Mountaineers get offensive in Orange Bowl rout of Tigers |
MIAMI, FLA. – Shades of 1981? Not quite.
The Clemson Tigers’ return to the Orange Bowl after a 30-year absence was supposed to awaken echoes of the 1981 National Championship team. Instead, it brought back all of the nightmares of the past as the Tigers’ defense looked lost, the offense turned the ball over at key times and the end result was West Virginia scoring a bowl-record 70 points in defeating Clemson 70-33 in the BCS Orange Bowl Wednesday night at Sun Life Stadium. A game that was supposed to vault the Tigers back onto the national stage and possibly set up another title run next season, instead highlighted the deficiencies that have been highlighted on national television all too often recently. West Virginia scored the most points ever scored in a bowl game by any team in college football history, and quarterback Geno Smith threw a BCS-record six touchdown passes. “This is obviously a very, very disappointing finish for us,” Clemson head coach
Dabo Swinney Head Coach View Full Profile
said. “But at the end of the day, the season is over, and you've got to look at the big picture. We didn't play well in this game, but we had a good season. And again, accomplished a tremendous amount, and so much for us to build upon, and we can't let one game get our eyes off of that. We've got a good football team coming back, and we've got to focus on closing this thing out with our banquet, and sending these seniors off the right way and then refocusing on finishing off a really good recruiting class and getting back to work. And our goal will be to get back here. That will be our goal. That will be our objective.” The Tigers were up 17-14 at the end of a frenetic first quarter – a 68-yard run by
Andre Ellington RS Jr. Running Back #23 5-10, 190 Moncks Corner, SC View Full Profile
and a 27-yard touchdown reception by
Sammy Watkins Fr. Wide Receiver #2 6-1, 200 Fort Myers, FL View Full Profile
- but three turnovers in the second quarter doomed the Tigers as West Virginia outscored Clemson 35-3 in the deciding 15 minutes of the second quarter. The first one came with the Tigers trailing 21-17 but driving for a go-ahead score. Running back Andre Ellington appeared to fall into the endzone with the touchdown, but as his teammates celebrated Mountaineer defensive back Darwin Cook ripped the ball out and took it 99 yards for the 28-17 lead. Swinney admitted that was the turning point in the game. “Well, it was a pretty huge moment,” he said. “They hadn't really stopped us. We were scoring, but they were matching us, and we couldn't get a stop. We'd get momentum and lose momentum, get momentum, lose momentum. That was going to be a huge swing for us. Like I said, it was going to put us up 24 21, we're right back in this thing and still searching for a stop. But that was huge. I mean, that was a big, big play because now all of a sudden it was 28 17, and again, all of a sudden we continued to have another turnover here and there, and it just snowballed quickly. “ The Tigers added a field goal that made it 28-20, and then the Mountaineers went on a run that decided the game by halftime. West Virginia added another touchdown to go up by 15, Clemson quarterback
Tajh Boyd RS So. Quarterback #10 6-1, 225 Hampton, VA View Full Profile
then threw an interception that led to seven more West Virginia points, and a Boyd fumble just before the half led to another seven points as West Virginia led 49-20 at intermission. The 49 points were the most ever given up by any Clemson team in any half, breaking the record of 41 scored by Alabama in 1931. The Mountaineers tacked on 14 quick points in the third quarter, giving them the most points in Orange Bowl history just six minutes into the third quarter and the rout was on. “There were too many mistakes,” Swinney said. “We got off to a good start, but we couldn’t keep the momentum on defense. Then we got to turning it over and that’s about as good an offensive performance as I have seen from a football team. They’ve got some special skills and we couldn’t stop them – it’s as simple as that.” Swinney said he would do – just like last season – whatever it takes to make his program better heading into next season. “Well, I'm as confident as I was last year standing here in a press conference at 6 7 and telling you we'd fix it,” he said. “I'm as confident as that. We'll be better. We'll be better. No doubt in my mind that I mean, y'all have seen us play better. But we just did not put it together with three phases tonight, and it just was a perfect storm because we were having a hard time stopping them.” 
Dabo Swinney
Andre Ellington
Sammy Watkins
Tajh Boyd
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
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