The 4th ranked Clemson Tigers went into Tallahassee Saturday night on the proverbial “upset alert”, again, and left with their 7th victory on the year, their 7th in a row against FSU and their 13th straight win, the longest win streak currently in college football.
Will Shipley had a night, and definitely represents one of the GOOD parts of the game for most Clemson fans. He rushed for 121 yards on 20 carries, and hauled in six passes for another 48 yards. He electrified the crowd to open the second half with a 69-yard kickoff return down to the FSU 31-yard line. The Tigers used a flea-flicker to score on the very next play, a long TD pass to Davis Allen. Although he didn’t find the end zone, the offense ran through Shipley.
After the Seminoles scored to start the second half, the Tiger defense settled down and allowed Florida State only 21 plays for 92 yards over their next five drives as the Tigers went on a 27-0 run to take a 34-14 lead. QB DJ Uiagalelei passed for three touchdowns, scored one, and has now passed for 200+ yards in all 7 games this year, highlighted by a 59-yard hookup with freshman WR Antonio WIlliams. TEs Davis Allen and Jake Briningstool caught the other two TD passes.
The overall improvement of the offense does not land squarely on DJ’s shoulders. The health of the offensive line and the wide receivers plays a HUGE part in the Tiger’s success on offense. It also gives DJ the opportunity to be successful. Look at stats comparison from 2021 to 2022 in the first seven games of the season.
2021 : Comp/109- ATT/199 54.7% 1,112 yards for 4TD’s and 5 INT’s
2022 Comp/137- ATT/213 64.3%. 1,665 yards for 17TD’s and 2 INT’s
Clemson has now scored 30+ points in 12 straight regular season games. Last year, the Tigers topped the 30-point threshold ONCE in the first seven games.
Everyone was pumped up about finally having everyone back on the defense, healthy. CB Sheridan Jones, DT Bryan Bresee, and DE Xavier Thomas were finally all on the field. Let’s be honest. There were times the defense was simply gashed. The first drive of the game was UGLY for the Tiger defense. FSU outgained the Tigers 460-370 for the game. It was feast or famine for the Noles.
The FSU offense scored on two of their first three drives, running 24 plays for 168 yards. Their other four drives in the first half resulted in 70 yards in 14 plays. In total, the four scoring drives, the Noles ran 38 plays for 322 yards. In non-scoring drives, 38 plays for 138. Feast or famine.
No one can argue the success of the Tigers in wins and losses. The Tigers are 7-0 this year, with four conference road wins. What is frustrating for Clemson fans so far this year is the Tigers haven’t developed that killer instinct to put games away. It’s BAD leading 34-13 with a little over 5 minutes to go in the game and the offense goes ultra conservative. Clemson goes up 34-14 on a BT Potter field goal, and on the next two drives. 6 plays 6 yards, two punts. It could be just me, but I don’t think so. Dabo doesn’t want any turnovers, he doesn’t want to lose a game because of an aggressive offense. It’s like he is saying “Let’s let the defense win this game for us.” It’s like we said, you can NOT argue Clemson’s success. That’s not what this is. The Tigers have been called Cardiac Kids before.
Hard to discuss BAD without mentioning the officiating. The Tigers were flagged 8 times for 72 yards while the Noles only saw the yellow hanky 3 times for 17 yards. Rewatching the game, the FSU OL was basically holding ALL NIGHT but was not called once. Sour grapes? Maybe. Not saying it was favoritism towards one team or another, but a lot of calls were missed. Maybe “holding” is defined differently this year.
This game was a mixed bag of emotions. FSU got up early, the Tigers took control, FSU managed two garbage time touchdowns that shouldn’t have happened, but it did. The AP Poll will likely drop the Tigers down to 6th this week. Be prepared. Michigan will probably jump to #3. Tennessee will jump to #4. Bama will not fall past #5 and that leaves the Tigers at #6 because of the optics of the “barely beating an unranked team” by 6. Wait for it.
