Post-Game Thoughts (Clemson, 2021 Sugar Bowl)
Well, wasn't that fun? After a strange regular season that didn't have any actual lows (Purdue 2018; Iowa 2017; VaTech 2014), but was chock full of truncated highs (Penn State; Indiana; Northwestern; even lowly Rutgers) amidst a sea of frustration (COVID cancelations and quarantines, fights with the Big Ten brass, disrespect from certain coaches and almost all the media), it was simply great to watch the Buckeyes absolutely dismantle a top-2 team that, for better or worse, like it or not, tradition be damned, is now our
de facto rival. As we all know by now, Ohio State entered the Sugar Bowl with a record of 0-4 against Clemson, including a painful 29-23 loss to end a championship run last season, in a game where Ohio State outplayed Clemson but suffered far more than their share of bad breaks.
1. Before we get to last night's game, let's take a brief trip down Memory Lane. In last year's Fiesta Bowl, what if Ohio State's early scoring drives don't stall out in the red zone, and instead of chip shot field goals the Buckeyes play more aggressively and find their tight ends and punch the ball into the end zone? What if we're up 28-0 instead of just 16-0? Maybe we see a Buckeye blowout similar to last night's game, and not a heartbreaking come-from-ahead loss.
2. After perhaps the worst performance of his career against Northwestern, quarterback
Justin Fields rebounded with arguably his best, as he completed 22 of 28 passes (.786) for a career-high 385 yards and a Buckeye record 6 touchdown passes (tied with Dwayne Haskins (x2); J.T. Barrett (x2); and Kenny Guiton). As
@Buckeneye said, we can still find some faults with Fields's performance - the missed deep ball and the interception being the most obvious - but he looked much more poised and comfortable in the pocket, made much quicker (and generally speaking better) decisions, and just seemed to be in overall command of the game, a true field general as a quarterback should be. Fields's success was all the more remarkable because he played more than half the game in noticeable pain after Clemson headhunter James Skalski laid a cheap shot on him (spearing to the lower back).
3. After his record setting performance against Northwestern (331 yards rushing),
Trey Sermon had 193 yards rushing against Clemson, which seemed almost pedestrian by comparison. In fact, Sermon's 193 yards tied him for the 28th-best game in Ohio State history. Sermon also added 61 yards receiving, for a total of 254 all-purpose yards (19th best in Ohio State history).
4. After missing the Northwestern contest,
Chris Olave played perhaps the best game of his career (and there are several games in contention for that honor). Olave had 6 receptions for 132 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 56-yard bomb that swung all the momentum back to the Buckeyes when it seemed like the team was heading for a classic third quarter meltdown. In addition, Olave had no drops or fumbles (ball control has been an issue with him this season), and he was where he was supposed to be at all times, which is why he has become Justin Fields's security blanket this year.
5. The Buckeye tight ends showed up last night ... or maybe they've been there all season long and the coaching staff has just discovered that they have another weapon in their arsenal. After the Indiana game, I wondered what happened to the tight ends (zero catches, one target in that game), who are so important in the red zone and as outlets against a strong pass rush. Well, now we know - the Buckeye tight ends are just fine, thank you.
Jeremy Ruckert played like a former 5-star recruit, with 3 receptions for 55 yards and 2 touchdowns, while
Luke Farrell added 2 receptions for 11 yards and a touchdown of his own (on a pass thrown so hard it looked like the ball simply materialized in his hands). Oh, and one more thing - those guys can block as well.
6. Speaking of blocking, the Ohio State
offensive line simply mauled Clemson's (vastly overrated) defensive line. The Tigers allegedly have 5-star talent all up and down their line, but outside of true freshman DT Bryan Bresee (5 tackles, 2.5 TFLs, sack), those chumps spent more time limping off the field after getting their asses whooped than they did making plays. And the mauling by the OL showed up in the box score: 49 points; 639 yards of total offense; 34:05 time of possession; 267 yards rushing (6.7 per attempt thanks to several large holes); 385 yards passing (13.8 yards per attempt thanks to a mostly clean pocket). Special props to
Matthew Jones and
Paris Johnson, who were both subbing due to COVID and injury.
