How Justin Fields flipped the script in the Sugar Bowl

Coming into the Allstate Sugar Bowl, you’d forgive Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields if he felt a bit snubbed. Trevor Lawrence, the guy at his position on the other side of the field for the Clemson Tigers, has been universally acknowledged as the best player — forget the best quarterback — in the 2021 draft class, and after Fields put up a catastrophic outing against Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship (12 of 27 for 114 yards, no touchdowns ,and two interceptions), the title of second-best quarterback in the class was BUY’s Zach Wilson’s to lose.

In that Northwestern game, which the Buckeyes won because Trey Sermon ran for a school record 331 yards, Fields showed a lot of the things evaluators have dinged him for in the past — slow to process, slow to react, off-target more often than not, and not up to the rhythm of the game. Fields failed to impress against a defense that ranked second in Football Outsiders’ F+ metrics, and it didn’t bode well that the only FBS defense that ranked higher than Northwestern was Clemson, who Fields would have to turn it around against in the Sugar Bowl — the semifinal that would decide who faced Alabama for the No. 1 spot in the nation.

But from the start, Fields was a different quarterback against the Tigers — calm, cool, decisive, and totally in rhythm with the passing game. Not only did Fields throw six touchdown passes in the game, but four of those came after he was poleaxed by Clemson linebacker James Skalski — a hit that got Skalski ejected from the game for targeting, whether one thinks it’s a valid call or not.

Wincing in pain whether running or passing after that hit, Fields nonetheless went back to work. His six touchdown passes set a school record, and matched as it was with his six incompletions, and given the level of competition, it’s fair to say that this was one of the most impressive postseason performance any college quarterback has ever enjoyed.

Fields, who completed 12 of 20 passes of 20 or more air yards in the regular season for 449 yards, 385 air yards, six touchdowns and one interception, threw some absolute dimes in this game when it was time to make the big play through the air. This 56-yarder to Chris Olave was the most striking example.

Fields also showed outstanding ball placement in tight windows, especially in the red zone.

Fields said after the game that he received pain-killing shots for the injury and never got a clear diagnosis — it was all about getting back out there. Doing so without a clear picture of the problem is certainly risky, and perhaps ill-advised, and we’d like to know why there wasn’t a clearer diagnosis given to him.

Nonetheless, Fields showed as clear a command of the game as he ever has.

“We were just talking about all week how this game can make an everlasting impact,” Fields said of the Olave throw. “And this game controls our legacy. So we stayed out at practice and threw routes on that one roll‑out touchdown. We probably went over that about 20 times in practice one day. So we knew that was a call that we were going to get into the red zone. And we executed it well.”

An everlasting impact? Absolutely. On January 11, Fields gets one more shot to show what he can do against a great college defense when Ohio State faces Alabama, but one could say that he’s already proven enough.