The NCAA College Football Championship game between No. 4 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia took place on Monday, January 8. Alabama came out on top, taking the College Football Playoff National Championship by defeating Georgia in overtime by a score of 26-23.

Semifinals took place the week before. In the Rose Bowl, Georgia had defeated No. 2 Oklahoma in over time by a score of 54-48, after trailing by 14 points at half time. That same day, in the Sugar Bowl, Alabama defeated No. 1 Clemson by a whopping score of 24-6, preventing Clemson from winning the National Championship two years in a row.

Georgia, led by freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, started off with an early lead, going up 13-0 at halftime. From there on, they scored only one more touchdown in the third quarter, on an 80 touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman. After that, Georgia let the game slip away from them, allowing Alabama to tie it up in the fourth quarter.

In the end of the fourth quarter, with less than five seconds left in regulation, Alabama had the chance to win in all with a field goal attempt by Andy Pappanastos, but he missed it wide left, sending the game into overtime.

Alabama faced some hardships early on. Their starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts, left the game due to his struggling performance. Backup quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, came in and threw three touchdown passes, throwing for 166 yards and completing 14/24 passes.

In overtime, Georgia got the ball first, and despite losing a lot of yards, scored a 54 yard field goal, giving Alabama the opportunity to still win the game with a touchdown.  On Alabama’s first offensive play of over time, Tagovailoa made a freshman mistake, and was sacked for a loss of 16 yards, making it second and 26 from the 41 yard line.

Despite that mistake that at first seemed to be the end of Alabama’s Championship dreams, Tagovailoa connected with receiver, Devonta Smith, for a massive 41 yard touchdown, giving Alabama the title of National Champions.