GOOD:
1. Someone, right now, is using that game film and basing an entire 'OL Cohesion and Effective Blitz Pickup' coaching clinic on it. Shoutout to the big hogs, but especially shoutout to Kyren for not just being able, but being WILLING to stick his nose in there and stone some fools. He's a treat to watch when works in cohesion with the OL, and it's a joy to see the OL pass off a rusher to Kyren with no hesitation and no issue.
2. RESPONDING TO ADVERSITY FOR THE WIN. I thought the game was over in Clemson's favor at several points, but especially when they picked up the PI flag when Dabo got to plead his case right in the ears of the refs as they huddled. Instead of hanging heads and letting Clemson lean on them to run out the clock, the defense did what a Clark Lea defense does, and then Ian Book and Avery Davis dropped their giant brass balls all over Dabo's forehead on the way to overtime. Thank god those dudes respond better than fans do lol.
3. Wanted to avoid calling out all the players individually that everyone already noted... but fuck that, shoutout to Kurt Hinish. The guy played his ass off and wrecked Clemson's inside run game all night. He was disrupting the timing, and the linebackers were taking advantage. Shoutout to Shayne Simon, too... that's a game where the light turns on for a BUCK right there.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
1. Tommy and BK abandoning the run game through basically the whole fourth quarter, and almost blowing the end-of-regulation, goal-to-go opportunity by electing the pass the ball three times from the 5-yard line instead of going downhill. Honestly, even with the redzone issues and miscues, the end of the game didn't need to be THAT stressful. I think if Tommy and BK get a little stubborn and have Kyren continuing to run downhill early in the fourth, Clemson's defense wears down sooner than they did in OT, and the ND D gets their wind back and makes an extra play or two, erasing the need for OT.
2. Redzone execution... They need to be stubborn in their insistence to attack downhill inside the 10, but they also need to clone that play-action pass that Clemson used to their TE, and come up with some other variations, as well. With how much other teams respect the run game, you HAVE to have some answers to make things easier on yourself at some point. You can't always rely on Ian to make a gorgeous throw into a tight window while falling away from pressure when you get yourself into 3rd-and-goal and decide to use a spread formation (but it's pretty fucking sweet when it works out and sends you to OT against the #1 team in the country, I must admit).
3. Honestly surprised Clemson kept trying to run on early downs instead of taking a couple more shots down field. ND was playing aggressive to try and speed DJ U up, and could have cost them a few times had Clemson used their play-action/RPO looks more often.
