LSU’s offensive show vs. Clemson a historical hiccup for a Brent Venables defense
Isaiah Simmons, A.J. Terrell and K’Von Wallace, three of the most important pieces of Clemson’s back seven, walked out of the Clemson locker room together and toward the team buses at around 12:30 a.m. Louisiana time Tuesday morning.
They were exhausted and sore. Clemson left everything it had on the field, but it wasn’t enough.
The ACC Tigers’ defense played 81 snaps and allowed 628 yards of offense to in Monday night’s 42-25 loss to LSU
in the national championship game. Quarterback Joe Burrow and the LSU offense had a historic day against Brent Venables’ unit — those 628 yards were the second most a Venables defense has allowed in his 20 years as a defensive coordinator. It was the fourth most yards Clemson as a program has ever allowed in a game.
Wallace was asked if LSU’s offense was the best he had ever seen.
“Probably,” he responded. “Them receivers were awesome. They did what they could to put Burrow in the best position to win.”
Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson, LSU’s top two receivers, each finished with nine catches. Chase had 221 yards and two touchdowns on his nine receptions, while Jefferson finished with 106 yards.
Burrow connected with plenty of other targets as well and finished 31 of 49 passing for 463 yards and five touchdowns, with no interceptions. He also rushed for a score.
“They’ll make you pay if you make the smallest of errors,” Venables said. “I thought they made some competitive plays. We were in tight coverage and they made some plays in tight windows and that’s what they’ve done all year.”
Clemson’s secondary had been the strength of its defense prior to Monday night.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called this back seven the best of his career in the preseason, and his team entered Monday’s matchup with the top scoring defense in the country.
But Clemson also hadn’t played an offense near as lethal as LSU’s, and it showed. LSU thought it could have success through the air, even against Clemson’s best cornerback Terrell, and it did.
Terrell was matched up with Chase in the first half and was in coverage for most of Chase’s six catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns in the opening two quarters. Even though Terrell was an All-ACC cornerback, Jefferson said LSU wanted to attack him.
“I mean, we feel like we have the best receiver corps in the nation,” Jefferson said. “We didn’t really think that they played good receiver-DB matchups all year, so we wanted to pick on him a little bit. And Ja’Marr did his thing.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
