Clemson took out Notre Dame with relative ease in the Cotton Bowl and will play for the National Championship for the third time in the last four years.
The Cotton Bowl featured the first matchup between undefeated teams in the College Football Playoff. As many expected, Notre Dame wasn’t much a match for a Playoff-experienced Clemson team, getting beat in every facet of the game. Clemson won 30-3 and put the game away with 20 second-quarter points to end any hopes for the Fighting Irish faithful.
3: Notre Dame lost the turnover battle
Clemson was clearly the more talented team coming into this game, and to beat them, Notre Dame had to play absolutely sound. A fumble early only cost the Irish three points, but a second-half interception led to an early dagger from the Tigers. When the run game was taken away, Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book tried to make things happen himself, leading to that interception.
Though Notre Dame only finished with two turnovers, the ball hit the turf many more times that were recovered by the Irish. A costly, senseless roughing the passer penalty lead to a spectacular catch by Tee Higgins and a 23-3 halftime deficit. In a game that Notre Dame had to be fundamentally perfect, they failed and ended up on the receiving end of a rout.
2: The freshman feasts
Coming into this game, Notre Dame was allowing 198 passing yards per game and ranked 20th in total defense. Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence seemed not to notice, carving the Notre Dame secondary for 264 yards and three scores in the first half. Repeatedly, Lawrence found receivers and torched every defender, including All-American cornerback Julian Love and 2018 standout safety Alohi Gilman.
Dabo Swinney drew up a game plan meant to torch the Fighting Irish’s Cover-2-heavy defense. Deep overs, drag routes, and post combos gave Lawrence easy throws with wide open targets on multiple occasions. The freshman phenom showed great decision-making and a very talented arm that he was praised for coming out of high school. The bottom line: Lawrence is going to be very good for a long time. He finished with 327 yards and three touchdowns.
1: No Dexter Lawrence, no problem
All-ACC defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence was suspended after testing positive for banned substance, ostarine. His absence was thought to cause issues for Clemson and give Notre Dame some running room. Instead, reserve defensive tackle Albert Huggins stepped in and played lights-out. Notre Dame was held to a paltry 2.5 yards per carry, despite running back Dexter Williams averaging over 117 yards per game in eight games.
The pass rush was seemingly unaffected, too. Book was under duress all game long with Tigers defensive end Austin Bryant being a frequent face in the backfield. Book finished with 160 yards and one interception, breaking his streak of games with at least two touchdowns. The depth of Clemson’s defense took Notre Dame out of the game right away.