Only Army and their slow-paced Option offense were able to keep the vaunted Sooner offense under 30 points. The Sooners offense looked dominant all year, only stumbling to the Texas Longhorns in the annual Red River Rivalry (it’s hard to beat a good team twice). The major colleges are moving towards it too as defenses are getting “smaller.” Hybrid TEs are a completely different animal, and Oklahoma has two of them. The addition of multiple TEs into the game is something the NFL has been doing since Bill Belichick went to it in early 2000. Except it is much more versatile because of the two TEs. I saw an interview where Bud Foster, long time Defensive Coordinator for Virginia Tech, stated that 12 personnel is the new 21 pers. On the other sideline, one could argue, Lincoln Riley is building the Spread of the future. Oklahoma’s redshirt freshman Center, Creed Humphrey, played valiantly, but there were multiple times Williams did whatever he wanted and single-handedly blew plays up. He consistently was camped in the backfield and early on made it hard for Murray to step up into the pocket. One player that stood out over any during the game was Alabama’s interior lineman Quinnen Williams.
Defensive efficiency is a great way to monitor how well a defense is playing overall because it accounts for every down and judges a defense on whether they stay ahead of the chains. The only outlier being the 2010 team that finished #13 in defensive efficiency. Outside of Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa ( #36 in Defensive Efficiency), the Tide have been a mainstay in the top 10 defenses in the country. There was only one thing that didn’t fit into the game, Oklahoma’s defense, as I pointed out in this pre-game tweet:ĭefense Efficiency: #1⃣ & #9⃣8⃣ #OrangeBowlĪlabama’s defense has dominated the last decade of college football.
Overall, the game was a matchup of the two most efficient offenses in the country and one of the best defenses in the country. The Tide’s offense is just different when he is in the game and has been steamrolling ever since. Tua has become a legend in his own right, taking over for Jalen Hurts in last years Championship Game, and seemingly never looking back. Murray is an absolute legend in the state of Texas, finishing his high school career at 42-0 while competing in the highest division in the state. Both are built completely different as well, with Murray listed at 5’10 and Tua 6’1″. The efficiency at which both Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray and Heisman runner-up Tua Tagovailoa play it is astonishing. It also had one of the more intriguing QB matchups of the bowl season. The matchup put the greatest defensive mind in college football (Saban) with arguably the greatest offensive one (Lincoln Riley). The 2018 Orange Bowl was the most appealing contest of the two playoff games.
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