Brad Edwards: 16 CFP semifinals have provided 2 classics, not much else

4. Alabama 45, Oklahoma 34

Season: 2018

On paper, this looked like it had a chance to be fun. The quarterbacks were the top two Heisman finishers, leading what were statistically the two best offenses in the game. The major area of concern was that the Oklahoma defense was bad – really bad – and Kyler Murray had won the Heisman, in part, because of the heroics it took to overcome that defense on a few occasions to get the Sooners into the playoff.

We figured Bama wouldn’t need to get many stops to win this game. What we weren’t expecting was for the Tide to get all of those stops in the first quarter. Thanks to its prepared defense, Bama took a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter, and the game was basically over at that point.

So, how in the world, you might ask, could this game rank as the fourth-best semifinal? Three reasons: the bar for fourth-best semifinal is set really low (see previous game on the list), it’s also the fourth-closest semifinal by scoring margin, and the last three quarters were fun to watch.

Oklahoma never got the score any closer than 11 points, and the Sooners never had the ball with a chance to get within single digits, but they did score on six of their last seven possessions after falling behind 28-0 (with the only exception being time running out to end the first half).

Well aware of OU’s ability to score quickly, Nick Saban was determined to run clock in the second half, and with a running back rotation of Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris, the Tide accomplished that while tacking on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns.

The most special thing about this game is probably looking back at the amount of offensive talent that was on the field. Do yourself a favor and check out the names on this box score.