Clemson rallies for spot in CFP title game
Dabo Swinney never thought for a moment that No. 3 Clemson would not win the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.
Not when the Tigers trailed 16-0 early and or when they were down 23-21 late to No. 2 Ohio State before 71,330 at State Farm Stadium.
It’s a confidence born from 28 consecutive wins – now 29 going into the College Football Playoff Championship Game in New Orleans on Jan. 13 – and Swinney’s attitude that “our dreams are always greater than our memories.”
With a 29-23 win, the dream remains alive for a second straight national title and third in four years. To get there will require a win over No. 1 LSU, which like Clemson is 14-0 after crushing No. 4 Oklahoma 63-28 in the other CFP semifinal.
But the Fiesta drama made up for a lack of it at the Peach Bowl in what arguably was the second best semifinal of the six-year CFP era behind only Georgia’s double-overtime win over Oklahoma in 2017.
Certainly this Fiesta was nothing like three years ago when Clemson dominated Ohio State in another CFP semifinal 31-0.
As confident as Swinney of a victory, first-year Ohio State coach Ryan Day could barely contain himself from saying the Buckeyes should have won. He was left to process what he called a “range of emotions” including anger after his first loss as a college head coach following a series of events that could have carried Ohio State (13-1) to its 20th consecutive win had any of them gone the other way.
Clemson still was scoreless late in the second quarter when Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade was ejected for targeting on a sack of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. A pass interference penalty by Wade’s replacement followed and by halftime the Tigers trailed just 16-14.
“I told them at the half, I thought we took their best punch,” Swinney said. “My message was we’ve got to find a way to lead the lead in the third quarter. When we take a lead into the fourth quarter we finish.”
The Tigers did that with the only points in the third quarter on a 53-yard screen pass from Lawrence to running back Travis Etienne.
Lawrence passed for 259 yards and more significantly ran for 107 including a 67-yard touchdown sprint with 1:10 left before halftime. He was the choice for offensive Player of the Game over Etienne, both of whom scored three touchdowns.
Clemson’s third-quarter began on its 1-yard line and would have ended on the 15 except for a roughing the kicker penalty on punter Will Spiers by Ohio State’s Cameron Brown.
Late in the third, another call went against Ohio State off video review when an apparent fumble by Clemson wide receiver Justyn Ross was called an incompletion. That negated a 29-yard return for a touchdown by the Buckeyes’ Jordan Fuller.
“We had a lot of good looks on it,” Southeastern Conference referee Ken Williamson said later to a pool reporter. “We put on fast motion and slow motion. The player (Ross) did not complete the process of the catch.”
“Those game-altering plays, you need those things to go beat a team like Clemson,” Day said. “You need those one or two plays. Then to miss a couple of them, that hurts you.”
But the Buckeyes were not done. They pieced together an 84-yard drive in the late third and early fourth quarters, scoring on Justin Fields’ 23-yard pass to Chris Olave for a 23-21 that nearly stood up for Ohio State’s sixth Fiesta Bowl win in nine tries.
Instead, on a Clemson drive starting at the 6-yard line with 3:07 remaining, Lawrence threw for 11 yards, ran for 11 then hit 38- and 34-yard passes to Amari Rodgers and Etienne for a touchdown at 1:49. He topped that with a two-point conversion throw to Tee Higgins.
“I thought we might have scored a little too quick,” Swinney said. “But then it’s up to your defense to win the game.” That happened barely.
Fields, also a sophomore from the same area in Georgia as Lawrence, completed four straight passes then ran for eight yards, setting up a second-and-7 at the Clemson 23-yard line with 43 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Fields threw over the middle where he expected Olave to be, but the sophomore receiver cut off his route because he thought Fields had been flushed out of the pocket.
So only Clemson free safety Nolan Turner was in position to make the catch, which he did for a game-clinching interception.
“We had exactly the call on that we wanted,” Day said. “He (Olave) felt like Justin was in a scramble mode. Things like that happen. Unfortunately that happened to us on the last play of the game when we needed it most.”
Ohio State also was without running back J.K. Dobbins for part of the game due to an ankle injury. Dobbins was the game’s star early with two runs for a combined 132 yards including a 68-yard touchdown.
He finished with 174 yards, surpassing Eddie George as the school singleseason rushing leader.
Clemson senior linebacker Chad Smith was the defensive Player of the Game with 12 tackles.