Trevor Lawrence film study: Clemson QB rips Notre Dame’s heart out

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence shredded the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as the Tigers won the ACC Championship.

The Clemson Tigers rolled the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the ACC Championship game this past weekend, with a 34-10 final. The game was never in doubt, and star quarterback Trevor Lawrence dominated the Irish defense — throwing for 322 yards, two touchdowns and an interception off a tipped pass.

Getting to see Lawrence face off against the Irish, then Ohio State next, and potentially Alabama again to finish his career is extremely exciting. The junior passer has continued his growth throughout his career and a lot of the good showed on a big stage this week.

Lawrence has been the star of our weekly film series. His critical junior season is almost over, but the book hasn’t been finished yet. The future No. 1 overall pick is extraordinarily talented, and we’re tracking his every throw.

His raw stats don’t matter as much as his process, which we’ll track by counting catchable passes and situational effectiveness. I’ve tracked over 70 individuals’ seasons since 2012, and Lawrence’s data already compares to some of the best prospects we’ve seen in that timeframe. We’ll dissect his stat line as usual.

What made Trevor Lawrence so unstoppable against Notre Dame?

Sometimes the numbers don’t accurately reflect the impact or quality of play of an individual. But this week did, and his impact on the ground was as large as his passing ability. This was a game where Lawrence was clearly head and shoulders above anyone on the defense.

Lawrence has always had the physical traits to accomplish whatever he wants on the field. He utilized his full arsenal in this week, locking in when it mattered most. His deep passing touch and aggressiveness were perfect to keep the defense honest but also to create chunk plays.

Hitting an open man with touch while pressure is closing in isn’t the hardest play ever but he maximized his receiver’s ability to continue the play with his accuracy. A lot of good prospects fail to do that as well as Lawrence has this year in particular. He’s reaching a mastery of the skill, and doing this at a high level beyond 15 yards will instantly help either Jacksonville or the New York Jets next year.

The play above sealed the game for Clemson midway through the third quarter. Again, this play is about maximizing what’s there even if you know there’s probable pain coming and the placement is the difference in an incompletion, large gain, or blown opportunity. Lawrence drifts to buy time for his emerging receiver on the deep cross and delivers a soft pass into his arms for a big gain.

It’s easy to point to this play as an easy throw because the receiver is open, but any defender would’ve needed to be running right with the receiver in his hip pocket to even have a chance at it. It’s that well thrown, and Lawrence knew he had the matchup to win if he could wait for his receiver to clear the middle of the field.

Overall, Lawrence was accurate on 6-of-10 passes beyond 10 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. Seven of those attempts came under pressure and he threw a catchable ball on four of those. That’s not perfect but he kept the offense moving as he shouldered a big load.

He also demonstrated great pocket awareness on more than one occasion. Lawrence likes to hold the ball a little long sometimes and bite off too much, but he sure knew the situation and saw an opening if he could just extend the play a little bit. His second touchdown was almost a mirror of what we see Patrick Mahomes do weekly.

He stepped up into the open space of the pocket and forwent a running lane for a pass over the middle. His receiver glided into the end zone with a clear path and the Tigers never looked back.

There are some small things we can also criticize. Lawrence was inaccurate on 4-of-14 passes under 10 yards, and only attempted three passes beyond the markers on eight attempts on third downs. Those are efficiency issues caused by a rushed process and discomfort against the rush.

His eyes betrayed him a little bit against a better defense. The first drive had an interception off a batted ball because he stared his target down. He has only four tipped passes on the season though, which is a huge improvement from his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Some of this is great tendency reading by the defender to see the quick throw being the play. Clemson often uses this strategy and Lawrence can’t avoid it sometimes due to the design. It’s an inherent risk to the play.

But Lawrence also missed a touchdown opportunity late in the third quarter on third down. He didn’t bother looking at the speedy release into space that the inner-most slot receiver was able to get, and instead forced the pass to the outside receiver. His receiver lazily ran the route and Lawrence couldn’t stick the pass to the front side of his ribs, instead throwing behind and late.

The result is an easy pass deflection and forced field goal. This is unusual to see but he can lock on a little too often. Quickly dumping it into space or waiting for the inside slot man to sprint past the referee in the middle of the field would’ve sprung a touchdown.

The little details were solid for Lawrence this week but not perfect. Ohio State’s speedy secondary hasn’t be great in limited games this year but they’re tough and can close windows in a hurry. Lawrence must prove his pre-snap ability is elite, and post-snap intuition is on-point to further drive in that he’s a rare prospect.