Key matchup that could decide the ACC Championship Game between Clemson and SMU

This weekend, Clemson has an opportunity to qualify for the College Football Playoff but to do that, the Tigers will have to take down No. 8 SMU in the ACC Championship Game. That's going to be a difficult challenge given how well-rounded the Mustangs are.

When the Tigers have the ball, they will want to make this a physical game to see if the high-flying Mustangs can rise to the occasion and match Clemson's physicality. And for certain, Clemson is going to try to run the football.

In fact, the matchup between the Clemson run game and the SMU run defense could be what tips the scales. That's because each of those units is the best in the ACC.

Clemson enters the game running for an average of 190.6 yards per game, the most in the conference and 28th in the nation. Of course, senior running back Phil Mafah leads that attack by averaging 89.8 yards per game on the ground. He's also found the endzone eight times with his legs.

As the fourth-leading rusher in the conference, he will be the focal point of the Tigers' attack but also the focal point of the SMU defense. And make no mistake, the Mustangs have been fantastic when it comes to stopping the run this year.

Giving up only 95.8 yards per game on the ground, SMU ranks fourth in the nation and first in the ACC in run defense. In fact, this season, only one team (Boston College) ran for more than 150 yards against them.

Now, one has to wonder if SMU's stellar run defense has been aided a bit by the type of games that the Mustangs have played this year. In eight wins this fall, SMU prevailed by double digits meaning that in most of those games, the Mustangs got out to big leads forcing the opponent to abandon the run game and turn to throwing the ball to try to catch up.

However, in a one-point win over Duke, SMU allowed only 98 yards on the ground. Similarly, in a seven-point win over Louisville, the Mustangs surrendered just 132 rushing yards.

Now, in that Louisville game, Cardinals' running back Isaac Brown did go for 117 yards on just 10 carries against the Mustang run defense. But that's the only 100-yard rusher SMU has allowed this season.

It's been a remarkable defensive turnaround in Dallas orchestrated by defensive coordinator Scott Symons. Now in his third year with SMU, his unit is giving up fewer than three yards per carry this season. Just two years ago, in his first season with the program, SMU gave up 4.9 yards per carry and had 12 opponents average over 4.0 yards per rush.

That's what makes this matchup fascinating. Clemson averaged 5.5 yards per carry this season with Mafah averaging 5.4.

Perhaps QB Cade Klubnik can be an X-factor in the ground game. He is second on the Clemson team with 437 yards on the ground. He's also second with seven rushing scores this season.

Often the QB run game is harder to stop because many of the yards a QB gains are improvised when a passing play breaks down. At other times, the designed QB run game is effective because it utilizes the running back as an extra blocker thus giving the offense an advantage.

We've seen Klubnik win games this year with his legs, most notably the Pitt game that he won with his 50-yard QB draw in the final minute. Perhaps that will be something that the Tigers try to incorporate into the game plan this weekend to solve the code that is the SMU run defense.

But however it happens, Clemson must find a way to run the ball Saturday night. That's going to be one of the keys to the game and if the Tigers can find a way to impose their will on the ground, they'll have a great opportunity to claim the victory.