Breaking down Clemson's offense with Dabo Swinney

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Clemson’s offense set September on fire.

Entering October and playing away from home, that fire wasn’t as intense throughout the game, but it was enough to quell the fight of the Seminoles.

The Tigers put up 500 yards of total offense, twice the yardage Florida State collected on Saturday night.

Dabo Swinney was pleased with the way his team controlled the game, but felt like his unit left some things out there in Tallahassee.

“The bottom line is we controlled the line of scrimmage, and I was really pleased with that,” Swinney said. “And on the flip side of it, offensively, 500 yards, 6.6 yards per carry, 6.8 per play, and 12.4 per completion. Those are great numbers. A lot of yards, only two punts, and a lot of big plays. I was really pleased with our pass protection and our twist pickup. I thought the tempo was a weapon force at times, as was our cadence, but not as good on third down as we needed to be."

Despite some areas that Swinney wants addressed, pass protection continues to stand out.

“We left a lot out there,” Swinney said. “We missed some opportunities and just too many wasted plays. We just had some wasted plays, which negated some good drives, so I’m frustrated about that. But again, the protection was really good.”

When looking at the box score, it reads that the Tigers went 4-6 in the red zone, indicating a good night in that area. Despite that number, Clemson was unable to score a touchdown inside the 20, with T.J. Moore’s score coming from the 23-yard line.

Swinney once again chalked it up to missed opportunities.

“We just missed on a couple of plays, but there were probably three or four just really wasted plays that we'd like to have back, and we probably could have put them in a better spot,” Swinney said. “I thought it was a really good play by Cade and Antonio, and the one was just a little high on the one chance for the touchdown. Just too many wasted plays where we got ourselves in a bad situation from a negative standpoint. And then obviously missed the field goals, one on the nine-yard line, but just a little bit of execution and a few plays that we'd like to have back as coaches.”

One thing the Clemson staff won’t have to want back as coaches is the rapid start the Tiger offense got off to. Once again, it was a quick and decisive first quarter that saw just enough to put the game out of reach.

In Clemson’s four wins, the Tigers have outscored opponents 90-0 in the first quarter, consistently opening games with a frenzy of punches.

Where we saw Clemson continue those punches at home, that frenzy wasn’t applied late, as the Tigers only scored 12 the rest of the way.

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In fact, there was no pass attempt inside the fourth quarter. Swinney felt that clock management went well on the road, and he was pleased with how his team reacted to the flow of the game.

“I mean, you go into games with all kinds of plans, but you have to pay attention to the objective of winning the game,” Swinney said. “And you have to manage games as you go through the course and flow of a game, whether it's defense, offense, whatever it is, but you don't really go into the game thinking some of those things, but just react to what's happening. And I thought the last drive was just awesome, especially taking it over upfront and then driving with a minute, four, and two timeouts to get points from the minus. We were on the 17 or something. Those were two of the positives in that game for us offensively when we had to have it. So, there were a lot of good things, and we knew we needed to run the ball with these guys. We just had to stick with it, and it was good to be able to do that.”

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