Quick Thoughts from Tallahassee: Tigers need to find a way to put opponents away

Clemson controlled the action for much of the middle of the game-on but the finish could've been stronger.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 16 02:38:46 GMT-04:00 2022

TALLAHASSEE – Clemson finds a way to win every week. It’s never aesthetically pleasing, and there is plenty to work on, but the most important thing is that the Tigers are 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the ACC with five regular-season games to play and a remaining schedule that isn’t as daunting as it once seemed.

DJ Uiagalelei accounted for four touchdowns and Will Shipley had a big game with 238 all-purpose total yards as No. 4 Clemson defeated Florida State 34-28 in Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday night.

The Tigers have beaten Florida St. seven consecutive times, and the win is the 13th overall for the Tigers dating back to last season.

Clemson fell behind 7-0 and 14-7 early as FSU found success in the running game, then reeled off 27 consecutive points to take a 34-14 lead in the third quarter. At that point, the Seminole fans began to stream out of the stadium and it looked like Clemson was going to give a giant middle finger to Vegas oddsmakers (the Tigers closed as a 4.5-point favorite).

And then the offense went into a shell. The Tigers had 247 yards of total offense at the half, managed just 77 more in the third quarter and a paltry 46 in the fourth quarter. The defense wasn’t helping things, either – the defense allowed just 54 yards in the third quarter and appeared to have the game in hand.

But Florida St. had a whopping – and I mean a whopping – 169 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter. The Seminoles had two 90-yard-plus drives in the game – one in each half. That allowed the ‘Noles to get back in the game and they were just an onside kick recovery away from being able to drive for the winning score.

After the Tigers went up 34-14, the offense went 3-and-out on the next drive, all runs, two up the middle and one to the right. The next drive – which wasn’t until 12 minutes remained in the game, was two incomplete passes and a middle run.

After Florida St. made it 34-21, the Tigers put together a 10-play drive that featured runs on all but one play. On the one passing play, Uiagalelei was sacked for a five-yard loss, and then Blake Miller was called for a false start that made it 3rd-and-18. Uiagalelei kept it on third down for four yards and the Tigers had to punt.

I asked offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter after the game if he felt like the offense went too conservative too early, and he said no, that they wanted to keep attacking and that mistakes stopped the drives.

Uiagalelei said that Florida St. never stopped Clemson, that the holding and false start penalties killed drives (more to come from Uiagalelei and Streeter later).

Defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin said the team simply has to smell blood in the water and finish teams. He said that the defense returned several players who were rusty and showed that rust, but several other players simply whiffed on tackles and missed assignments (more to come from Wes as well).

This team is finding a way to win, and that’s a good thing. As head coach Dabo Swinney says, winning is hard and the Tigers have already won four road games out of their first seven. All four were conference road games.

Clemson returns home to face undefeated Syracuse next week at noon (ABC) in Death Valley. Syracuse improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the ACC with a 24-9 victory over NC State Saturday. The winner of next week’s game has the inside track to represent the ACC Atlantic in Charlotte in December.

Heading into an open date afterward, the Tigers need to concentrate on finally putting four quarters together. Four solid quarters. Offense. Defense. Special teams. If we see that we might get a glimpse of the potential of this team. Or, we might find out that what we’ve seen so far is what this team is, a determined, gritty bunch that finds a way to win.

As for the remaining schedule, the Tigers finish with a road game at Notre Dame (the Irish lost to Stanford Saturday), and home games against Syracuse, Miami, Louisville, and South Carolina.