“It’s THE difference-maker,” Kelly said of Lawrence’s legs. “His ability to run really stressed your coverage calls. It stresses a lot of the things you do with your fits and where essentially you’re trying to get him to certainly not be that kind of player.
“And so what you’re trying to do is bring some pressures that eliminate those runs, but it just opens some one-on-one matchups that are not favorable. And so it’s a dilemma. It’s something we struggled with a little bit tonight.”
Skalski helped make sure the Clemson defense didn’t struggle against a team it yielded 518 total yards to in the last meeting. The Irish finished with roughly half that much Saturday (263), a season low and tied for the eighth-fewest in the Brian Kelly Era.