On January 8, 2018, #1 seeded team Alabama Crimson Tide faced against the #2 Georgia Bulldogs. They faced off in the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia at the College Football Championship. Since the game was being played in Georgia, the Bulldogs had a home field advantage, and the crowd was going crazy for them. The backstory coming into this game was that last year Alabama went up against the Clemson Tide in the Championship Game ending in a 35-31 loss and they are seeking revenge this year. They are looking to get their 17th National championship while Georgia was looking to get their 3rd. In the first quarter not much happened because both teams played great defense. In the second quarter though, Georgia started piling on the points by kicking two field goals, and scoring a touchdown. Despite that drive they missed the extra point but lead going into the half leading 13-0. With Alabama losing, their head coach, Nick Saban, made a very bold move by benching their first string Quarterback Jalen Hurts, who had led them to the championship last year. Jalen only lost 2 games out of the 2 years he has been playing. Nick Saban instead started freshman Tua Tagovailoa, from Hawaii who no one had heard of.
When the second half started, fans noticed a change of quarterbacks for Alabama. The people started to doubt Coach Saban’s decision, but Tagovailoa, soon went to work on the Georgia defense by scoring a touchdown. The score is now 13-7. On the next play, Georgia bounces back with quarterback Jake Fromm, by throwing an 80 yard touchdown to Mecole Hardman. When Alabama gets the ball again, Tagovailoa throws an interception. Then quarterback Jake Fromm, throws an interception right back to Alabama and they put 3 points on the board. For the next few drives both teams had to punt the ball, but then Alabama moved up the field and scored a field goal. The last 7 minutes of the game is where things got interesting. A key pass interference on Georgia put Alabama 33 yards away from the endzone. Alabama repeatedly made first downs until Georgia’s defense held them to a 4th down predicament. Coach Saban had a choice, to kick a field goal and trust his defense to hold Georgia or go for it and tie the game. Of course, Alabama went for it and the risk paid off because they scored a touchdown. The score was then tied at 20. With a little over 3 minutes left in the game, this is where both of the teams defenses shined by not allowing the other team to score. Alabama moved up the field though and with 3 seconds left, they sent their kicker out to attempt to win the game. He ended up missing the 36 yard field goal so they went into overtime!
At the start of overtime, Georgia won the coin toss and at the end of their drive they made a 51 yard field goal. All alabama needs is a touchdown to win the game and pull off a comeback story. Alabama got the ball on the first play, Tagovailoa was sacked for a loss of 16 yards! On the next play, Tagovailoa threw a 41 yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith to get a walk off touchdown win. The final score was 26-23, Alabama.
This was a very exciting Championship game to watch because it had you on the edge of your seat. We might even see a rematch of this game next year in the championships because most of the people who played in this game won’t have graduated yet. The only difference now is the freshman Tua Tagovailoa will be the starter from now on.