PHOENIX — Deshaun Watson sounded the same as always, speaking softly, but confidently, describing his excitement with an unchanging calm.

The Clemson quarterback knew Monday night marks the biggest game of his life and Alabama presents the toughest defense he’s ever seen, but the star sophomore didn’t seem to grasp what everyone else seems to know about the College Football Playoff national championship.

“I just have to do my job, my part, continue to be me and don’t try to be [a] superhero,” Watson said.

If the No. 1 Tigers (14-0) are to puncture the nation’s most imposing defense and incinerate the strategies of one of the greatest coaches of all time, Watson likely will need to borrow the orange-and-white cape Vince Young wore 10 years ago while leading Texas to a national championship over seemingly unbeatable USC.

If another undefeated and overlooked title-starved program — Clemson’s last championship came in 1981 — is going to take down the dominant team of the era — No. 2 Alabama (13-1) has won three of the past six national titles — it will require another dual-threat Heisman finalist to prove the award wasn’t given to the best player in the country.

“We probably won’t win if he doesn’t play well,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “You don’t win championships without your best players showing up and getting locked in and performing.”

On this stage, Nick Saban’s teams always perform at their best. The Crimson Tide coach, undefeated in national championships games, is in position to win his fifth national title, which would place him alongside Alabama legend Paul “Bear” Bryant as the only college coaches to ever win that many.

Even on a team with Heisman-winning running back Derrick Henry, Alabama’s defense remains the reason the team is back, Saban’s recurring headline act, regardless of changes to the cast.

It is a defense that leads the nation in fewest points allowed, as well as sacks and rushing yards allowed, a unit that emasculated Michigan State with a shutout in the College Football Playoff semifinal and stacks its front seven with future first-round picks such as defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson, linebacker Reggie Ragland and defensive tackle Jarran Reed.

It is a defense that spends its spare time moving mountains and playing catch with cars, or so Watson has heard.

“Everybody knows they’re good,” Watson said. “But we’re good on offense, too.”

Good will not suffice against a team so dominant it maintains its invincibility despite already losing this season, against a defense that hasn’t allowed a quarterback to rush for more than 30 yards this season and hasn’t allowed a quarterback to run for more than 100 yards since Saban arrived in 2007.

Watson could change that, unbeaten in the 18 games he has started and finished. He is the third player ever to throw for more than 3,500 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season, having run for more than 100 yards in five of the past six games.

It is those performances that made Alabama “want him bad,” according to Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, who said Watson combines the athleticism of Johnny Manziel, the perimeter running ability of Nick Marshall and the power of Cam Newton — three dual-threat quarterbacks who led their teams to wins over Alabama in recent years.

“If we could simulate what Deshaun does in practice that guy would be starting for us at QB,” Smart said. “He is a phenomenal player, but more than that, he has the ‘It’ factor. They believe in him.”

Ragland knows the country is looking for reason to believe in the Tigers.

“People don’t like us at all,” Ragland said. “People talk all the time, ‘We can’t stop a mobile quarterback,’ [but] we don’t listen to them. … When the game hits, that’s the time to show them, to prove them wrong.”

Once again, Alabama may prove that defense wins championships. Or once again, the best player in the country could turn an underdog into the best team in the country.

“I remember watching [the 2006 Rose Bowl] and everybody had USC winning,” Clemson defensive tackle Carlos Watkins said. “I could definitely see Deshaun doing what [Young] did.”