Trailing 14-0 with 7:42 left in the first half, Deon Cain went over and told his quarterback Deshaun Watson that if they could just get one big play they could get the offense going.
To that point, Clemson had just 72 total yards and five first downs.
“We started off slow, and I knew we needed a spark,” said Cain following Clemson’s 35-31 victory over Alabama, clinching the school’s first national championship since 1981.
It was Cain who provided that spark.
With Mike Williams on the sideline being evaluated for a concussion, the 6-foot-2, 218-pound speedster got his number called and he did not disappoint.
On second-and-five from the Clemson 18-yard line, Watson threw a screen pass to the boundary, where Cain followed his blocks, made two defenders miss and then weaved his way in and out of traffic while moving across the field for a 43-yard gain to the Alabama 39.
“That was a big play,” Williams said. “He kept the drive going. That was a big play. We needed a spark and he gave us that spark and that got the offense going.”
The Tigers kicked it into gear after that. Three plays later, on third down-and-10, Watson hit Leggett down the seam for 26 yards to the ‘Bama 13. Two plays later, Watson went around left end, while keeping his balance and scored from eight yards out to cut the Alabama lead in half with 6:09 to play.
The seven play, 87-yard drive doubled the Tigers’ output from the first 22 minutes and more importantly found its rhythm.
“We just needed that,” said Williams. “We needed something to spark the offense real quick, and Deon did that.”
Clemson had 157 total yards and seven first downs in the second quarter and was just getting started. The Tigers tallied 87 more yards and had seven points in the third quarter and then 152 yards and 21 points in the fourth quarter.
“After Deon’s play, you could just feel it in the stadium,” center Jay Guillermo said. “The fans went crazy. I think when we first came out we pressed a little bit and maybe were thinking too much, myself included. We were not playing our game. We were playing too slow and playing too high, the small things that you work on.
“But once we got about halfway through the second quarter that is when we started hitting on all cylinders.”
The Tigers finished the game with 511 total yards, 31 first downs, was 7-of-18 on third down and owned the football for 34:44. They were also four-for-four in the red zone.
“I came over to the sideline and I told Coach (Dabo) Swinney and Coach Caldwell lets go,” Guillermo said. “You could hear them breathing pretty heavy. You could see it in their body language. They were tired.”
Clemson wasn’t. The Tigers got a 24-yard touchdown from Watson to Hunter Renfrow in the third quarter, and then scored in the fourth quarter on a four-yard pass to Williams, a one-yard Wayne Gallman touchdown and then Watson’s two-yard toss to Renfrow for the game winner.
When it was all said and done, Clemson became the first team to beat a Nick Saban coached team that owned a two-score lead heading into the fourth quarter. It was also the first time a team coached by Saban gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter. And it all started with Cain’s 43-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter.
“I was just trying to make a play. Once they called for the ball to go to number eight, I just knew I had to execute,” he said. “Every time I got the ball, I just wanted to make a play. It gave us a great spark. I told Deshaun, if we get one big play it is over after that. We are going to have the momentum and we are going to be in the moment.”
And they did it against an Alabama defense that was giving up just 244 yards and 11 points per game, and was said to be the best to ever wear the Crimson and White.
“We really don’t listen to the media. We know what we are capable of,” Cain said. “Everyone wanted to say this is the greatest defense Alabama has ever had. I’m not going to lie. It is a great defense. We started off slow, but we knew we had to pick it up at the end. But we went out there and executed and did what our offense is known to do.”
–Staff Reports