MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — When Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield walked down the line of scrimmage blurting out signals with about five minutes and forty seconds left in the third quarter, the Clemson defense knew what was about to take place.

Back in Clemson the week before, defensive coordinator Brent Venables played the role of Baker Mayfield. He intentionally walked down the right side of the line barking out, “Black Five! Black Five!” At about that time, the ball was supposed to be snapped directly to the running back who would run the ball up inside.

But … “I forgot to tell the center to snap it,” Venables said laughing. “I’m like, ‘Snap the ball! Why aren’t you snapping the ball?!’ And they were like, ‘You did not tell him to snap it.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’”

But Venables reset and made sure he told the center the next time what he was doing. The ball was snapped over and over again after that, so when No. 4 Oklahoma—trailing by six points at the time—lined up on a key fourth-and-one play from the Clemson 30-yard line, the Tigers knew what was coming.

This was one of the Sooners’ trick plays in short yardage situations. Mayfield will walk down the line barking out signals as if he was changing the play. As he gets down to the right tackle, he stops for a second and then the ball is snapped to running back Samaje Perine, who usually carries the ball for a first down.

“They had used it against TCU,” Venables said. “So we worked it.”

Clemson, who had worked on the play at least 20 times in practice, never flinched. So when Mayfield started to walk down the line acting as if he was changing the play, the defense was ready. Perine got the snap and freshman defensive end Austin Bryant met him in the hole to knock him back, and then reserve linebacker Kendall Joseph, and a few of his friends dressed in orange, finished him off for no gain.

The end result was the first of three second-half possessions in which the Sooners journeyed deep into Clemson territory to only be turned away. The other two ended in interceptions from linebackers B.J. Goodson and Ben Boulware as the top-ranked Tigers rolled to a 37-17 victory in the Capital One Orange Bowl.

“We had the whole defense stay down there. The tendency is when the quarterbacks starts to do that the whole defense looks up and starts looking at their wrist bands, and TCU almost stopped them,” Venables said. “So we thought they were going to either do that or the quarterback naked that they ran on Oklahoma State on fourth-and-one.

“But anyway, it was one of those moments where the preparation and the details matter when you play someone really good. That was a huge stop in the game. They would have had a lot of momentum if they got it.”

The Tigers, who will play No. 2 Alabama on Jan. 11 in the National Championship Game, limited No. 4 Oklahoma to 121 yards of offense and to no points in the final 30 minutes. The Sooners had 257 yards and 17 points in the first half.

“Great teams have to be able to make adjustments. We came in here at halftime and we made some great adjustments,” Goodson said. “Our guys on the back end, our back seven, we got locked in on our task and we made some big plays in the second half that helped clinch the game.”

Oklahoma (11-2) had totaled 500 or more yards in each of its previous seven games, while scoring an average of 52 points. The Sooners finished the game with 378 total yards, 165 yards under their season average. Their 67 rushing yards matched their season-low as did their 17 points. Oklahoma came into the Orange Bowl averaging 45 points a game.

“Coach Venables is a mastermind with his game plan. He does a great job. I can’t say that enough,” Goodson said. “He does a great job. We just went out and executed his plan and it went as we thought it would.”

It was as if the Tigers knew what Oklahoma was doing, and in a way they did.