Texas' fourth-down stop vs. Clemson was just more of the high quality defense seen all season
Dabo Swinney‘s decision to go for it on fourth down late in Clemson’s College Football Playoff game versus the Texas Longhorns was unquestionably the correct one. His playcall, however, had little chance of being successful.
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Facing a 4th and goal and down two scores, Clemson needed to get six points on the board instead of three and lined up on offense a yard away from the end zone. Clemson tried to succeed where many others had failed and called a play that appeared to have a few different options available to Cade Klubnik based on what the defense showed. But when the defense wins a number of one-on-one battles like the Longhorns did Saturday night, no option is the right one.
“But at the end of the day when our backs were against the wall, what a stand from our one-yard line to get that stop,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said.
Bill Norton and Barryn Sorrell were credited with the stop of Keith Adams Jr. behind the line of scrimmage. They won battles where they were well-positioned to succeed while their Clemson counterparts were not.
Sorrell, just like Ethan Burke versus Texas A&M, appears to fire into the backfield unblocked. But he’s not actually unblocked, he simply gets off the line so quickly that Olson Patt-Henry, a tight end lined up in the backfield, can’t get to No. 88 on time.
There are more matchup advantages to be found for Texas. The Tigers line up another tight end, Banks Pope, against defensive tackle Jermayne Lole. The 50-plus pounds of difference in size is quickly made evident.
Norton is the player who stuffs the hole Adams Jr. tries to run through. No. 15 simply wins a one-on-one battle against Walker Parks. David Gbenda is there in case he is needed. Malik Muhammad and Michael Taaffe handle the two pass options. All this leads to Clemson going nowhere, and the Longhorns getting the ball back with 7:24 up 38-24.
Texas players have often mentioned how much the team emphasizes red zone defense via a “red zone lockout” drill in practice. For the Longhorns, this was just taking Monday to Friday work to the stage on Saturday.
“The team might be able to drive down the field and we can’t control where we are, but we’re not letting anybody get in the paint,” Sorrell said. “That’s the mentality that we have on this defense, especially on this defensive line.”
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Texas ranks No. 6 in the nation in red zone defense. Teams have scored 22 times in 31 attempts against the Longhorns. Fourteen of those scores have been touchdowns, a total two behind Ohio State’s national-best mark of 12 red zone touchdowns allowed. Teams have failed to score against Texas in the red zone all year, and that persisted to Saturday.
In the game, the stop was monumental.
“For us to get that stop, to hold it to a two-score game was huge,” defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski said. “For the offense to be able to get the ball, take some time off the clock, and when we did go back on the field being up by two scores, it totally changes how you call a game knowing that they had to push the ball down the field to score quick.”
Texas ate up almost six minutes of the 7:24 remaining on the clock. When Clemson got the ball back with 1:43 remaining, the Tigers faced yet another fourth down opportunity when most of the their hope was lost.
Taaffe broke up the last pass from Klubnik to seal Texas’ victory and place the Longhorns in the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff.
The Longhorn defense has been a strength all season. Clemson put up yardage, posting 412 yards against Kwiatkowski’s side of the ball. No other team has put up 400 or more this year, and Taaffe himself explained after the game that the Tigers’ effort exposed some issues in the Texas defense.
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But at the key moment, Texas bowed up on fourth down and made a critical stop just as it has all year.
