RAPID REVIEW: Clemson 34, Notre Dame 10
If a Notre Dame follower didn’t know better, he would have thought he had entered a time machine back to December 2018 when Clemson defeated the Fighting Irish 30-3 in the College Football Playoff.
Twenty-four months later, it almost was a carbon copy.
After a promising early start, No. 2 Notre Dame (10-1) was overwhelmed 34-10 by No. 3 Clemson (10-1) in the ACC Championship at Charlotte, N.C. While the Tigers likely clinched the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff that will be announced tomorrow shortly after 12 p.m., the Fighting Irish must wait to see if they will earn a bid to the four-team tournament.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, unavailable to play in this year's Nov. 7 meeting between the two teams won 47-40 in double-overtime by Notre Dame, was the dominant figure while leading a balanced offense. He completed 25 of 36 passes for 322 yards with two touchdowns, but also carried 14 times for 90 yards, highlighted by a 34-yard score.
Furthermore, his presence as a threat with the read option created far more gaps for running back Travis Etienne. In the first meeting with the Irish the all-time leading rusher in the ACC had just 28 yards on 18 carries. This time his 10 attempts netted 124, notably a 44-yard tally right before halftime.
Notre Dame was out-gained 541-263 in total yards, and managed only 143 yards over the final three quarters.
TOP THREE STORYLINES
• Notre Dame took a 3-0 lead on its initial possession and controlled the ball 11:03 in the first quarter while racking up 120 yards of total offense.
Thereafter the Tigers defense dominated with pressure while bottling up fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book, providing blanket coverage downfield and not letting the Notre Dame rushing attack get untracked. The Irish totaled only 49 yards of total offense in the second quarter and 21 in the third, at which point Clemson ran away with the contest.
• As noted, the first half was almost identical to the 2018 College Football Playoff. That game was relatively even through one quarter before a Clemson blitzkrieg in the second quarter resulted in three touchdowns and a 24-3 halftime lead — the last touchdown coming on 19-yard pass with two seconds left until the break.
This time, the Irish were up 3-0 before the Tigers dominated the second quarter and took a 24-3 lead at the intermission again — with a 44-yard touchdown run by Etienne on fourth-and-one with 21 seconds remaining being the backbreaker.
• Notre Dame’s defense came out much more stout in the second half and hung in, but Lawrence's 34-yard touchdown on a quarterback counter with 3:43 remaining in the third quarter made it 31-3 and a final exclamation point.
Notre Dame freshman running back Chris Tyree’s 21-yard touchdown run with 8:09 left in the contest was the game’s final tally.
TURNING POINT
Notre Dame controlled the initial 13 minutes with a 3-0 lead and then drove to first-and-goal to the Clemson 10-yard line on a 24-yard burst by sophomore running back Kyren Williams. Two runs netted only four yards, and then Book had to throw the ball away under duress on third-and-six.
Senior kicker Jonathan Doerer, who earlier converted from 51 yards, then shanked the 24-yard field goal attempt to his right. Three plays later, Lawrence found wideout Amari Rodgers open deep on a 67-yard touchdown with 41 seconds left in the quarter — and the floodgates opened thereafter.
Within a minute this sequence went from a potential 10-0 Irish advantage (or even 6-0) to a 7-3 deficit, and Notre Dame never recovered.
STATS OF THE GAME
There are three to highlight:
• In the first meeting, the Irish out-rushed Clemson 208-34, a 174-yard advantage. This time Clemson dominated that department with a 219-44 result, a 175-yard disparity.
• As an offshoot of that rushing dominance, whereas Book drove the Tigers batty with his elusiveness and 67 rushing yards in the first meeting, this time he was sacked six times and finished with minus-35 yards.
• On Nov. 7, Notre Dame was 10 of 19 on third-down conversions (52.6 percent) while Clemson was 5 of 14 (26.7 percent).
This time the Tigers were 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) and the Irish 3 of 12 (25.0 percent).
GAME BALL
On an otherwise dismal afternoon, Notre Dame’s tight ends remained active as blockers and receivers — especially because none of the wide receivers were able to find much downfield or even with the intermediate routes.
Freshman Michael Mayer nabbed a team-high five passes for 51 yards while junior Tommy Tremble had two for 41 yards, a combined seven for 92 yards.
HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE
This was the fourth time since the start of the Associated Press poll in 1936 that two teams met the same season while ranked in the top four both times.
On each occasion, the team that lost the first meeting won the second by at least 21 points. The previous two resulted in national titles for Alabama in 2011 (versus LSU) and Florida in 1996 (versus Florida State).
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