GLENDALE, Ariz. — It depends on how you look at it.

On one side it was a great call that was perfectly executed. On the other it was a play that should not have counted. Regardless, Adam Griffith’s onside kick with 10:34 to play in Monday’s National Championship Game was the play that changed the outcome in Alabama’s 45-40 victory over Clemson.

Griffith had just tied the game at 24 with a 33-yard field goal, when he stunned top-ranked Clemson by pooching the ball perfectly in the air, allowing defensive back Marlon Humphrey to run under it to give Alabama the ball back.

Two plays later, quarterback Jake Coker found tight end O.J. Howard wide open down the sideline for a 51-yard touchdown. In a matter of 49 seconds, Alabama scored 10 unanswered points and seized control of the game. It’s a lead it did not relinquish the rest of the night as it outlasted the Tigers in a shootout in the Arizona desert.

“It was a huge momentum play,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said.

But it was a play that maybe should not have been allowed. Griffith’s kick never touched the ground, meaning Humphrey had to allow Clemson to try and catch the ball first before he could touch it, even if it went the mandatory 10 yards.

Swinney knows the rule all too well. The Tigers did the same thing to rival South Carolina in 2014, but the officials in that game ruled the ball did not hit the ground and the Gamecocks had every right to catch the ball first.

“They took it away from us,” Swinney said. “They said we had to give them an opportunity, no matter what, to catch the ball.”

But the all-Pac 12 crew did not see it that way as referee Terry Leyden ruled the play was legal and Alabama maintain possession. Two plays later the Crimson Tide were in the end zone and all the momentum went with them.

“It’s not my job (to argue an official’s call). My job is to lead this offense and get points,” Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson said. “I guess the rule changed. I’m not even sure. I heard that we had the fair catch and had the opportunity to catch it, but again, last year we did that so who knows.

“They earned it. All the credit goes to Alabama for what they did. They are National Champs. We have to go back next year and grind harder and try to be champs, too.”

As much as the call hurt the Tigers, Swinney said they still had an opportunity to get a stop and get the ball back.

“It was a huge play, but then we followed it up with a bust for a touchdown,” Swinney said. “It was a combination of mistakes. It is one thing to give up that play, but that does not mean you go out and don’t do your job on another play.”

The onside kick was not the only controversy involving Leyden’s crew. In the first half, following an 11-yard pass to running back Zac Brooks, which went for a first down, the clock kept running when it should have stopped at 12 seconds. Instead of being able to clock the ball, Clemson had to burn its last timeout of the half.

The officials eventually put three more seconds on the clock, but Greg Huegel had to attempt a 44-yard field goal which was partially blocked by Alabama’s D.J. Pettway with five seconds to play.

“It happens. It is the game of football,” center Jay Guillermo said. “That’s what makes the game of college football so exciting. Obviously, it had an effect on the game, but there are other plays that you could point out.

“You just can’t point out one play.”