Justin Fields’ Dominate Performance against Clemson On A Global Stage, gives the Jets, and the entire NFL a lot to think about before draft
The NFL will nod its head and fully understand, and remember Justin Fields more for how he met the moment and stared down Lawrence and led Ohio State to a 49-28 Sugar Bowl demolition of Clemson in New Orleans and a national championship date for the Championship.
Justin Fields threw six touchdown passes to outshine Trevor Lawrence and No. 3 Ohio State avenged last season’s painful College Football Playoff loss to Clemson with a 49-28 victory in the Sugar Bowl semifinal Friday night.
All Fields did (22-for-28, 385 yards) was laugh off the pain and throw six touchdown passes. Bombs away. Accuracy and leadership and a will to win at its finest.
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.
In a matchup of quarterback prodigies from Georgia, Fields might have given the Jacksonville Jaguars something to think about what do to with that first pick in the NFL draft. Lawrence is the presumptive No. 1, but Fields outplayed him on this night, going 22 for 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 the side that forced him to miss a play and spend time in the medical tent.
Lawrence was 33 for 48 for 400 yards and three total touchdowns in what is expected to be the junior’s final college game. His final pass was intercepted, but Clemson (10-2) went 34-2 in his starts and won a national title when he was a freshman.
The third meeting between Clemson and Ohio State in the playoff, and fourth bowl matchup since the 2013 season, was a game the Buckeyes had been pointing toward ever since a 29-23 loss to Tigers in the Fiesta Bowl last year.
That score was everywhere the Buckeyes turned in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus this year.
A chance for revenge was nearly derailed when the Big Ten cancelled fall football in August because of the pandemic. An abbreviated Big Ten season caused more headaches, with the Buckeyes having three games cancelled because of COVID-19 issues, including their own outbreak.
The playoff committee still liked Ohio State enough to put the Buckeyes in the final four, despite much griping from various parts of the country, including Clemson.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day talked all week about what a great story it would be for the Buckeyes to survive this rollercoaster of a season and still reach their goal.
Clemson took a 7-0 lead on the opening drive and then went up 14-7 with Lawrence and 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 co-ordinator Tony Elliott, who did not make the trip while in COVID-19 protocols, the Clemson offence couldn’t respond. The Buckeyes kept rolling behind Field, though not without a major scare.
Field scrambled on a third-and-long and took a hard shot to the right side from Clemson linebacker James Skalski that put the Buckeyes star into a fetal 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 touchdown pass to Chris Olave that made it 28-14.
Fields went to the injury tent with Ohio State athletic trainers on Clemson’s next possession, which didn’t last long.
Fields was right back out there on the Buckeyes next drive. He took another hit on a scramble and slowly got up. After each play he moved gingerly, but with Trey Sermon running hard and the Buckeyes providing good protection, Fields continued to carve up the Tigers.
He hit Ruckert for a 12-yard score with 11 seconds left in the half.
A year after blowing 16-0 first-half lead in last year’s excruciating semifinal loss to Clemson, the Buckeyes handed the Tigers their largest halftime deficit (21) since the 2012 Orange Bowl against West Virginia (29 points).
The second half started with Clemson looking like it might have another comeback in it. Fields was intercepted in the Tigers’ end zone and Lawrence came back with an 80-yard touchdown drive to cut it to 35-21.
Nervous time for the Buckeyes? Not for long. Fields threw a perfectly placed bomb to Olave for a 56-yard touchdown pass that made it 42-21 with 4:55 left in the third quarter.
And if there was any doubt, Fields threw another rain-making TD pass to Jameson Williams that officially went into the books as a 46-yarder, but travelled over 50 in the air.
THE TAKEAWAY
Ohio State: Sermon followed up his school-record 331-yard rushing Big Ten championship game with 193 on he ground and another 61 receiving. The Oklahoma transfer is having late-season breakout similar to Ezekiel Elliott’s in 2014.
Clemson: Coach Dabo Swinney complained Ohio State’s six-game schedule was too short to warrant a playoff spot and might even give the Buckeyes an unfair advantage. Yes, he said the Buckeyes were good enough to beat the Tigers, but he placed Ohio State 11th on his coaches’ poll ballot just the same. It was nothing personal, Swinney said, but the Buckeyes sure looked as if they took it that way, beating Clemson for the first time in five bowl meetings.
MISSING
The Buckeyes were without second-leading rusher Master Teague, starting guard Harry Miller and two defensive ends in Tyler Friday and Zach Harrison. Ohio State did not give details of their absences but all four had played in the Big Ten championship two weeks ago.
NEXT
Ohio State: The Buckeyes will make their second appearance in the College Football Playoff national championship game. They beat Oregon to win the 2014 title.
Clemson: The Tigers open next season with a doozy of a nonconference game against Georgia in Charlotte.
WHO IS JUSTIN FIELDS
Justin Skyler Field is an American football quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes . Fields began his career with Georgia in 2018 before transferring to Ohio State in 2019. At Ohio State, he won several Big Ten Conference awards and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2019.
Fields attended Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. In two years as the starting quarterback for Harrison, he totaled 4,187 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns, 2,096 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns. In the summer before his senior year in 2017, he attended the Elite 11 quarterback competition and was named MVP of the event. Late in his senior year, in a game that was nationally televised on ESPN, he suffered a broken finger that required season ending surgery. After his senior season, he was named Mr. Georgia Football by the Touchdown Club of Atlanta, as well as first-team all-state. In addition to football, Fields was also a standout baseball player for Harrison High.
Fields was rated as a five-star recruit and was the highest rated dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2018 by ESPN, Rivals.com, and 247Sports.com. ESPN listed him as the top recruit overall. He was the second highest rated recruit overall in the 247Sports Composite, which aggregates the ratings of the major recruiting services.
On October 6, 2017, Fields committed to the University of Georgia to play college football after withdrawing a previous commitment to Penn State.
His senior year was documented in the Netflix series QB1: Beyond the Lights, created by Peter Berg. Iowa State commit Re-al Mitchell (who later transferred to Temple) and Wake Forest commit Sam Hartman were also featured during the season.
