Good, Bad, Ugly
The Florida State Seminoles entered Death Valley on a 3 game winning streak after losing their first four. At the same time, the Clemson Tigers entered this game with 31 straight wins at home. One was broken, the other was extended.
The Tigers won the war yesterday, coming away with a 30-20 win, thanks to a last second playground touchdown by Barrett Carter as time expired. Clemson was favored by 9.5. Truly a “trick-or-treat” kind of night.
When discussing the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, let’s go ahead and get the ugly out of the way. Over the last six years, the Tigers were one of the best teams closing out halves and games with “nail in the coffin” type drives. You give Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence the ball with 2 minutes left in the half or the game, and you felt good about getting points. Not so much with this team, so far. Talent level is different. Quarterback styles are different.
Clemson got the ball at the Clemson 49 with 1:29 to go before the half. Three plays later, it was 3rd and 20. An incomplete pass, a screen pass and draw play lost 10 yards, and the Tigers punted the ball back to FSU. Last night, with a 24-20 lead, the Tigers had the ball at the Clemson 31 with 1:26 left, and only needed one first down to go into the game-ending kneel down offense. Yet, three plays yielded only 4 yards and Clemson had to punt the ball back to the Noles. As it turned out, the Tigers won the game and the defense saved the game. Last week against Pittsburgh, with the score tied 7-7, Clemson took the ball at its on 25 with 3:12 to go in the half. 3 straight incomplete passes, and the Tigers punted back to Pitt with 2:46 left on the clock. QB Kenny Pickett drove Pitt down for a touchdown to end the half.
This leads us to the bad about last night’s game. . Two weeks in a row now, teams have scored defensive touchdowns against the offense. Both could have been avoided. The DJ pitch to a Pitt defender was unfortunate. According to Coach Dabo Swinney “if that guy had been blocked, it wouldn’t have happened.” Maybe not, but it did, and it was ugly. Against FSU, the defensive end swept around the end, virtually unblocked, stripped the ball from QB DJ Uiagalelei and waltzed in with the go ahead touchdown with 7:39 left in the game.
All of the drama at the end of the game may not have been necessary had BJ Potter been his normal self. Last night, he simply wasn’t everyone has a BAD game (hence, the good, the BAD, and the ugly) and last night was Potter’s. Missing three of four field goals is not what this kicker is all about. Going into the game, BJ was seven of eight with 4 field goals between 40-49, and his only miss was a 50+ yard attempt. He was pretty much automatic. Last night’s game was a fluke. It was bad, yes, but does not deserve “we need a kicker” rhetoric some Clemson fans posted during last night’s game. Clearly, these “fans” are what I call “knee jerk reaction” fans. Potter will be out there this week in practice getting ready for Louisville, and he will practice hard to right what went wrong.
Let’s end this with the Good. Alpha-Dog. Freshman RB Will Shipley took the bull by the horns and ran with it, and ran with it, and ran with it. 25 carries, 128 yards, 4 catches, 24 more yards, and putting the Tigers ahead with a bruising 21 yard touchdown run with 2:53 left in the game. The Tigers looked down and out for the count after the FSU defensive touchdown put them ahead, and the offense followed that with a 3 and out, giving the ball back to the FSU offense. The Clemson defense (they are next up in the GOOD section) stopped the Nole offense and gave the ball back to the offense. Two FSU penalties (PI and hit out of bounds), two Uiagalelei runs, and then Shipley went on his touchdown run. From this point on, the Tigers turned the game back over to their defense. Justyn Ross had his best game of the season with 6 catches for 85 yards. Say what you want about DJ Uiagalelei, he completed 19 of 31 for 189 yards with one TD and an interception.
The defense is a category all by themselves. Florida State came into the game averaging over 30+ points a game, ranked 13th in the nation rushing for 230 yards per game, and two running backs gaining 7+ yards per carry. Checking the final stats, FSU was held to 65 yards on 34 carries. This stat is kind of misleading in that QB Jordan Travis is listed with 16 rushes for -4 yards due to six sacks and tack on 10 tackles for loss. Still, it will go down in the team stats as 65 yards. This Clemson defense, led by DE Myles Murphy, owned this FSU most the night. Murphy was in on 6 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss. The only blots on the resume was a 10 play 75 yard drive in 1st quarter, and a long touchdown pass that was a result of a poor tackle. Adding this up, FSU picked up 150 yards on 11 plays in their two scoring drives. On the Noles’ other 45 plays, they were able to muster only 91 yards. This Tiger defense came to play. Freshman LB Barrett Carter recovered two fumbles, including the last play of the game where he scooped up the errant lateral and dove into the endzone for a game-ending touchdown.
Next up for the Tigers is an away game at Louisville. The Cardinals lost to NC State last night and is another potent offense for the Tiger defense to tackle (pardon the pun).
