Clemson football: Tigers played their best game all season Saturday night

The Clemson football run game was the difference Saturday against Notre Dame.

As good as the Clemson football offense has been at times this year, they still seemed off. It is hard to say that when your team is averaging more than 40 points per game, but they never felt comfortable and a lot of that was upfront.

However, it was deeper than that. Trevor Lawrence looked a lot different Saturday night than he had all season when it came to the RPO’s that Tony Elliott loves to run.

Coming into the 2020 ACC Championship game, Trevor Lawrence had accounted for just 121 yards on the ground – a far cry from 563 yards he had in 2019. However, Saturday night, he kept the ball more often than he had all year and made Notre Dame pay dearly for it as he racked up 90 yards and one touchdown on just 14 carries.

Clemson football is unbeatable when they execute.

Not only did Trevor’s feet allow him to pick up yards but it also opened up the run game for senior running back Travis Etienne who had 10 carries for 124 yards and one touchdown. It was the first time that Travis ran for at least 100 yards in a game since his 149 yard performance against Miami way back in October.

When Lawrence is operating the RPO’s the way he did tonight, the Clemson football offense is unbeatable. Not only does it open up the running lanes, but it also forces the secondary to peek into the backfield more often than they should which opens up the passing game.

Defenses are forced to cover from sideline to sideline for 60 minutes and no one can do it.

If offensive coordinator Tony Elliott can stay as consistent as he was Saturday night and the offensive line can get off the ball as they did against the Irish, Clemson football will be hard to beat no matter who they face off against in the College Football Playoff.

Trevor Lawrence said after the game that it matters who is playing the best at the end of the year and if Saturday was any inclination of what we can expect from Clemson football in the College Football Playoff – Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, Texas A&M, or Notre Dame are all in trouble.