I think there’s probably something messy inside Justin Fields right now. In the middle of the second quarter of the Ohio State College Football Playoff semifinal match against Clemson, Tigers linebacker James Skalski launched at the Buckeyes quarterback with his helmet, requesting a targeting penalty and forcing Skalski to be ejected.
Have you ever watched a knockout compilation on YouTube? They are deeply disturbing as boxers with an iron chin fall to their knees because of wounds that you need an X-ray to see. That’s how Fields looked after being speared in the side with a piece of metal. And the pain clearly stayed with him. He appeared in agony while making routine moves to keep warm. He struggled to assemble an exercise bike on the sideline. He was barely able to move on the pitch, his trademark escape capability almost disappeared. “My ribs were killing me pretty much the whole game,” Fields told ESPN later. He said he needed “Multiple shots” to stay in the game.
It seemed obvious that the state of Ohio needed to play Fields. He was an easy target behind an offensive line without several players, and was facing a defense that registered the second largest number of sacks in college football. It looked like the Buckeyes could cost themselves their season – and Fields their future – by sending him staggering and making faces.
But despite the pain, Fields achieved one of the greatest passing performances in college football of all time. He did 22 from 28 to 385 yards with six touchdowns –four of which came after the coup. It looked like he could barely retreat without triggering waves of pain, but he twisted his injured body to launch a pair of touchdown passes that traveled more than 50 meters in the air:
Ohio State reached the Sugar Bowl on Friday as a seven-point underdog against Clemson. The Tigers had attended four national league games in the past five years, winning two; Ohio State has not been in a national title game since winning the inaugural playoff in 2014. Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence was coming out of a perfect game against Notre Dame, in which he scored over 400 yards in total with three touchdowns; Fields was emerging from an unstable display against Northwestern, in which he had only 12 of 27 passes. Still, thanks to Fields ‘monstrous performance and Trey Sermon’s 254-yard running back, the Buckeyes beat Clemson 49-28, the Tigers’ biggest loss since 2014. It seems possible that the state of Ohio was fueled by the decision of the coach Dabo Swinney to rank Ohio 11th in the final vote of his coaches.
Fields’ heroism is just the latest chapter in his ongoing rivalry with Lawrence. These two defenders have always been pitted against each other, and always will be. It was Lawrence against Fields in 2018, when the scouts couldn’t agree on who was the best high school recruit in the country. (The 247Sports composite ratings, which compile a variety of recruiting service scores into a single rating, gave Lawrence a rating of 0.9999 and Fields a rating of 0.9999.) It will be Lawrence against Fields in April, when the two must compete to be the first choice in the NFL draft. (Lawrence seems virtually certain to go to No. 1.) The university part of his rivalry was unbalanced for a time: Lawrence won the national title as a real freshman, while Fields fell ill on the bench in Georgia. (His tenure at Bulldogs is best remembered for a hilarious fake punt; Georgia, who ran through the defenders this season, certainly would have liked to have clung to him.) Fields was transferred to Ohio and played exceptionally, but launched an interception rare and critical late in last season’s semifinal against Clemson.
But Fields probably just ended Lawrence’s college career with an impressive explosion. Entering Friday, Clemson’s defense had 13 interceptions and only 11 pass touchdowns allowed in the first 11 games of the season. So Fields split the Tigers for six touchdowns, tied for second in any bowl game. Fields had as many touchdowns as there were incompletions. The state of Ohio accumulated 639 yards of total attack, slightly more than the 631 Joe Burrow and LSU registered against Clemson in last year’s national title game. The Buckeyes averaged 8.87 yards per play, just the maximum that Clemson has ever allowed in a game under Swinney. (The state of Florida had 8.89 yards per move in a 2012 game.)
Clemson hit five times – and all five punts were followed by touchdown attempts in Ohio. At one point, the Buckeyes had five direct 75-yard touchdowns, something no other team has played in a game all season. The position of the camp did not matter; Fields yes.
Fields did not play as he normally does after the injury. He is normally a dynamic runner and had 53 yards on the ground by the time Skalski hit him. He actually lost yards the rest of the way due to bags, ending with 42 running yards. But the Fields we saw after the injury – a player able to dismantle one of the best defenses in the sport with just one facet of his game – is the most impressive version of Fields we’ve ever seen.
The Buckeyes ‘next player is Alabama, who will be Las Vegas’ favorite in the national championship game. Bama set up a season that is among the most dominant in the history of the sport. But given what Fields did on Friday, it’s clear that the Buckeyes stand a chance against anyone.
There is probably something messy inside Fields; some bone or organ may be somewhere it shouldn’t be. But there is also something inside him that allowed him to play at an impossibly high level, even while experiencing immense pain. His beautiful and horrifying performance will live forever in the college football tradition.