Clemson Wins The ACC Championship By Dominating Notre Dame

Notre Dame had its chances early, but after some early success for ND the Clemson Tigers steamrolled the Irish en route to a 34-3 victory. Clemson got redemption after its double overtime loss to Notre Dame back in November.

This time the Tigers would leave no doubt.

The Irish kicked the scoring off on a 51-yard field goal as Notre Dame took its opening drive into Clemson territory. A Drew White interception of Trevor Lawrence on Clemson's first series built on Notre Dame's early momentum.

Notre Dame responded by driving the ball all the way to the Tiger 6-yard line, but the red zone problems that plagued the offense all season popped up again, as quarterback Ian Book failed to hit an open receiver and a 24-yard field goal by Jonathan Doerer bounced off the uprights.

On Clemson's next possession, Lawrence hit wideout Amari Rodgers on a post route for a 67-yard touchdown to put the Tigers ahead. Rodgers beat Irish safety Shaun Crawford on the play, and it wouldn't be the last time they went back to that matchup.

Notre Dame got back into Clemson territory for a third straight series, but Book was off target on a fourth-down throw and the Irish gave the ball back to the Tigers. Lawrence answered quickly, hitting freshman receiver EJ Williams over the middle for a 33-yard catch-and-run score.

The Tigers seemed poised to take a 17-3 lead into halftime, but running back Travis Etienne raced 44 yards for a score with just :21 seconds left to put Clemson up 24-3. Etienne was held to just 28 yards in the first matchup between the two teams, but he found a lot more success in this game, rushing for 124 yards on just 10 carries.

The game would not be competitive from that point on, as Lawrence continued to shred the Irish defense. Notre Dame's offense was completely shut down, as quarterback Ian Book never found his rhythm, and the vaunted Irish offensive line struggled to open up holes in the run game or to protect Book.

Lawrence missed the first matchup between the two teams, and his impact in this game was enormous. He threw for 322 yards (25-36) and two scores and added 90 yards and another score on the ground.

Clemson out-gained Notre Dame 541-263.

The Irish run defense, which had been outstanding all season, allowed 216 yards on the ground, marking the first time since the first two games of the 2019 season that Notre Dame gave up 200+ rushing yards in back-to-back games.

Clemson has secured its spot in the College Football Playoff with the win, and now Notre Dame will now have to wait until tomorrow to see if it also gets in.

To comment below be sure to sign up for a FREE Disqus account, which you can get HERE.

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter