Alabama Football: ‘Bama Hammer’ Orange Bowl prediction by Kevin Mudd

Heisman winner versus runner-up. Two of the best offensives in the country. Big 12 versus SEC. History from the last meeting between Alabama football and OU. Combining all these storylines makes for the premier game of the Playoffs

This is the second in the Bama Hammer series of staff writer predictions for Alabama football vs. Oklahoma. Check the first prediction by Ronald Moody here.

Even with all of these storylines, I believe there will only be two storylines at the end of the Orange Bowl for Alabama football and Oklahoma Sooner fans alike. First, is the Heisman Trophy should belong to Tagovailoa. Second, Oklahoma was not the 4th best team in the country, and Georgia should have been in the playoffs.

Heisman Moment

The Oklahoma Sooners defense is terrible and Tagovailoa is going to show the entire country how bad it really is in the Orange Bowl.

I believe on a bad day Alabama scores at least 40 points on the Sooners defense. On a good day when Saban doesn’t take the foot off the pedal, Tagovailoa plays into the fourth quarter even with a demanding lead, I believe Alabama scores 70 plus.

I think this game will be over by halftime and Jalen Hurts plays all of the fourth quarter if not most of the third quarter due to the score.

Let’s look at who each Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray have played in terms of the opponent’s total defense for those ranked in the top 50 in the country.

Alabama: Mississippi State 3rd, Georgia 13th, LSU 29th, Texas A&M 35th, Auburn 44th, Tennessee 49th

Oklahoma: Army 9th, TCU 26th, Iowa State 33rd

Tagovailoa averaged 40 points a game against these opponents, and will now go against Oklahoma’s 108th ranked defense. While Kyler Murray will be going against the 10th best ranked Alabama football defense.

Murray played lesser opponents while Tagovailoa sat on the bench for nearly three combined games due to not playing in the fourth quarter.  That explains what to expect in the Orange Bowl in terms of Tagovailoa’s Heisman moment.

I think this Alabama football defense is ready to show the world why Tagovailoa deserved the Heisman. I expect the Tide D to hit and rough up Murray all night. In the end, the world will realize Oklahoma isn’t one of the four best in the country.

Not a Top 4 Team

Is Oklahoma’s offense number one in the country in terms of total offense? Yes

However, just from the statistic above, would they be ranked number one if they had to play the schedule that Alabama had to play?

A better question is would they have won every game as Alabama did?

I believe by the end of the Orange Bowl everyone in the country is going to realize the playoff committee made a huge mistake by allowing Oklahoma into the playoffs.

Call it politics, fear of being SEC biased, or lack of credibility but Oklahoma’s defense alone is a disqualification. If Alabama’s defense had played as bad as Oklahoma and suffered a loss during the regular season, then no one would put them into playoff consideration.

With these two takeaways explained I believe Alabama crushes Oklahoma on its way to the National Championship.

Kevin Mudd Game Prediction: Alabama Crimson Tide 59 – Oklahoma 24

Stay tuned to Bama Hammer, Crimson Tide fans. We have more of these in-depth game predictions coming soon.