Fiesta Bowl win a throwback moment for Clemson on the CFP semifinals big stage
For more than a quarter, it looked as if No. 2 Ohio State might just push No. 3 Clemson around in the Fiesta Bowl. The Buckeyes moved the ball, they scored four times (including three field goals) and had the Tigers off kilter.
And in some ways, this year’s College Football Playoff semifinal — one that Clemson won 29-23 — hearkened back to the moment Dabo Swinney’s program truly broke through.
The 2016 season’s national championship game found its way into college football lore for the ending, Clemson erasing a double-digit deficit, three lead changes in the final five minutes and Hunter Renfrow’s iconic catch. But the first half was more on the grinding side, and Clemson spent much of it looking up at the Crimson Tide.
The Tigers didn’t lead for the first 55 minutes and were down by double digits for several stretches. That was back in the era when Alabama still had that aura that it would go ahead, not give up much on offense and just pound teams to death.
The understated thing about that game was the fact Clemson stood up to that aura, seemed unfazed by it. The offense clicked, it answered and answered, and showed a certain kind of mettle in the face of adversity.
There hasn’t been much adversity this season for Clemson. There hasn’t been a ton of drama in every Tigers’ playoff game since then, at least until the early going Saturday. Last year featured two blowouts, while 2017 saw the Clemson offense just not good enough to really pressure ‘Bama.
And that brought things to Arizona on Saturday. Ohio State did enough to keep the game within range for Clemson. (Two drops likely took eight points off the board, though Clemson also missed a field goal.)
Clemson had not played all that well but was only down 16 in the second quarter. At one point, it had been outgained by nearly 4 yards per play. Then it called back to that 2016 team’s spirit. The Tigers piled up stops, broke through with big plays and took advantage of miscues (two of the first three touchdown drives featured drives extended by OSU penalties).
Four early scores were quickly wiped away, and Clemson rode through most of the second half with the lead. But it needed a magical 96-yard drive and two-point conversion in the final minutes to put Ohio State away and book a spot in the national title game against LSU.
And by the end, Clemson, now riding a 29-game winning streak, seemed to be playing the role of those old Alabama teams. The Tigers possessed that aura of inevitability. They were the ones that kept the Buckeyes out of sorts. They were the ones that kept striking.
A comeback turned Clemson from contender to champion, and they had to reach back, find that old tune again. And now, they’re marching on to New Orleans and the title game yet again.
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 12:06 AM.
