No. 1 Clemson Loses Thriller at No. 4 Notre Dame in Double Overtime

No. 1 Clemson rallied from a 13-point deficit on the road without star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but it wasn't enough as No. 4 Notre Dame won 47-40 on Saturday.

No. 1 Clemson rallied from a 13-point deficit on the road without star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but it wasn't enough as No. 4 Notre Dame won an overtime thriller 47-40 on Saturday in South Bend, Indiana. 

D.J. Uiagalelei, the replacement for Lawrence, threw for a career-high 439 yards and totaled three touchdowns, but the Fighting Irish ended the Tigers' 36-game regular-season winning streak. It's the first ACC defeat since falling to Syracuse in 2017. 

The Irish scored on a 3-yard TD run in the second overtime to put ND up for good, and after two sacks on Uiagalelei in the final drive, and his fourth-down pass came up short to seal it for the Irish.

Notre Dame (7-0) led 23-10 in the second quarter and nearly squandered the game away in regulation, but quarterback Ian Book used a 53-yard pass play to Avery Davis on ND's final drive of the fourth quarter to set up a 4-yard TD pass to Davis to tie the game at 33-all with 22 seconds remaining. 

Clemson (7-1) had fumbles on back-to-back drives in the first half that helped the Irish build that lead, but the Tigers fought back with a pair of B.T. Potter field goals and a TD pass from Uiagalelei to Davis Allen in the third quarter. 

With three Clemson defensive starters declared out before the game and two more going down during the game with an injury, Notre Dame racked up over 500 total yards while the Tigers had 473 yards.

Key play: Tied at 23-all late in the third quarter, Book was looking to score on a run and would've been inside the Clemson 5-yard line when Tyler Venables poked the ball free. It was recovered in the end zone by Baylon Spector. 

Player of the game: Clemson receiver Cornell Powell followed up his monster game from last week with another huge performance at a critical time. The fifth-year senior finished with 162 yards on six catches and a 53-yard touchdown. Powell also had a 51-yard catch while falling down. Then he had a 15-yard effort play on a screen pass that set up the go-ahead touchdown. Powell also caught a 24-yard pass to set up the overtime score. 

Freshman impact: Uiagalelei played anything like a freshman on the big stage. Not only did he complete 29 of his 44 passes, but the QB protected the football with no interceptions and knew when to throw the ball away. He rallied Clemson from an 18-point deficit last week and will head back to the bench when Lawrence returns for the next game.

Coach's decision: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney opted to go for it on fourth-and-inches at the Tigers' 35-yard line with 8:17 left in the game and the score tied. Uiagalelei switched up the snap count and drew an offsides penalty on the Irish to keep the drive alive. Clemson later scored on Etienne's run to take the lead for good. 

Stat of the game: Uiagalelei passed Deshaun Watson's record for most passing yards by a freshman in Clemson history. 

Up next: Clemson gets its second week off of the season and will head to Florida State on Nov. 21. The Seminoles, who are also off next week, lost 41-17 to Pitt and fell to 2-5 overall.