No. 11? Fields throws for six scores as Ohio State routs Clemson 49-28
NEW ORLEANS — Numbers have fueled Ohio State all year.
There was 29-23, the score of last season’s painful playoff loss to Clemson.
Six, the number of games the Buckeyes played in this pandemicaltered season, which a lot of people thought was too few for them to get a return trip to the College Football Playoff.
Then there was No. 11, where Clemson coach Dabo Swinney placed Ohio State on his ballot in the final regular-season coaches’ poll.
In a rematch with Swinney’s Tigers in the Sugar Bowl, Justin Fields and the Buckeyes finally had Clemson’s number.
Fields threw six touchdown passes to outshine Trevor Lawrence, and No. 3 Ohio State buried the secondranked Tigers 49-28 in the Sugar Bowl semifinal Friday night.
“Everybody doubting us just pushed us a little more,” Fields said.
The Buckeyes (7-0) head to the CFP title game for the first time since the inaugural playoff to face No. 1 Alabama on Jan. 11 at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida.
Ohio State beat the Crimson Tide in the semifinals on the way to the 2014 national championship.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day called it a statement game for the program.
“This performance by this team I hope will go down in Ohio State history as a landmark victory,” Day said. “There were a lot of tough days this year.”
In a matchup of quarterback prodigies from Georgia, Fields might have given the Jacksonville Jaguars something to think about with that first pick in the NFL draft. Lawrence is the presumptive No. 1, but Fields outplayed him on this night, going 22 of 28 for 385 yards.
He set a Sugar Bowl record for TD passes and did it playing more than half the game after taking a vicious shot to the side that forced him to miss a play and spend time in the medical tent.
Lawrence was 33 of 48 for 400 yards and three total touchdowns in what is expected to be the junior’s final college game.
“We were confident and prepared,” he said. “This was just one of those nights.”
Lawrence’s final pass was intercepted, but Clemson (102) went 34-2 in his starts and won a national title when he was a freshman.
Clemson took a 7-0 lead on the opening drive and then went up 14-7 with Lawrence and Trevor Etienne running for scores.
From there it was all Buckeyes. Fields threw touchdown passes to tight ends Luke Farrell and Jeremy Ruckert on consecutive drives to give
Ohio State a 21-14 lead early in the second quarter.
Operating without offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, who did not make the trip while in COVID-19 protocol, the Clemson offense couldn’t respond. The Buckeyes kept rolling behind Fields, though not without a major scare.
Fields scrambled on a thirdand-long and took a hard shot to the right side from Clemson linebacker James Skalski that put the Buckeyes star into a fe
tal position before rolling over onto his back in obvious pain.
The play was reviewed for a targeting foul that resulted in Clemson’s top linebacker being ejected and a first-and-goal for the Buckeyes.
Fields came out for one play and returned to immediately throw a 9-yard TD pass to Chris Olave that made it 28-14.
“My body’s pretty beat up, but I’m happy,” Fields said. “I know I’m going to be feeling it tomorrow, but it was worth it.”