My list:
• The calls that went against us last year went for us this year. They got the targeting. SEC refs would have given TL possession on the fumble, given the clemson receiver a TD on the interception on top of whatever other bs calls they could manage against us. In all seriousness I felt the Big 12 crew did well except when they started ref'ing the score with some tick tacky calls near the end that put clemson in scoring range.
• Very few miscues and stupid penalties that seem to often plague us in key situations. Instead it was them jumping on 4th and 2, etc.
• Fields was better, period. He was a legit running threat, he was accurate all night, he went through his progressions and checked down nicely.
• You could say the tightends but actually Day deployed them quite a bit last year as well, but they had much more of an impact on this game with 3 TDs.
• Sermon was better than Dobbins. I said it, deal with it. Dobbins was the better of the two running it (by a lot) but Sermon was a beast catching out of the backfield and not *cough* dropping balls, and overall I feel he had more of an impact on the game. Also he wasn't playing hurt so there's that, too.
• More impressive defensive line play. I honestly think this defensive line is overall better, even without the presence of a dominant edge rusher like #2. I prefer having two dominant interior players and a stable of nasty edge rushers that can get there even if they aren't as talented as young and bosa's. It felt like Togiai and Haskell had more of an impact on this game than Chase did last year.
• Better LB play. Werner, hilliard, borland are, at this level of experience, the best LB corp we've had since '14. Still confused as to why hilliard didn't win DPG but whatever.
• ETN never got going. In fact, he was a total non factor after the first drive hitting us for chunks on the perimeter.
• Whatever the tactic with huddling and cadence was completely bamboozled clemsons defense. This falls into an overall better coaching job and the play calling was impeccable.
All that said, i honestly think that without Dobbins getting hurt and without the Wade ejection, last year's game turns out a lot like this year's. Those bastards got lucky as hell.
And thats just off the top of my head. What else do you think made such a difference this go round?
