NEW ORLEANS –– The doubt was palpable entering Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal.

Ohio State junior quarterback Justin Fields saw his mettle questioned, his draft stock drop and his Heisman chances fizzle out over the past month or so, coinciding with several subpar performances in the back half of the season, with the crescendo coming in a career-worst showing in the Big Ten Championship Game.

It was do or die for Fields at the Sugar Bowl if he hoped to maintain the elite status he enjoyed for most of the past two seasons as one of college football’s very best players, and all he did was put on a masterclass –– before and after sustaining an injury.

“What he means to me, I can’t put into words,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said after the game. “For a guy to come and play the way he did and be seen nationally, it just seemed like he couldn’t lose.”

Fields threw for a career-high 385 yards and six touchdowns on 22-of-28 passing, tacking on another 42 yards rushing to lead the Buckeyes to an upset victory over Clemson by an eye-popping score of 49-28.

It didn’t look pretty to start out though, as Fields didn’t throw a pass on the opening drive and fumbled the ball on a third down rush, although a Buckeye recovery avoided disaster.

Following his 12-for-27, 114-yard game against Northwestern, Fields needed a confidence booster, and he got two on the subsequent drive, hitting junior wideout Chris Olave for 11 yards and then finding senior running back Trey Sermon on a 32-yard catch-and-run dump-off.

Fields went on to throw back-to-back touchdowns to Buckeye tight ends before he sustained a hit in the second quarter that looked for a moment like it might put him out of the game.

On a scramble rush up the middle of the field, Clemson linebacker James Skalski leveled Fields with a head-first tackle to his back and side, resulting in a targeting call and an apparent injury to Fields that limited his ability to move without pain for the remainder of the game.

“I’m not going to lie, my ribs were killing me the whole game, but what put me through it was the love from my brothers,” Fields said. “I would do anything for these guys and I’m honestly so proud of them.”

After leaving the game for a play, Fields found Olave in the end zone for his third touchdown of the first half, and he’d toss another before intermission to head into the locker room up 35-14.

Fields’ mobility was clearly restrained by the pain he was experiencing, and an ill-advised toss to the end zone on the first possession of the second half appeared labored when he was picked off by a Tiger defender.

The play could have been the linchpin of a massive momentum swing, as Tiger quarterback Trevor Lawrence led Clemson down the field for a touchdown on the ensuing drive, but Fields countered at every turn.

Fields finished his night with a pair of long-bomb beauties to give him his fifth and sixth passing scores of the game, a 56-yarder to Olave, who finished with 132 yards, and a 45-yard strike to sophomore wideout Jameson Williams down the middle of the field.

It was a redemptive exhibition for Fields, who avenged the only loss of his career as a starter, the heart-wrenching 29-23 Fiesta Bowl loss to Clemson which ended with Fields throwing a pick in the end zone.

“I think that loss, as much as it was hard to shake off, it really did help me,” Fields said. “I was able to learn from it and work harder preparing for tonight’s game.”

On Friday, it was Lawrence that threw the late fourth-quarter interception though, a pass that was tipped in the air for a Sevyn Banks pick in the end zone with just 90 seconds to play in a three-score game.

It might not have been a flawless effort from Fields through and through, but given the circumstances, it may have been as close as one could get.

The Buckeyes, and Fields in particular, got a monkey off their back on Friday, and with an offense that finally clicked on all cylinders for the duration of a 60-minute game, Ohio State will ride its most impressive performance of the season into a national championship matchup with Alabama.