This year’s National Championship saw the 13-1 Georgia Bulldogs take on the 12-1 Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama was seen as the favorite in the game, even though they were a lower seed than Georgia in the playoff rankings. The National Championship was a hard fought game full of surprises. They might have even created a new monster at Alabama. It was the first game in the CFP era to go to overtime where Alabama pulled through for the victory 26-23 over Georgia.

Before we talk about the game, let’s talk about the roads these two SEC team needed to take to get to this point. Alabama lost their last regular season game against Auburn, which took them out of the SEC championship game. People thought that would be the end of Alabama’s hopes of being in the playoffs. However, since Georgia beat Auburn, it was between Alabama and Ohio State, Big Ten champions, to see who would be in the playoffs. The playoff committee figured since Alabama was 11-1 at the time, that they deserved to be in the playoffs. So once that was settled and the games were set, Alabama would play Clemson in a rematch of last year’s national championship with Georgia would taking on Oklahoma.

Georgie beat Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl in a high scoring game which went to double overtime. According to ESPN.com, the final score was 54-48 thanks to a clutch touchdown run by Sony Michel in double overtime. Meanwhile, Alabama’s Sugar Bowl game against Clemson was a little less interesting with Alabama winning 24-6. The stage was set for an all SEC National Championship between Alabama and Georgia. Alabama’s talented defense versed a great offense led by freshman Jake Fromm.

Both teams have really talented defenses which made the game start off very slow with neither team scoring in the first quarter. Georgia struck first with a pair of field goals in the second quarter. Then, Georgia’s Mecole Hardman ran in for a 1 yard touchdown at the end of the half put Georgia up 13-0. After a long talk with his team, Nick Saban benched his starting quarterback Jalen Hurts and brought in true freshmen Tua Tagovailoa to start the second half. Tagovailoa started off a little slow but in just his second drive of the game, he led the team down the field to get Alabama their first points of the game with a touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs to make the score 13-7 with score still in the lead.

Unfortunately for Alabama, Georgia scored a touchdown on the next drive thanks to an 80 yards touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman from Jake Fromm. After back to back interceptions from both teams, Alabama kicked a field goal to make the score 20-10. With just about 9 minutes left in the game, Alabama scored a field goal to give themselves a chance to tie the game thanks to some great passes from Tagovailoa and some equally great runs by freshman Najee Harris. After a Georgia punt, Alabama went down the field and scored a touchdown to tie the game. After another Georgia punt, Alabama’s offense went down the field again and put their team in good field goal distance. With the game on the line, kicker Andy Pappanastos missed the the field goal sending the game into overtime. Thankfully for Alabama, that field didn’t affect their play because of a Georgia field goal and huge sack for loss, Tagovailoa made a 41 yard pass to Devonta Smith to win the game.

This win gave Nick Saban his sixth National Championship and his fifth with Alabama. Nick Saban in now 12-0 when his team plays against his former assistant coaches. This win will likely be seen as one of the best comebacks in National Championship history. After being down 13-0 at the end of the half, Saban decided to put in a true freshman who led the team back and won them the game. Alabama will most likely be the number one team starting next season, and it will be interesting to see who starts at quarterback and running back next season for Alabama. Tua Tagovailoa and Najee Harris looked like a tough duo to beat, but only time will tell.