Week 10: Lawrence vs. Fields
This will be a week both Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields to remember. Lawrence broke a big record in the state of Georgia and Fields won a big game in front a national audience on TV, but left with an injury.
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If you were inside Weinman Stadium in Cartersville (Ga.) Friday night, then you saw a lot of smiles, many hugs and some tears being shed. It was senior night to start off, but that was just the beginning of a special evening for the No. 1 player in the 2018 class on Rivals.com.
Lawrence only needed 106 passing yards to pass current Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson's career mark of 13,077 and he got that in the first quarter. He now holds the record for the most passing yards in the state of Georgia.
The record was broken on a touchdown pass to former Rutgers commit EJ Turner. Once that play happened, the game was paused, Lawrence received a standing ovation and his head coach Joey King walked onto the field, hugged Lawrence and presented him the game ball.
It was a special moment for the Clemson commit. Lawrence only played the first half (again) finishing 17-23 passing for 283 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Cartersville held a 49-0 lead at halftime.
Cartersville will be off next week, then look to finish the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record for the third season in a row against Lagrange (Ga.) Troup County on November 3. With the win Friday over Douglasville (Ga.) Chapel Hill, Lawrence has won 38 games in a row as a starter.
Another record could be broken in game 10. Watson also holds the record for touchdown passes (155) and Lawrence now sits just one behind at 154. The unbelievable career of Lawrence continues and it is a great story to see a Clemson commit pass a former Clemson star in the record books.
Like Watson, we expect Lawrence to be very successful at Clemson and to be drafted very early by an NFL team down the road.
This was a date Fields had circled on his calendar for a year.
Well before the game started, Fields had cameras in his face on Thursday night. It was a game on ESPN2 and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart arrived on a helicopter to see the Bulldog commit play.
Fields did not let the audience down.
Through the air, he finished 7-11 for 185 yards and a touchdown and on the ground, he rushed the ball 23 times for 211 yards and a touchdown. He made all the plays those who had seen him play before expected him to make.
Late in the third quarter, on a run to the perimeter, his index finger on his right hand (throwing hand) hit a defender’s helmet and it ended up being broken. He left the game immediately with the injury and he will have surgery Monday and it will be in a cast for six weeks. Once the cast is off, he is expected to go through therapy for six weeks. He is still deciding if he will be an early enrollee at Georgia or not.
While on the field, Fields shined. He ran like a running back and he showed great toughness. He lost to Dalton a year ago in the same situation, but he was not going to lose this time. If you were there, you could just see it in his eyes.
As soon as he got his fingers taped up, he got his pads removed, and immediately ran to talk with the back-up quarterback. He showed great leadership and they will need that moving forward this season.
Kirby Smart and Dell McGee were on the Harrison sideline all game and they had to like what they saw in their five-star quarterback commit.
The season is over for Fields, but he could not have had a much better 2017. He was amazing in the spring and summer when he made the push to the top of the 2018 rankings, then it carried over to the season. He is clearly one of the best in the country and he will now do all he can off the field to support his team.
