Football

NO.2 CLEMSON LOOKS LIKE NO.1, ROUTS FSU FOR 21ST STRAIGHT WIN; BECOMES 15TH PROGRAM TO WIN 750

2019-10-13 11:42:51
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By Trevor Groves

CLEMSON, SC – The Defending Champs received a lot of unfair criticism and doubt after beating a good UNC team on the road two weeks ago. Many on ESPN said Clemson was “struggling” this season and not the same as last year. It’s as though they all had amnesia and didn’t know the Tigers blew out their first four opponents, including a ranked Texas A&M team. You’d have thought the Tigers lost to UNC the way the national media and pollsters reacted, dropping the winners of 20 straight to No.2 and replacing them with the Alabama team they humiliated just nine months ago 44-16 in the National Championship. Well, the Defending Champs came out on Saturday after the bye week and shut their critics up emphatically with a 45-14 rout of Florida State after leading 42-0 in the 3^rd, reminding everyone who the real No.1 team is. The Tigers extended their nation-long win streak to 21 games, and Clemson became just the 15^th school in history to win 750 games.

The Seminoles won the toss and deferred, which played right into Dabo’s hands. He, Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott had a worked up a wonderful script for the opening drive that the Tigers executed to perfection. Trevor Lawrence completed a 40-yard pass on the very first play to Tee Higgins on a 50-50 ball, and on the next play, Travis Etienne completed his first career pass to Justyn Ross for 23 yards. That was like throwing gasoline on the fire of the already frenzied Death Valley crowd. After a couple runs by Etienne, he scored on an inside shovel pass from Trevor on 4^th and one. The six-play touchdown drive was like a repudiation of all the nonsense that was thrown the Tigers’ way over the last two weeks. It was as if the Tigers were saying, “Hey, college football world, we’re still the undefeated Defending Champs!”

The opening drive was just a taste of things to come, as the offense exerted its will all day on the Noles. Justyn Ross came into the game with just one touchdown against Texas A&M, but he scored on back-to-back possessions and almost made it a hattrick, finishing with 5 catches for 61 yards. As I predicted, both he and Amari Rodgers had big games. Rodgers, who had 2 long TD catches last year in Tallhassee, took a reverse 29 yards for a touchdown. Etienne rushed for 127 yards, averaging 7.5 yards per carry, and Lyn-J Dixon added 49 more on 10 carries. Trevor Lawrence was an efficient 17-25 for 170 yards with 3 touchdowns in limited playing time. He also continued his productive running, rushing for yards and another touchdown, his 5^th rushing TD of the season. After just one rush TD last season, Trevor now has one in every game except for Charlotte. He did make a bad decision on an interception, however, in the second half when the game was well in hand. On 3^rd and 2 after being flushed from the pocket, he tried to do too much and threw the ball down the sideline as he was falling out of bounds. Free safety Hamsah Nasirildeen made an outstanding toe-dragging catch on the sideline to give Trevor his 6^th INT on the season. The Tigers also had a couple of false starts, which is a little disconcerting, especially at home. John Simpson committed his third in three quarters after jumping twice in the second half at UNC. The Tigers had 5 false starts in that game, and they will have to clean that up. The only other negatives were a fumble by Dixon, a couple of personal fouls and a missed 24-yard field goal by Potter. It was the second easy field goal Potter has missed in as many games—the miss at UNC nearly cost the Tigers the game—and Dabo benched Potter for Sawicki, who made a 26-yarder in the 4^th quarter. Dabo told us after the game that Sawicki is now the starter. He said that Potter has been great in practice and is clearly the more talented kicker, but he’s missed easy field goals in consecutive games, and sometimes a young player needs to spend some time on the sideline. Potter has been superb on kickoffs and will continue to handle those, but Sawicki will be the field goal specialist until he gives Dabo a reason to go back to Potter. It will be interesting to see if Dabo gives Potter another shot on a long field goal at some point because his leg is much stronger.

