DURHAM, NC - Wow, what a disastrous start to the season. Dabo said after the game that he's never experienced anything like that in all his years of coaching, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it. One critical mistake after another. Just when you thought the Tigers were about to turn the game around, they fumble on first and goal. I harped on turnovers last week and even brought up with Shipley the fact that Duke led the nation in forced fumbles last season. Well, Shipley did his job, but I guess I should have talked to Mafah. Just like last season, turnovers plagued the Tigers in a loss.
And, of course, it wasn't just the fumbles. Two low kicks by Gunn--one a 28-yard chip shot--and two blocked field goals. Welcome to life after BT Potter! Duke also had a big kickoff return, and that never happened with Potter, who nearly always forced touchbacks. Gunn was highly recruited and has a big leg, but his first two career field goal attempts went as horribly as they could have. Dabo said that he's made a 70-yarder in practice. Well, he kicked those two about as low as you'd expect on a 70-yarder, not a chip shot. Dabo has had a great run of kickers from Catanzaro to Huegel to Potter. Let's hope Gunn figures it out this week!
It was a very muggy night in Durham. I don't know if that accounted for the 1st down, goal-line fumble by Mafah, who had a critical fumble against the Gamecocks as well. Duke also had two critical fumbles: a muffed punt that led to the Tigers' only touchdown and a fumble inside field goal range as they were driving to score before halftime. And Duke only had 4 fumbles all season last year, so maybe the humidity had something to do with it. However, the first and goal fumble by Cade was simply a mental error on his part. He was indecisive on the RPO and tried to pull the ball out of Shipley's chest too late. Cade made some great throws but also made some bad ones and at times looked like he was only making his second start. On the 4th and 8 run in the 4th quarter, he made the mistake of sliding short of the first down when he could have gotten it. The Tigers still had a chance to tie the game at that point. Cade made a few terrible passes as well. One interception was dropped, and another was called back for offsides. He also air-mailed a screen pass. The receivers also had some critical drops on nice passes by Cade. It's very similar to what we saw from DJ when he was 19. Some good plays and some bad ones, combined with drops and fumbles by other players. However, most fans were a lot tougher on DJ than they are being on Cade. It's crazy to think that Cade has lost his first two starts in college after never losing a start in high school! I have no doubt that Cade is a winner, and he's going to be great, but I expected these growing pains, especially with a new Offensive Coordinator. Folks, it is super rare for a quarterback to be as successful as Watson and Lawrence were at 19 years old, and they had better receivers than DJ had or Cade has now. Fans were spoiled by Watson and Lawrence, heaped unrealistic expectations on DJ and hated him for being human. That's why it's so tough to follow a couple legends. DJ is 21 now, and he was outstanding in his Oregon State debut, scoring 5 touchdowns and completing 20 of 25 passes. Joe Burrow was average at best until he was 23 years old. More often than not, it takes time for quarterbacks to mature and become great. I tried to tell that to people over and over with DJ, but most fans made their minds up and were too biased to see all the good plays he made, only the bad. Hell, I've seen it from my own family. Anyway, Cade will be fine, and the next couple games should give him plenty of confidence and momentum.
The Tigers also made some opening game mistakes on defense, such as missed tackles, bad angles and coverage busts. For a second, it looked like Carter had Leonard sacked, and suddenly he breaks out of it and runs 40 yards for a touchdown. I talked before the game about how hard Leonard is to sack because he's elusive and gets rid of the ball quickly. That's why he was sacked just 17 times last season, fewest in the ACC. The Tigers pressured him 6 times but didn't post one sack. And this is the only defense in the nation that has recorded at least 40 sacks in every year of the playoff era.
The good news is that both sides of the ball played well for the most part, and Shipley was incredible. He averaged 6.7 yards per carry and caught his first career TD pass, which is hard to believe. He played with a ton of heart! It was just a few monumental mistakes at critical times that cost the Tigers the game. They out-gained Duke by almost 50 yards. They passed and rushed for over 200 yards. Clemson was 108-0 all-time and 58-0 under Dabo when doing that. But that's how much of a fluke this loss was. The Tigers had won an unprecedented 68 straight games when leading at halftime until the one-point loss to the Gamecocks last season. Now, they've lost 2 of their last 3 when leading at the half. It took several crucial mistakes for them to lose this game. The bright side is that all of those mistakes are very correctable. Eliminate them, as they should, and you have a team that would have beaten a top-25 caliber Duke team with an NFL quarterback on the road. This is why college should have preseason games like every other level of football, but it is what it is. If these two teams should meet again in Charlotte for the ACC Championship, I think you will see a very different version of the Tigers.
Of course, being what they are, fans will overreact to this and so will much of the media. The sky is not falling, folks, so climb off the ledge. Beat FSU in a few weeks, and this loss will seem like distant bad dream. I'm sure some of you are saying, "Yeah, right, FSU is going to slaughter us," but I honestly believe the Tigers will win that game. Remember, you read it here. This loss does not change the fact that this is an extremely talented team. All it does is make them angry, give them even more motivation and things to correct. They will right the ship over the next couple weeks with two blowout wins at home, get their confidence back, and you will see a different team in Death Valley against an overconfident FSU team that thinks it already won the national title. We could very well see a Clemson-Duke rematch in Charlotte for the ACC Championship, folks! Duke is the only team from the former Coastal division that Clemson has not played for an ACC Championship, so that would be ironic.
I'll have more analysis of the game after I watch it again. In the meantime, post-game interviews with Dabo and players are below along with notes and highlights.
