An awesome crowd and atmosphere at DKR on Saturday saw No. 3 Texas football (12-2, 7-1 SEC) defeat the No. 16 Clemson Tigers (10-4, 7-1 ACC) by two scores in the first-ever College Football Playoff game in Austin. Despite Clemson hanging around late in this game, Texas was able to keep its foot on the gas with an overpowering and explosive rushing attack to wear down the Tiger defense down the stretch in the second half.
Texas football shows its title chops in double-digit first-round Playoff win over Clemson
Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik had a great game for the Tigers offense, throwing for over 300 yards against a stout Texas pass defense for the first time in the 2024 season. But Texas's ground game was able to chew up enough clean, and the Longhorns' defense evened up the turnover battle with Clemson to come out with the double-digit victory when the clock showed zeroes in the fourth quarter.
Texas will face the four-seed Arizona State Sun Devils (11-2, 7-2 Big 12) in the second round of the College Football Playoff in the Peach Bowl on New Year's Day. The Longhorns are also now the betting odds favorite to win the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Here are three big overreactions following the Longhorns' first-round Playoff win over Clemson on Dec. 21.
Quinn Ewers played a nearly flawless game
The offensive game plan and script were executed pretty seamlessly from the outset of this game by Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns. Texas kept the offense balanced and efficient from their opening drive in the first quarter, responding to Clemson's first-drive touchdown with a touchdown of their own from running back Quintrevion Wisner from a few yards out into the end zone.
Ewers made the big throws when he needed to, and managed the game-plan to near perfection through the first half. The one interception Ewers tossed in the first half was not really his fault, with the on-target pass bouncing off wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr.'s hands and right into the arms of a Clemson defensive back.
One of the particularly impressive parts about this performance for Ewers was his ability to hit the deep ball. In the past couple of weeks, Ewers' deep ball has looked better as he's gotten healthier this season. Since the SEC Championship Game against Georgia, Ewers has completed 4-of-7 deep passing attempts for 144 yards, one passing touchdown, and no interceptions.
The one big mistake I saw from Ewers in this game against Clemson was the missed fourth-down throw to junior wide receiver Matthew Golden where he threw the ball behind the receiver, resulting in an incompletion and a turnover on downs.
This was one of the cleanest performances and healthiest-looking games from Ewers we've seen in the latter part of the season this fall against Clemson.