2018 College Playoff Alabama vs. Oklahoma: Preview and Prediction

Alabama (13-0) vs. Oklahoma (12-1) Game Preview

Date: Saturday, December 29th
Game Time: 8:00 ET
Venue: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, FL
Network: ESPN

Let’s just get right to it! Kyler vs Tua, you can’t get a better matchup of two college Quarterbacks than this! No one Quarterback has ever finished a season with a passer efficiency rating of over 200, and at the moment, Murray is at 205.72, and Tagovailoa is at 202.30. These two will be more than worth the price of admission.

Let’s look at the keys to this game?

Alabama’s offense vs Oklahoma’s defense

Alabama is connecting on 68% of all throws for an average of 11 yards per attempt and to make matters worse the Sooners secondary is atrocious. The only hope here for the Sooners will be their ability to get to the Quarterback, and I do think they will have some success in that area, but will it be enough to slow down Bama’s passing game? I doubt it.

Alabama’s Running game vs Sooners’ run defense

This does not promise to be a good matchup for the Sooners either. I mean the Kansas Jayhawks ran for over 300 yards on them. What it all will come down to for the Sooners’ defense will be can they take the ball away from the Tide. If they can’t they will have to score 50 to win this game.

Kyler Murray vs Bama’s defense

In the past it has taken a special talent at Quarterback to beat Alabama and Murray is that kind of talent. Jake Fromm almost beat Alabama twice last year but came up a little short and that was mainly because he had a coach that played not to lose instead of playing to win. Murray will have time to throw for the most part and he is an incredibly accurate Quarterback, but he is probably going to have to put up 40 points.

Prediction

Alabama has only played one other explosive offensive team this past season and that was Georgia, and they almost lost to them. I think the Sooners are going to be able to put up points, I just think in the end they will not be able to put up enough to earn the ‘W’.

Bama 41 Sooners 34