that they had called a timeout to reassess their play.
3. Tigers make third down stop on the goal line to start the second quarter
This won’t make any of the highlight reels, but it’s definitely a top-tier play. The second quarter had just started and the Crimson Tide were third-and-goal from the three-yard line. Clemson was up by only one, after the Alabama kicker missed an extra point on their last score, but if the Tide had scored again they could have gone back up by seven with a two-point conversion.
They tried to run a fake to the outside and pitch it back inside. Austin Bryant saw the quarterback scramble, but he hung around the line of scrimmage even though he could have gone for the sack. Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw a shovel pass and Bryant made the stop bringing up fourth down. This play is so important because it halted what looked like a sure touchdown drive and forced Alabama to get just three points instead of a possible eight.
2. AJ Terrell picks off Tua Tagavoiloa and returns it for a touchdown
There is not a more effective, tone-setting play than a pick-six on the opposing team’s first possession. AJ Terrell jumped what looked like a miscommunication between him and his receiver. The Clemson defense was set up to blitz Isaiah Simmons from the left side of the offense which meant that Terrell and safety K’Von Wallace were left in man-to-man coverage on the two receivers.
One ran up toward the defense and then out toward the sideline. The other looked like he would run a little further into the defense and then in toward the middle of the field, but he stopped midway. Tagovailoa threw the ball toward the second receiver running in, but instead of an Alabama player, he found Terrell who saw the pass go to the wrong player. It was a smart play that immediately shifted the momentum in Clemson’s favor.
1. Trevor Lawrence completes a 62-yard pass to Tee Higgins to set up Clemson’s first offensive touchdown
Although it was not a touchdown pass, this was Lawrence’s best pass all night. While Clemson’s defense was feasting on Tagovailoa’s mistakes with anticipating coverage, Lawrence was making Alabama pay for bringing a bland, recognizable coverage. On this particular pass, Lawrence dropped back to pass on a third-and-fourteen play. He knew he had wide receiver Tee Higgins running up the middle of the field. What he noticed as he hit the top of his dropback was that the Alabama defense was dropping a safety over the middle of the field and then rotating a safety back.
The issue for Alabama was that the rotating safety was on the far side of the field away from Higgins. Lawrence saw this and put a deep ball perfectly into Higgins’ hands at the Alabama 45-yard line. That’s about two seconds from when he first saw the coverage. After seeing that, Nick Saban should have thrown out the playbook and just blitzed all 11 guys from then on because nothing else was going to stop Lawrence and the Clemson offense anyway.
