NEW ORLEANS, La. | Last week, LSU-themed billboards appeared across New Orleans that said: "WE COMIN."
The Bayou Bengals were coming, all right. They brought their fans and their otherworldly offense to the Superdome, and it was all simply too much.
The bookies, the betting public and most of the media were right: This LSU machine was for real. That was proven in a 42-25 spanking before a bunch of purple in what felt like a home game for the team from Baton Rouge.
The 29-game winning streak is over. Clemson suffered its first loss in two years, dating back to a playoff semifinal loss to Alabama in the same building.
Clemson fans will probably wonder for a long time what might have happened had their offense been better, had Trevor Lawrence been sharper.
It could've made for the epic, down-to-the-wire thriller that was widely anticipated. It could've pushed LSU more than it had been accustomed to being pushed.
But Clemson should know as well as anyone that big-stage football games aren't about hypotheticals. They're about who makes the plays and who doesn't, as happened out in the desert when Ohio State couldn't knock out the champs.
Clemson needed to be great on offense to have a chance. It was substantially less than that, punting the ball nine times and totaling way too many empty possessions while converting just one third down on 11 tries.
Lawrence was off for most of the night, completing 18 of 37 passes for 234 yards.
Joe Burrow was the opposite of off. He was, well, going off.
Burrow backed up the Heisman Trophy and all the acclaim lavished upon him and the rest of the offense during a dream-like, perfect storm of a 15-0 season.
He completed 31 of 49 passes for 463 yards and five touchdowns, managing the offense like a pro and placing the ball exactly where it needed to be while also running it exactly when he needed to.
LSU totaled 628 yards and was 4 yards from putting 48 on the board before deciding to run the clock out.
"Their offense is really special," Lawrence said. "Joe had a great year. He deserved it, and that team deserved it. They worked hard, and they were the better team tonight."
As decisive as the final score will always appear, Clemson had its chances to steer the game on a different course.
Brent Venables' defense stoned LSU on its first three drives of the game, and Clemson took a 7-0 lead on a five play, 67-yard drive. And Clemson was later up 17-7 after a four-play, 96-yard drive that made you think this offense was going to run LSU out of the building.
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But LSU's offense wasn't going to stay down for long. And just as Ohio State walked away from the first half of the Fiesta Bowl gnashing its teeth for not dropping the hammer, Clemson had some big missed opportunities of its own in the first 30 minutes Monday night.
On the very first drive, Lawrence hit Justyn Ross on a deep ball and then Travis Etienne for 19 yards. Clemson moved it to LSU's 24-yard line but lost a yard on a Lyn-J Dixon run and then Lawrence was sacked for a loss of 10 to bring on the punting unit.
Early in the second quarter, Clemson had it at LSU's 35-yard line but settled for a 52-yard field goal attempt that B.T. Potter nailed to put Clemson up 10-7.
After LSU cut Clemson's lead to 17-14, it looked as if Clemson was answering as a first-down run by Etienne and a personal-foul penalty on Grant Delpit moved the ball into LSU territory.
On first down, Lawrence had Amari Rodgers wide open over the middle. Hit him with the throw, and maybe Rodgers scores. The throw sailed high and Rodgers got lit up by JaCoby Stevens.
On third-and-10, Lawrence threw wide of Tee Higgins and Clemson punted.
"I felt like we had one of the best plans we had all year," Lawrence said. "I just didn't have a good night."
LSU piled up 269 yards in the second quarter. Clemson came in allowing 264 yards a game. But even after LSU went 95 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown to make it 28-17 at the half, made everyone think Clemson was on the verge of being blown out just like most of LSU's previous opposition had been blown out, Clemson forced three-and-outs on LSU's first two possessions. It trimmed the margin to 28-25 on a six-play, 50-yard touchdown drive and two-point conversion pass from Lawrence to Rodgers.
But that was it for Clemson's offense. The next four drives produced a total of 32 yards and four punts. Lawrence simply wasn't himself, missing receivers at a frequency that was previously unheard of.
After Clemson made it 28-25, everything seemed to be going in its favor. It was pressuring Burrow, and Nolan Turner came agonizingly close to an interception that he might've taken all the way back.
An LSU punt still gave Clemson the ball with a chance to take back the lead. Clemson got a first down, but on third-and-7 from his own 32 Lawrence threw high for Higgins on a crosser. The ball was tipped and LSU came close to an interception of its own.
This was the inverse of a year ago in California, when Lawrence couldn't miss.
Turns out the kid is human after all.
"I was just off a little bit, especially in the second half," the sophomore said after suffering his first collegiate loss. "I missed a lot of throws and didn't really give us a chance to get back in the game. We were in it and got the ball back down three but I just missed a lot of throws."
On the other side of the ball, Clemson's defense faced the very weird feeling of knowing it made life hard on Burrow but also knowing that Burrow engineered a 628-yard evening for LSU's offense.
LSU had a season-high seven punts. Clemson sacked Burrow five times. There were times you wondered if Burrow might be getting flustered by all the pressures Venables had more than two weeks to cook up. There was a time you wondered if the Heisman winner was hurt after the hit he took from James Skalski on his touchdown throw to Thaddeus Moss near the end of the first half.
But in the end, Burrow and LSU did what they've always done this season. They went up and down the field and made you wonder if this was the best offense anyone in college football has ever seen. They kept coming.
Ja'Marr Chase had 221 yards and two touchdowns on nine catches and dropped a deep touchdown pass in the third quarter. Justin Jefferson totaled 106 yards on nine catches, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire twisted and bulled his way to 110 yards rushing and 54 yards receiving on five catches.
Clemson's cast of offensive stars, who sliced through Alabama's defense so effortlessly last year, found a much different experience this time. Etienne rushed for 78 yards on 15 carries and caught five passes for 36 yards. Ross had five catches for 76 yards, and Higgins produced three catches for 52 yards while running 36 yards for a touchdown on a reverse in the second quarter.
Those numbers would've been good enough to beat most teams. But LSU was not most teams.
Against this offense, you are doomed if your own offense isn't at its best. Ten failed third-down conversions were why Clemson's offense was on the field for just 65 snaps. LSU had 81 plays and scored touchdowns on all four of its red-zone trips.
And those red-zone numbers didn't include a perfect 24-yard scoring strike from Burrow to Terrace Marshall early in the fourth quarter that created the final margin.
Clemson's previous two CFP opponents, Ohio State and Alabama, scored one touchdown on seven red-zone trips.
Clemson's offense was left looking back at its inability to keep up.
"Those drives, if you don't finish them they'll kill you in the long run," Rodgers said. "With an offense like that, with Joe Burrow and the receiving corps they have, and then Clyde, if you don't capitalize in the red zone they'll bounce back and put 10 on the board like that."
The billboards were right: LSU was coming.
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