Three-And-Out: Three Matchups to Follow for LSU vs Clemson in National Championship Game
It's what you want out of the final game of the college football season. Two great teams featuring two future NFL quarterbacks, with explosive weapons on both sides of the field.
But with just five days until the biggest game of their lives, there are a few matchups that stand out above all the rest.
Joe Burrow vs. Trevor Lawrence
At the end of the day, these are two players that in all likelihood will be the No. 1 overall picks in their respective NFL drafts. Just leaving the numbers aside for a minute and it's pretty easy to tell Burrow and Lawrence have been two of the best at the position in 2019.
In Burrow's historic 2019 campaign that came from the shadows of an LSU offense that previously relied on its quarterbacks to be "game managers," Burrow's season has been a breath of fresh air. He brought the school its first Heisman trophy in 60 years while throwing for 5,208 yards (SEC record) and 55 touchdowns (SEC record) and is completing 77.6% of his passes (NCAA record).
Lawrence, on the other hand, didn't start out with the type of season many thought he'd have, tossing 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions in his first seven games. The measure of a great player is the ability to shrug off a disappointing start and play great down the stretch—which Lawrence has certainly done, throwing for 22 touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last seven games.
Now these two won't literally be going head-to-head, as Burrow will be dealing with the defensive mind of Brent Venables while Lawrence will prepare for a Dave Aranda led defense that allowed seven points to Texas A&M, 10 points to Georgia and a season-low 28 points to Oklahoma in its last three outings.
The gameplan for Clemson in just slowing down Burrow and the offense will likely revolve around dropping seven or maybe even eight defensive players into coverage, something Auburn did successfully and Oklahoma tried to do. Clemson will be banking on its defensive front three to apply consistent pressure on Burrow, something that teams haven't been able to do all year.
Auburn was able to slow the game down by forcing the LSU offense into third-down situations and hold it to field goals when getting in the redzone. It led to the LSU offense scoring a season-low 23 points, which has been been the blueprint for multiple defenses since.
The other half of the Clemson gameplan will likely revolve around running the football on offense, which is where Lawrence comes into play. The sophomore quarterback ran for 107 yards against Ohio State and running back Travis Etienne is just seven yards from breaking the Clemson record for career rushing yards.
As explosive as Clemson has been on offense this year (538.4 yards per game and 45.3 points per game), sacrificing a few touchdowns in the hopes of keeping the ball longer and forcing the LSU offense to watch from the sidelines might be worth it.
LSU defensively has been working with Jontre Kirklin as the the practice quarterback in preparation of Lawrence and his running ability. Linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson said Kirklin has been a vital part of the defense preparing for mobile quarterbacks all season.
"He's [Kirklin] telling me how to play and what's going to stop it. That's literally after every play," Chaisson said. "I'm grateful for it. Like I said, I don't think Trevor Lawrence in my eyes, it'll probably be different in the game, but I don't think he's a better athlete than Jontre so like I said, it's making it hard practice. He values it in practice and he's excited when he comes down to do scout team for us."
It'll be a chess match all game long and Burrow, Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady's ability to adjust in game will be the biggest factor in coming away with a win on Monday.
"We've faced something different like the last six weeks than what we've seen on film, so I have to go in and make those in-game adjustments," Burrow said before the Oklahoma game. "The first play, we'll know. Like against Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M, you go out and like, wow, I haven't seen this on film. I don't know why I watched film this week. So we'll go out and figure it out, like we always do. But it gets a little frustrating when you watch film all this time and it doesn't matter because they don't play that defense."
LSU receivers vs. Clemson secondary
The strength of the Clemson defense lies in the secondary, as its physical nature and size have helped hold opposing quarterbacks to throw for just 151 yards per game, No. 1 in the country.
You could respond with the classic strength of schedule argument, which is fair as many of the offenses Clemson faced this year weren't exactly world beaters.
But in the Fiesta Bowl, the defense forced Heisman finalist Justin Fields into his worst game of the year, throwing for 320 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. Fields had entered the game throwing just one pick all season. Some of that started with the pressure up front as Fields was sacked four times and faced pressure throughout the night, but the secondary played a role as well.
Flip it to the other side and the LSU receiving corps, led by the three-headed monster that is Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Terrace Marshall, and you've got the fixings for a great battle. If Clemson goes the Auburn and Oklahoma route, electing to only rush three players on most snaps, that means as many as eight players will drop back in coverage.
Burrow and Jefferson found a hole in the OU defense in the slot and picked the Sooners apart all night, but Clemson won't be as easy to capitalize on. Butkus award winning linebacker Isaiah Simmons is a former safety turned linebacker and has experience in covering the slot.
Simmons will likely draw the matchup of Jefferson in the slot which will make the play of Chase and Marshall on the outside and Thaddeus Moss on the inside imperative. Burrow has said multiple times this year this LSU team has five weapons that can hit you at any time and if a defense tries to cover one or two of them up, it's bound to leave one-on-one matchups elsewhere.
That will be the key for Burrow and the offense come Monday, finding the one-on-ones and exploiting them, something that has been little-to-no trouble this season.
LSU front seven vs. Clemson running attack
This is all predicated on Clemson wanting to slow the game down by running the ball down LSU's throats, but even if it ultimately doesn't, how the LSU front seven holds up against the Clemson running attack is vital.
In the two games Clemson struggled with this year, UNC and Ohio State, Etienne failed to rack up 70 yards rushing in either game, running for 67 against the Tar Heels and a season-low 36 against the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl.
However, in those games Lawrence ran the ball well, rushing for 45 yards and a touchdown against UNC and 107 yards against Ohio State. Chaisson believes if LSU can hold up in the first half and the offense can jump out to a big halftime lead, Clemson will be forced into throwing the ball more in the second half.
"I think we're a great run defense team. I feel like what we kind of take for granted is we stopped the run first half (against Bama)," Chaisson said. "We feel like if we stop the run the first half, teams will stop running the ball or not run them plays as much. That's what Bama did. They kept running their plays and we kind of started slacking off, not paying attention to the details and then he started gaining his yards. It's going to be about playing hard through all four quarters and doing your job."
LSU has been gashed on the ground before, whether it be against Ole Miss or Alabama mid-way through the season. But over the last three games, LSU has held its opponents to under 100 yards rushing. In fact A&M, Georgia and Oklahoma combined for 230 yards rushing in the three games, a 76.6 yard per game average.
