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Harry Houdini is known as the original (or one of the original) escape artist stunt performers, who gave rise to David Copperfield and David Blaine in subsequent decades. To “pull a Houdini” is a term which might not be instantly recognizable to younger generations, but the phrase still contains currency and familiarity among older human beings. (Where one draws the line on the word “older” is, I admit, subject to debate or interpretation.)
Sports Houdini acts contain different flavors and contours. One can escape after trailing by 20 points. A team can escape a game which was close the whole way and could have gone the other way at the very end. An athlete can escape on a day when s/he played a C-minus or D-plus match. Generally, though, Houdini acts in sports are magnified when they occur on a grand stage such as a College Football Playoff semifinal. When those “grand stage” Houdinis occur, they have a strange way of combining the same ingredients over and over again.
The great sports escapes — not just epic comebacks in and of themselves, but epic comebacks in huge games which define seasons — seem to involve these core components:
A) The winning side played well below a peak level.
B) The losing side generally carried the run of play, certainly if measured by the raw number of snaps/pitches/possessions/service games contained in that day’s competition.
C) The losing side had chances to drive home the dagger, but missed.
D) The winning side pounced in the ultimate moments of truth.
E) The losing side contributed to the winning side’s ascendance in ultimate moments of truth by flinching or being erratic enough to surrender leverage.
Those five details usually define a sports Houdini. They defined the Clemson Tigers’ Houdini against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl.
Start with parts A and B. Clemson certainly played well below its best, and Ohio State easily could have led this game 24-0 or 27-0 had it tended to a few extra details. Clemson’s receivers were hurt, yes, but they still failed to make some basic plays and were lucky an Ohio State fumble recovery for a touchdown was overturned into an incomplete pass. Clemson’s run defense was bested by J.K. Dobbins for most (not all) of the game. Brent Venables was outmaneuvered by Ryan Day for most (not all) of the Fiesta Bowl. The Clemson offensive staff needed more than a full half to realize that getting Travis Etienne more touches, including on screen passes, was a good thing. The Clemson offensive line was outplayed by Ohio State’s defensive front.
Part C: Ohio State had 4th and 4 at the Clemson 39 late. A first down would have almost certainly forced Clemson to use all its timeouts and (presuming a Clemson stop on that next series of downs) given the Tigers a lot less time to score than they actually gained. Instead, Ryan Day lost his nerve and punted. OSU still had another chance to win, but receiver Chris Olave admitted he broke off his post route because he errantly thought quarterback Justin Fields was about to scramble.
Part D: Lawrence and Etienne delivered the goods on Clemson’s game-winning drive. The defense produced a decisive interception. Clemson outscored Ohio State 29-7 after falling behind by 16 points. Clemson made this game close by halftime to create a second half played on relatively even terms. (The first half was played on anything BUT even terms.)
Part E. Ohio State’s defense lost focus on Clemson’s go-ahead drive. Olave flinched on the final interception. Day punted on fourth down.
The specific details of the drama are different, but this larger five-point formula is the same for other sports Houdinis we witnessed in 2019. Two primary examples: The New England Patriots beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game after the Dee Ford offside penalty which nullified a game-clinching interception for the Chiefs against Tom Brady, and Novak Djokovic beating Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final by winning three tiebreakers, after saving two match points on Federer’s serve, becoming the first man to win Wimbledon after saving championship points since 1948.
The Patriots and Novak Djokovic — one could argue — are the two foremost exemplars of Houdini masters in the 2010s, the decade which is just about to end. They are the hardest champions to kill, the toughest opponents to fully and finally put away. If one team fits that description in college football over the past five years, it can’t be Alabama… because the Crimson Tide didn’t make this year’s playoff. No, the hardest team to kill in college football since the start of the 2015 season has been Clemson.
The Tigers have five playoff berths in the past five seasons. Bama has only four. Clemson and Bama have two national titles each, but Clemson is 2-1 in head-to-head national championship game meetings with the Crimson Tide. A full 12 days after Alabama plays a low-profile Citrus Bowl against Michigan, Clemson will contest the national title once again — for the fourth time in five years, bidding for its first repeat national championship in school history — when it meets LSU in New Orleans.
Djokovic. The Patriots. Clemson. A Houdini trinity doesn’t have a weak link. Clemson fully belongs in that trio — not as a third wheel, but as an equal partner. The last five years in global sport, few things have been as reliable as Clemson football reaching a national title game.
Pulling off a Houdini — something Clemson hadn’t had to do in its three previous semifinal victories — is something a dynastic power usually achieves at some point. Clemson achieved it on the final Saturday of 2019 in the desert.
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