ATLANTA, Sporting Alert — Alabama stifled the offense of Washington after going behind to secure another place in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
The No. 1 Crimson Tide (14-0), who beat Clemson to win the national title last year, earned back-to-back trips to the season finale after cruising to a 24-7 victory over the fourth-ranked Huskies (12-2) in the Peach Bowl semifinal on Saturday.
Peach Bowl Box Scores and Game Stats
Washington jumped on the scoreboard first when Dante Pettis scored a touchdown from a pass by Jake Browning with 8:01 left in the first quarter.
However, Alabama responded with 24 straight points and Nick Saban’s defense suffocate the Huskies offense to set up the win.
“I thought we did pretty well on defense after we got into the flow of the game,” said Saban.
Bo Scarbrough ran for a pair of scores on 19 carries for 180 yards for the Crimson Tide, who have won 26 straight games since losing to Ole Miss last year.
“Bo’s been playing pretty well for us the last three or four games,” Saban added. “We wanted to play him more. He’s hard to tackle. He’s big and powerful. He’s playing with a lot of confidence.”
Ryan Anderson returned an interception 26 yards for a score and Adam Griffith made a 41-yard field goal to secure the win for the defending national champion.
Jake Browning was 20 of 38 for 150 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for Washington in the defeat.
Alabama will now travel to Tampa, Florida to face the winner of the Fiesta Bowl between No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State.
“Both those teams are great football teams,” Saban said. “It’s going to be a very challenging game for us either way.
The College Football Playoff championship game is on Jan. 9 and Saban will be hoping to join Bear Bryant as the only coaches to win six national titles in the poll era.
