SANTA CLARA, Calif. — When it was over, he remained frozen in place for a long while. During the final moments of a stunning blowout, Tua Tagovailoa had been sitting on the bench at the back of the sidelines, his head covered by a black and gold towel — “College Football Playoff National Championship,” it read — and now he held the pose for a few more moments.
A confetti cannon fired once, and then again, paper strips in Clemson’s orange and purple hurled into the air, then fluttering down. Jerry Jeudy, Alabama’s sophomore receiver, patted his quarterback’s head once, and then again, before heading toward the locker room. Senior running back Damien Harris approached and put his hands on Tagovailoa’s shoulder, then knelt and leaned in close.
“Keep your head up,” Harris told the quarterback. “One game doesn’t define you.”
But it definitely tweaked the legend of Tua.
If Clemson’s 44-16 beatdown of Alabama was hard for most of college football to comprehend, it was even harder for the shell-shocked players who’ve been part of the dynasty — “It’s all just a blur,” said senior center Ross Pierschbacher — and it seemed even more so for Tagovailoa. The sophomore’s season had been spectacular: All of those touchdowns, transforming Alabama’s offense into something unprecedented. Nick Saban’s best quarterback turning his latest team into perhaps his greatest team. Or so went the storylines.
And then Monday night, it all got rewritten.
Clemson’s freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence shredded Alabama’s defense. But an anticipated quarterback duel sputtered early. The Tide was unable to keep up, in large part because Tagovailoa was, well, mortal. He threw two costly interceptions, including a pick six on the Tide’s first possession that sent a shocking bolt through the stadium.
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