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The 11th-ranked team from Dabo Swinney’s Coaches Poll turned their squad to powder last night as Ohio State led Justin Fields and Trey Sermon to a 49-28 rout of the Clemson Tigers in a semi-final of the college football qualifiers.
With Fields clicking through all cylinders despite a major shot in the second quarter and Sermon crushing the Tigers at will, Ohio State racked up 639 yards of attack on their way to the winner’s circle.
A second quarter blast in which the Buckeyes beat Clemson 21-0 was all the cushion Ryan Day’s side would need to win a date with Alabama in the National Championship game scheduled for a week onwards. Monday in Miami.
Day and his team came up with a masterful game plan and his players certainly came motivated to give Swinney a big dose of Shut The F $ #% Up.
So let’s go, here are five things of a magical night at NOLA.
JUSTIN TIME
After a stench in the Big Ten title game that saw him make just 12 shots of 27 for 114 yards, a pick and zero touchdowns for the first time as a Buckeye, Fields came out smoking and never did. looked back against the Tigers.
Justin had 11 of his first 12 passes for 163 yards and two scores before Clemson’s James Skalski buried his helmet behind Fields’ back, earning a disqualification, while sending Fields to the medical tent in significant pain.
Fields missed just one play before coming back to roll right and hit Chris Olave for a 9-yard touchdown and a 28-14 lead with 5:12 left in the first half.
Despite such a big shot, Fields completed 11 of 16 shots for four touchdowns after play to end the night with a 22-for-28 statline for 385 yards and a Sugar Bowl record six touchdowns.
Two of those big injury strikes came via 45 yards to Jameson Williams and 56 yards to Olave.
After the lackluster performance in the Big Ten title game and after taking a monster shot from Skalski, Fields had one of the greatest performances in a single game by an Ohio State quarterback.
Hats off to him for hanging on and continuing to lead his team despite the pain.
Tight, tight, tight
Day got into his bag of stuff after what sounded like a curious call against Northwestern at the Clemson flummox. One of the ways he did this was by deploying his tight ends in the passing game during the decisive first half.
Jeremy Ruckert had three catches for 55 yards and two scores while his sidekick Luke Farrell added two catches for 11 yards and one score.
Farrell’s 8-yard laser Fields-for-six snag tied the game at 14 apiece at the end of the first quarter. Ruckert then got to work securing a 17-yard touchdown to make it 21-14 before a 12-yard connection just before the half put the Buckeyes in front 35-14.
The duo’s five catches for 66 yards and three scores compare quite favorably to the previous six games in which they had 12 catches for 86 yards and three touchdowns.
With Day using a ton of tight sets, Ruckert and Farrell also excelled in blocking for Sermon and receivers after the catch. Just a great overall performance from the two talented but often underutilized guys.
SEVEN BIGGER FRONT STANDS
Clemson was going to get his yards with Trevor Lawrence running the show, but the Ohio State defense did what it needed to do, especially in the first period. The unit’s effort paired well with the Buckeyes’ explosive offense as the team built a 35-14 halftime cushion.
Giving up just 14 points in the first half to a team averaging 45 points per upcoming game, Ohio State stopped the Tigers on the third down on four of five tries while forcing three 3-and-outs and a 4. -and-out on Clemson’s top six. half of the possessions.
Not that Clemson had a big rushed offense to start, but Ohio State shut down ground play altogether, making the Tigers one-dimensional, allowing just 44 yards on 2.0 per carry for the game. Tigres running back Travis Etienne averaged 3.2 yards on 10 attempts.
Pete Werner was all over with nine saves, Justin Hilliard made eight including a loss tackle and Tuf Borland also had eight tackles on his way to fielder of the game.
As usual, defensive tackles Haskell Garrett and Tommy Togiai (four tackles, TFL, PBU, FF) disrupted all night.
MAKE A DAY, CHRIS OLAVE
You know the story of last year. Olave had three catches for 50 yards against the Tigers before his decision to break his route led to a Fields interception extinguishing Ohio State’s chance of victory.
As the rematch approached, there was early concern if he would be able to play thanks to COVID-19 protocols. Despite the missing practice time, Olave was able to play and deliver in style, recording six catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns on eight targets.
His six catches resulted in a first try or a touchdown.
His first score came on a 9-yard loop just after Fields returned to give Ohio State a 28-14 lead.
His second touchdown came thanks to a 56-yard tie-in with Fields after Clemson reduced Buckeye’s lead to 35-21 midway through the third quarter. In the 2nd and 10th, Olave torched Derion Kendrick on a pole course to cap off a 7-game, 91-yard practice.
In six games, Olave has captured 42 for 660 yards and seven touchdowns, or 110 yards per game. All of those numbers are team highs despite the lack of the Big Ten Championship game.
TREY DOES NOT PLAY
With Fields banged up and in need of a sidekick, Trey Sermon once again answered the call with 31 carries for 193 yards and a touchdown.
Sermon racked up 10 carries at least nine yards, including a 10-yard clutch on a 3rd and 9th play on Ohio State’s last practice of the second quarter.
Leading 28-14 and looking for a split before halftime, Sermon carried it six times for 32 yards (including that 3rd and 9th getaway) and caught two balls for 13 yards, giving him 45 of 80 yards. Ohio State during the landmark march. .
In the last three games, Sermon has 636 rushing yards, good for an incredible 212 per game, on 9.1 yards per pop.
In his first four games at Ohio State, Sermon had 232 rushing yards, or 58 per game, for 5.2 yards per carry.
I’m still struggling to wrap my head around its emergence. What are the chances that he still has a magical night in his bag?
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