The National Championship Game and Complementary Football
As a football fan, you’re often bombarded with buzzwords or phrases that coaches use to explain the game. Accountability. Mental toughness. Execution. Understanding the way these statements translate to discernible actions can be difficult. On Monday, the Alabama Crimson Tide provided an excellent example of how one of these vague terms can lead to wins and losses. That term is “Complementary Football.”
If you’re lucky enough to be a Patriots fan, you’ve heard Bill Belichick describe this term. Generally, playing complementary football involves syncing the mindsets of the team’s three units: offense; defense; and special teams. The game’s three phases do not exist in a vacuum. A team’s success depends on its three units helping each other out. If a defense can force turnovers, the offense gets time with the ball. If a punter can pin the opposing team inside the 10, the defense gets to be more opportunistic . Coaches love when their team is competing as one. On the flip side, it can be frustrating when offense and defense aren’t working together. Ask Buddy Ryan.
Monday night’s National Championship Game functions as an example of what happens when a team lacks complementary football. Alabama came out hot, taking a 14–0 nothing over Clemson. Bo Scarbrough, healthy after tearing an ACL in 2015, looked poised to run rampant. The Crimson Tide defense had Deshaun Watson seaching for answers. Nick Saban’s squad was cruising toward another national title. The game seemed to swing, though, on a 43 yard completion from Watson to Deon Cain in the second quarter. From that point on, it seemed like the clock was ticking on Alabama’s defense holding up against the vaunted Clemson offense.
This is where the concept of complementary football enters the equation. Alabama’s offensive gameplan appeared to be Scarbrough left, Scarbrough left, and Scarbrough left again. Newly-installed playcaller Steve Sarkisian ran the offense like he had a high schooler taking snaps. I get that Jalen Hurts is a true freshman, but Hurts has done nothing all season to warrant the tightened playcard he was handed Monday. Things only got tougher on Bama when Scarbrough left the game with a broken leg in the third quarter. By the time Sarkisian opened things up on the Tide’s final drive, the damage had been done. Clemson got the ball back with 2 minutes to go against a defense that, to this point, already had been on the field for 90 plays. The rest is history.
There are lots of reasons Alabama lost to Clemson in Tampa. After a difficult start, Deshaun Watson turned in a historic performance at quarterback. The Clemson defense showed up to play. The Tigers’ receivers won the battle against Alabama’s secondary. What stuck out to me the most, however, was the poor gameplanning/playcalling from Nick Saban and Steve Sarkisian. In an effort to shield a freshman quarterback, they left their defense overexposed to the Tigers’ offensive prowess. For an offense to complement a defense, the quarterback requires a minimum level of trust from the coaching staff. Jalen Hurts was not provided that trust.
