Quick Thoughts: Another record-setting day, but plenty of things to correct |
David Hood
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- Saturday, September 21 2024
CLEMSON – The final score made it look somewhat respectable. It wasn’t that close.
No. 19 Clemson scored 28 points in a dominant first quarter and led 45-7 at halftime on the way to a dominating 59-35 victory over NC State on a hot, sun-splashed afternoon in Death Valley. The win is the 800th in Clemson football history. Clemson is the first FBS team to score 28 points in the first quarter in back-to-back games in 20 years. Clemson improves to 2-1 (1-0 ACC) on the season, while NC State falls to 2-2 (0-1 ACC). The Tigers host Stanford – the Cardinal won their first ACC game with a walk-off field goal at Syracuse Friday – next Saturday at 7 pm on Homecoming. The 59 points are the second-most scored against NC State in the series (Clemson won 62-48 in 2012), and the 45 scored in the first half were the most ever scored against a Dave Doeren, NC State-coached team, by halftime. It’s also the last time we will see the Wolfpack on the football field until 2027. At some point that season, the Tigers will travel to Raleigh to take on the Pack, meaning NC State will have to wait three long years for revenge. Clemson has 60 wins all-time against NC State, trailing only the 73 against South Carolina and the 71 against Wake Forest. There was a lot of good for the first-team offense and defense. As NC State head coach Dave Doeren said in his comments postgame, “We were never in this game.” He’s right. After Clemson defeated Appalachian St. and scored 66 points in doing so, the thought and hope was that Clemson’s offense was finally unlocked. Some of that hope disappeared for some fans after South Alabama rolled App St. Friday night, and many wondered if App was just bad, and that led to the Tigers’ success. Clemson put that to rest on the fourth play of the game, a 55-yard run by quarterback Cade Klubnik. In all, the Tigers rolled up 28 points in the quarter and 45 in the half. Klubnik led another scoring drive to start the second half to give the Tigers 52 points, and at that point, it was all about the reserves. Two offensive notes - tight end Jake Briningstool caught two passes for 29 yards, and joins Jordan Leggett (1,598 from 2013-16), John McMakin (1,255 from 1969-71), Dwayne Allen (1,079 from 2009-11) and Bennie Cunningham (1,044 from 1972-75) as the fifth tight end in school history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards. Running back Phil Mafah eclipsed the 2000-yard mark (career) early in the game. He is the 22nd player in school history to record 2,000 career rushing yards. Mafah also rushed for 100 yards in consecutive games for the first time in his career. And freshman kicker Nolan Hauser was good on all nine of his kicks Saturday – eight extra points and one field goal – and has hit the first 20 kicks of his Clemson career. Finally, Cade Klubnik is 40-of-50 for 587 yards, eight touchdowns through the air, and three rushing over the last two weeks. The Tigers had 14 big plays (passes 15-plus, rushes 10-plus) on the day, with six passes covering 158 yards and eight rushes accounting for 200 yards. The defense was good until the reserves entered the fray, and then it fell apart. How bad was it? Following an easy Wolfpack score, defensive tackles coach Nick Eason gathered the defense together in a huddle and spent several, passionate minutes ripping anyone and everyone as defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin looked on. In all, the defense gave up 28 points and 276 yards in the second half, and 21 of those points and 210 of the yards came in the fourth quarter alone. The unofficial count is that 96 players played for Clemson, so there were a lot of backups in the game, and many of them third-string and fourth-string and lower personnel. But like Eason was likely telling them, no matter where you are on the depth chart, you still have to play to a standard.
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