Watson, defense lead Clemson to 37-17 win over Oklahoma

Last month Teasdall was publicly berated by coach Dabo Swinney on the sideline when he attempted a fake punt without telling the coaches against North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game. Defensively [we] missed tackles, but give them credit for making us miss tackles. “Now here we are, seven hours away”.

Now, he’s going against the greatest coach of this generation. “We’re going to go blow the doors down”.

The Ohio State football team was supposed to ring in the new year as the prime-time headliner of the College Football Playoff, not a 1 p.m. undercard.

The Sooner contingent, about 20 percent of Sun Life Stadium, went bananas.

In a game that was billed as a matchup of two explosive offenses, Clemson star quarterback Deshaun Watson did his part, passing for 187 yards and a touchdown and adding 145 yards and another score on the ground.

The Orange Bowl certainly was special for Gallman, who led all rushers with 150 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdowns.

Mayfield threw two interceptions and wasn’t as effective as a scrambler as he usually is.

Deshaun Watson turned in a stellar two-way performance, running for one touchdown, passing for another and accounting for 332 yards to lead top-ranked Clemson to a 37-17 victory over No. 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl on Thursday.

The Tigers are headed to the national championship game.

If the Tigers can claim their first title in 34 years, there’s no telling how long the team and fans will celebrate.

OU again reached Clemson territory and again came away with no points after a Mayfield pass was tipped by Carlos Watkins and picked off by B.J. Goodson, who juggled the interception initially but eventually came down with it to give Clemson the ball at its 29. OU running back Samaje Perine was held to 58 yards rushing on 15 carries. Clemson’s Reader met Perine in the backfield with violent force. The Sooners managed 67 rushing yards against the Tigers. “I felt like we were a little stagnant right there, a little tight”. I just thought we lost it. We didn’t finish well. But Perine was never the same, as Oklahoma’s offense became one-dimensional, listless and, ultimately, impotent. Clemson defeated Oklahoma 37-17 to adv… He was also the Tigers’ QB two years before that here – when Clemson got throttled, 70-33, by West Virginia. “Coach Swinney wasn’t because he’s a believer and he’s the reason that we’re here. We worked that play a million times in practice”. When asked how often Clemson knew Oklahoma’s offensive play, Dodd smiled and said, “Pretty much all of them”.

Punt formation was used just 10 times by the teams combined, and two of those ended disastrously for the Sooners. Scoring grabs of 50 and 6 yards by Ridley were sandwiched around cornerback Cyrus Jones’ 57-yard, punt-return touchdown. The Sooners as a team averaged 2.0 yards per carry.

I would say their ability to run the football and our inability to run the football that they played more physical than we did.

“Every single time this year that our guys have faced any type of adversity, they’ve answered it, and that’s what championship teams have to do”, Scott said.

Clemson also sacked Mayfield five times for 41 yards, as he couldn’t handle the onus of carrying the Sooners by himself with the banged-up backfield. “Coming into this game, he hasn’t been hit that much”, Dodd said.

“You have to compliment them giving him struggles”, Stoops said. “We didn’t get the tackles and really couldn’t run the ball”.

The Sooners trailed 23-17 when they were stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Clemson 30. Now the Tigers’ revamped front will get the ultimate test as Alabama’s defensive line is considered the best in the nation and its offensive line won Joe Moore Award presented to the best unit in the country. Clemson took a 3-2 lead in the teams’ all-time series.