NEW ORLEANS _ What you saw Monday night in the national championship game between Clemson and LSU was another example of what matters most about football: The quarterback.
Two elite QBs began the game _ two quarterbacks who may well be the No. 1 overall picks in the 2020 and 2021 NFL drafts. But only one of them could sustain an elite level, and that's why LSU and Joe Burrow whipped Clemson and Trevor Lawrence, 42-25, to win the national title.
Burrow justified his recent Heisman Trophy win with a flourish, finishing up of the most spectacular seasons any college football player has ever had by accounting for all six LSU TDs (five pass, one run) against Clemson while throwing for 463 yards.
Lawrence, who had last lost a football game in 2017, completed less than half his passes, didn't throw a single TD pass and directed a misfiring Clemson offense that went 1 for 11 on third downs and had to punt nine times.
"I just didn't play well enough for us to win," Lawrence said. "Too many missed plays by me. Missed a lot of receivers. It just wasn't my night."
I once asked then-Panthers coach Ron Rivera that, if an entire NFL game constituted 100 percent, what part of that was the quarterback's play deciding the fate of the team. Rivera said "55 percent" _ in other words, the QB by himself is more important in an NFL game than everyone else put together. And that was coming from a guy who was a former NFL linebacker and a defense-first coach.
But it's true. Burrow toyed with Clemson on Monday, just as he has toyed with all of college football.
