College Football Playoff preview, Orange Bowl: Alabama vs Oklahoma

The Alabama Crimson Tide will be taking on the Oklahoma Sooners in the Orange Bowl this year for a chance to play for the national championship.

With the College Football Playoff stage set, we will be seeing the Alabama Crimson Tide and Oklahoma Sooners facing off in the Orange Bowl on Saturday, December 29th.

Ratings for CFP games are always high, but this game should be expected to be one of the most-viewed games ever. We will be watching two Heisman Trophy candidates under center in Alabama’s Tua Tagavailoa and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray. We’ll also be watching the legendary coach in Nick Saban going against the young offensive guru in Lincoln Riley.

This is a game with a lot of future NFL talent on both teams, but this dominant Crimson Tide team is expected to be heavily favored, with Vegas opening up the line for them as 14-point favorites for the Orange Bowl.

Although Alabama is expected to dominate, there are still some storylines to keep an eye on during this one.

Can Alabama’s defense slow down Oklahoma?

After such a dominant first 12 games of the season for Alabama’s defense, the unit got relatively exposed in the SEC Championship against Georgia. The Bulldogs put up 28 points and 454 yards of total offense, only to let the game slip away from them thanks to a dramatic comeback from Jalen Hurts and company.

Georgia’s offense is certainly one of the better ones that Alabama has had to face, but Oklahoma will be a completely different monster for the Crimson Tide to contain. The Sooners rank first in the nation in both yards per game (578) and points per game (49.5).

Kyler Murray has been the biggest reason for that success. Despite his smaller stature, Murray has shown legitimate poise running the Sooners offense, putting up 4,053 yards, 40 touchdowns and just seven interceptions through the air. The junior has also added an impressive 892 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.

Players like Mack Wilson, Quinnen Williams and Deionte Thompson have been huge playmakers for the Alabama defense. Saban is hoping that his incredibly talented unit will at least be able to slow down this offensive juggernaut to advance to the national championship game.

Will Tua Tagovailoa be healthy and limit turnovers?

Heisman hopeful Tua Tagovailoa had to exit the SEC Championship due to an ankle injury. Fortunately, the Crimson Tide were able to rally around Hurts to avoid their first loss of the season, but all eyes will be on the health of Tua before this contest at the end of December.

Aaron Suttles of The Athletic provided an update from Coach Saban on Sunday, confirming that the talented young QB has a high ankle sprain and is expected to miss a couple of weeks.

Although Tagovailoa has about a full month to recover, a high ankle sprain is no joke for any skill position player. The quarterback situation for Alabama has been less fluid lately than at the start of the season, but this injury makes you wonder if Hurts will get some playing time in the College Football Playoff.

Assuming Tua plays, it will be interesting to see if he can avoid turning the ball over. After not throwing an interception for the first eight games, the quarterback has thrown four picks over the last five.

A couple of turnovers from the Alabama offense could make this game much closer than Vegas is projecting, so a less than confident or healthy Tua would be a big storyline in this one.