GAME NOTES
- Clemson outgained Duke, 422-374, and led the Blue Devils in first downs, 29-17. Clemson is now 142-9 under Dabo Swinney when outgaining its opponent.
- The game was Clemson’s 59th contest under Swinney in which the Tigers exceeded 200 rushing yards (213) and 200 passing yards (209), but it was Clemson’s first loss when reaching those totals in his tenure. Clemson is now 58-1 under Swinney – and 108-1 all-time – when exceeding 200 yards in both categories.
- Clemson dropped to 76-3 when rushing for 200 yards under Swinney.
- Clemson now has a 123-4 record when totaling more first downs than its opponent since 2011.
- Running back Will Shipley rushed 17 times for 114 yards and caught a career-high-tying six passes for 29 yards with a touchdown.
- With 114 rushing yards in the contest, Shipley (2,034) became the 21st Clemson player to reach 2,000 career rushing yards.
- The 100-yard rushing game was the ninth of Shipley’s career. He now needs only one more 100-yard performance to become the 11th Clemson player ever to record at least 10 career 100-yard rushing games.
- Clemson dropped to 61-4 since 2011 when having a 100-yard rusher.
- Shipley (3,145) also surpassed 3,000 career all-purpose yards during the contest.
- Shipley became the 18th Clemson player ever to reach 3,000 career all-purpose yards, joining C.J. Spiller (7,588), Travis Etienne (6,894), Sammy Watkins (5,129), Derrick Hamilton (4,839), Andre Ellington (4,585), Travis Zachery (4,391), James Davis (4,335), Raymond Priester (4,282), Jacoby Ford (4,083), Wayne Gallman (3,902), Artavis Scott (3,568), Buddy Gore (3,273), Aaron Kelly (3,151), Kenny Flowers (3,146), Ray Mathews (3,128), Terry Allen (3,101) and DeAndre Hopkins (3,020).
- Quarterback Cade Klubnik completed 27-of-43 passes for 207 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also added 34 rushing yards on 12 carries.
- Clemson’s first points of the season came courtesy of a two-yard touchdown pass from Klubnik to running back Will Shipley in the second quarter.
- Though Shipley entered the game with 26 total touchdowns and a two-point conversion in his career, the touchdown was the first of his career via reception.
- Running back Phil Mafah recorded a 49-yard rush early in the third quarter. It was the second-longest rush of his career, trailing only a 63-yard rush against Florida State in 2021.
- Wide receiver Antonio Williams led Clemson with seven receptions, his second-highest total in a game. Williams’ career high is 10 receptions, set against Louisville in 2022.
- Duke opened the scoring on a 22-yard field goal on the Blue Devils’ opening possession. It marked the first time in Dabo Swinney’s head coaching tenure that Clemson surrendered points on the defense’s first drive of the season. The last time Clemson allowed points on the first defensive possession of the season was against Alabama in 2008.
- Clemson recorded the game’s first takeaway when linebacker Wade Woodaz recovered a muffed punt in the second quarter.
- It marked the second straight season opener in which Woodaz had a momentum play on special teams, as he blocked a punt against Georgia Tech in the 2022 season opener.
- Woodaz’s recovery set up a five-play, 18-yard drive that culminated in the touchdown pass from Klubnik to Shipley.
- Clemson’s second takeaway of the game helped end a Duke drive into Clemson territory in the final minute of the first half. Linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. notched his second career forced fumble, which was recovered by safety Andrew Mukuba for the second recovery of Mukuba’s career.
- The defeat snapped Clemson’s 12-game winning streak against conference opponents, the fourth-longest streak in school history.
- The game snapped a 45-game streak in which Clemson had recorded at least one sack. Prior to Monday, the last time Clemson was held without a sack was in November 2019 against Wofford.
- Clemson was held without a rushing touchdown for only the second time since the start of the 2018 season. Clemson has now rushed for a touchdown in 68 of 70 games in that span.
- Clemson dropped to 37-17-1 all-time against Duke.
- Clemson dropped to 95-25-8 all-time in season openers and 12-3 in its last 15 season debuts.
- Clemson dropped to 31-8 in games following a loss under Swinney, including season openers following a loss in the previous season finale. Clemson has not lost back-to-back games in the same season since November 2011, a streak it will attempt to keep intact next week.
- Clemson faced Duke in the Tigers’ first ACC contest of a season for the first time since 1972.
- Clemson played its 27th Monday game all-time. It was only Clemson’s 11th regular season Monday game in school history.
- Clemson opened a season in prime time for the fifth consecutive year, the second-longest streak in school history behind Clemson’s nine consecutive season debuts under the lights from 1948-56, all of which came against Presbyterian.
- Clemson and Duke played a third consecutive night game in the series (2012, 2018 and 2023) after not playing any night games against one another in the series’ first 52 contests.
- Clemson opened a season on the road for the fourth time since 2016, including No. 2 Clemson’s 19-13 win at Auburn in 2016, No. 1 Clemson’s 37-13 win at Wake Forest in 2020 and No. 4 Clemson’s 41-10 win against Georgia Tech in 2022.
- Clemson opened conference play on the road for the 10th time in the last 12 years. Monday’s game marked Clemson’s first loss in an ACC opener since 2014.
- Clemson opened a season against an ACC opponent for only the 16th time since the conference’s founding in 1953.
- Captains for the contest were defensive tackle Tyler Davis, offensive lineman Mitchell Mayes, defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro and center Will Putnam.
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