Though Clemson football defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 44-16 in the National Championship game, there are some Bama fans who still doubt Trevor Lawrence.
The funny thing about events, stories, narratives, etc. is that the farther you get out of the moment, the more your perception starts to change.
For example, a guy plays high school basketball. He has a game where he scores 20 points, followed by a few where he has 14, 7, 2, 6, 7 and 10. As he gets out of high school and graduates college, he might start looking back on his high school career. All of a sudden, that career looks a lot better than it did in the moment.
He reminisces about the “glory days.” He remembers that 20-point outing, but seems to forget about the one where he only put up two points.
That, in some ways, is how I feel Alabama fans have taken the National Championship game against Clemson football.
In the moment and for a couple of weeks after, everybody was talking about how dominant of a performance the Tigers had and how good Trevor Lawrence was. But, as you get a couple of months out, people seem to forget just how much better Clemson was compared to Alabama and like to pick and choose things to make it seem as if it wasn’t as bad as it was.
In reality, it was a 44-16 thrashing, led by a freshman quarterback, a talented host of receivers and a dominant defense for Clemson football.
Some Alabama fans have convinced themselves, though, that Lawrence wasn’t as good as many say he is after the performance.
Take a look below.
because he’s not, simple.
— 🐘 (@RoIITide) February 23, 2019
people act like lawrence a had phenomenal game or something, he played decent.. had an 80 yard touchdown off a busted coverage that any qb in high school or above could have thrown, justyn ross bailed him out on 3 jump balls 2 of which he caught one handed,
— 🐘 (@RoIITide) February 24, 2019
Trevor Lawrence
— Mo (@MainManMoo) February 22, 2019
Quinnen Williams delivered a cheap shot to Kyler Murray.
— SJ (@TripleFor) January 10, 2019
But he was exactly right about Trevor Lawrence's performance being overrated https://t.co/4Qj0e3NWkI
Anybody who thinks Tua is overrated is missing multiple brain cells. Lets let Trevor Lawrence actually play a full season and see how “different” he is.
— 🐊Garrett Burnett🐊 (@Garrett_73) January 8, 2019
Instead of just admitting greatness, they’re trying to make themselves feel better about the upcoming season by saying that Lawrence just played “decent” and that he was helped out by his receivers.
This doesn’t really have as much to do with Trevor Lawrence as it has to do with uncertainty and fear surround the Alabama program and Tua Tagovailoa. I think Tide fans are a bit scared to admit that maybe Tagovailoa just isn’t as good as they originally believed.
That, coupled with the thought that Clemson could potentially have a generational talent at quarterback is a tough pill to swallow for the Crimson Tide dynasty that has existed for the past decade.
It almost seems a little insecure to me to have to try and take anything from Trevor Lawrence. Instead of just saying that he torched you and your young secondary, you have to try and make up things about how “he just wasn’t that great.”
I think the best thing to do, if I were a Bama fan, would be to tip my cap to Clemson football and move onto 2019. But, attempting to discredit the Tigers just isn’t worth even trying.