7. Now on to the defense.... As you might imagine, it was sort of a mixed bag, but what did you expect going into this game? Clemson came into the contest averaging 45 points and 508 yards per game, with the presumptive #1 overall draft pick at quarterback and plenty of talent at the other skill positions. The Buckeye defense held the potent Clemson offense to just 28 points and 444 total yards, with 166 of those yards coming in the semi-garbage time of the 4th quarter. The Buckeye defense had some bad luck along the way, some due to questionable officiating (a blatant but uncalled OPI on Clemson's first drive, and ticky-tacky facemask and DPI calls on Clemson's final scoring drive), and some due to failure to capitalize on Clemson's mistakes (a dropped interception and not recovering a pair of fumbles, all occurring in the 4th quarter alone). If the Buckeyes make good on even one of those turnover opportunities, then we might be looking at a 56-21 final score and talking about a defensive performance almost as impressive as the 2002 championship game.
8.
Jonathon Cooper looked like a man possessed, especially in the 4th quarter when it seemed like he was living in the Clemson backfield. Cooper was credited with just 2 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble, but his constant pressure clearly disrupted Clemson's offense. At the other end of the line,
Tyreke Smith had a similarly outstanding game and posted identical stats (2 tackles, sack, forced fumble). In the middle of the line,
Tommy Togiai had 4 tackles, a TFL, a forced fumble, and a deflected pass, while
Haskell Garrett (playing sporadically due to an injury that happened during the game) added a tackle and a pass deflection.
9. The Buckeye linebackers were very active, rarely out of position, and never missed a tackle. Although
Tuf Borland (8 tackles) earned Defensive Player of the Game honors, my vote would have gone to
Pete Werner (9 tackles, QB hurry), who keeps making his case for a long and storied career in the NFL.
Justin Hilliard is aging like fine wine (8 tackles, TFL, fumble recovery) and
Baron Browning added a pair of tackles and a TFL.
10. Now the secondary.... The Buckeye defensive backfield has been much-maligned all season, and often times rightfully so (see especially, Indiana). But let's face facts for a minute: Football in the 21st century is just different, it's not the football that you grew up watching or playing or coaching. Rule changes designed to liberalize offensive holding and criminalize tight coverage have made college football (and the NFL) a pass happy game, and defensive backs, regardless of how good they might be, will get beat and burned from time to time. And those beatings and burnings will be more frequent and more costly when you are facing a quality offense with a Heisman-caliber quarterback, a talented multi-purpose running back, and a pair of really good wide outs. So let's look at the defensive backfield's performance in that light. Yes, they gave up 400 yards passing, but you're destined to give up 400 yards passing to Trevor Lawrence when he puts the ball in the air 48 times. Yes, Lawrence averaged 8.3 yards per attempt, but he came into the game averaging 9.6 yards per attempt. Clemson's longest pass plays were 29 yards (uncalled OPI); 26 yards (DB fell down in coverage); and 26 yards (blown coverage by LBs on Travis Etienne). Take out those three plays for 81 yards and Clemson's passing attack actually looked rather anemic, nothing like I was expecting from the greatest quarterback in the history of college football.
11. Individually,
Shaun Wade sometimes looked like an All American, sometimes looked like just a guy. In years past, we used to love to rail on Damon Arnette for being so pushy and graspy and racking up so many DPI calls against himself; Wade is too far at the other end of the spectrum, and his lack of physicality has led to him playing soft coverage at times and getting beaten for 50/50 balls when he does play tight. The enigma is this: Wade has been physical in past seasons, so maybe he's just saving his body for the NFL.
Sevyn Banks seemed to play better overall, and he had a 38-yard interception that finally sealed the victory for Ohio State.
Josh Proctor dropped a sure interception, a recurring theme with him, while
Lathan Ransom flashed in the 4th quarter, especially on a pass breakup that led to Banks's interception.
12. For the first three quarters, the referees looked like they were officiating a cage match, but for some reason they started getting flag happy in the fourth quarter, at least where Ohio State was concerned. The Buckeyes racked up an incredible 7 penalties for 80 yards in the final frame, three of which were legit (two false starts, Trey Sermon's face mask), but the other four of which were, shall we say, highly questionable (DPI on Shaun Wade on an uncatchable ball; facemask on Pete Werner where his hand was a foot away from the facemask; personal foul on Werner for sort of bumping a Clemson player in the back; and holding on Nicholas Petit-Frere). The phantom calls were so bad that even rabid Buckeye hater Chris Fowler was questioning their validity. The late flags didn't have any real impact on the game, except to prevent a rout from turning into a full-blown annihilation.
13. If Ohio State can maintain the same level of intensity and concentration, then they will have a real chance to knock off top seed Alabama. Bring on the Tide!