On the defensive side, the Tigers’ starting unit was sensational. For the second year in a row, they shut down All-ACC running back Cam Akers, holding him to just 34 yards after 11 yards last year. The allowed just 63 total yards at the half and 172 through 3 quarters. The Noles were just 1-9 on 3^rd down through the first three quarters with as many punts (7) as they had points. The defense was pitching a shutout until Alex Hornibrook found big-play WR Tamorrion Terry for a 64-yard touchdown with 2 minutes left in the 3^rd. The Noles played musical quarterbacks for the entire game, alternating series between Blackman and Hornibrook, but neither QB was ever able to consistently move the ball against the Tigers. The biggest take-away from the defensive performance was their take-aways. They created four turnovers—3 interceptions and a fumble—after coming away with none in Chapel Hill for the first time in several games. They now have 8 interceptions on the season and almost had a couple more against the Noles. Former WR Derion Kendrick returned his first career INT 38 yards for a touchdown. It was the Tigers’ second pick-six this season. Chad Smith also posted his first career INT, and Muse collected his third of the season. Denzel Johnson forced the fumble, and it was recovered by Simmons, who again led the Tigers in tackles and had a sack and tackle-for-loss on back-to-back plays.

The Tigers have beaten the Noles in 5 straight, outscoring them 104-24 in the last two meetings! I predicted 48-17 in my preview and wasn’t far off. In fact, the Tigers ran the clock out with the ball at the FSU 7-yard-line. The Tigers could have easily scored 60 or more if they wanted to, though. I expected them to prove the UNC game was a one-game anomaly, and that’s exactly what they did. It’s as if the knee-jerk national media can only remember the last game played, so it will be interesting to see what they say about the Tigers this week. Paul Finebaum even had the temerity and short-sightedness to say the Tigers weren’t a playoff team. What a laugh—especially after No.3 UGA from his beloved SEC lost at home to the South Carolina team that lost to UNC with a crowd advantage! I said after the UNC game that all of those doubters on ESPN will be made to look foolish in the long run and that the Tigers would be No.1 when the real rankings are released in November. Expect more blowouts like this one to come!

COACH/PLAYER POST-GAME INTERVIEWS HERE

GAME NOTES

Clemson won its 750th game in program history, becoming the 15th FBS program to accomplish the feat and the first member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to do so.
Head Coach Dabo Swinney (122-30) improved his career winning percentage to .803. Pending the results of Washington vs. Arizona this evening, Swinney could enter next week having surpassed Washington’s Chris Petersen as the winningest active head coach among FBS coaches with at least five seasons of experience.
Clemson possessed the ball for 39:37, surpassing its 38:56 possession time against North Carolina on Dec. 5, 2015 for the longest in the Swinney era.
The 39:37 possession time was Clemson’s longest since its school-record 42:58 possession time against North Carolina on Nov. 7, 1992.
Clemson ran a season-high 91 plays, the team’s most since running 92 plays against South Carolina on Nov. 24, 2018.
Clemson gained 552 total yards, surpassing the 524 yards posted by the Tigers against the Seminoles last year for the most Clemson has posted against Florida State in a game in series history.
Clemson reached 550 yards in a game for the 33rd time under Swinney, improving to 31-2 in those contests.
Clemson rushed for 320 yards, marking Clemson’s 17th 300-yard rushing game under Swinney. Clemson is 16-1 in those contests. It was Clemson’s second 300-yard game of the season, joining a 411-yard effort against Georgia Tech.
Clemson tied its season high with four takeaways, matching the mark set against Georgia Tech in the season opener.
Three of Clemson’s takeaways came via interception, Clemson’s first time posting three picks in a game since Nov. 5, 2016 vs. Syracuse.
Clemson rushed for two touchdowns and has now rushed for multiple touchdowns in seven consecutive games for the first time since a nine-game streak to open the 2018 season. Clemson has rushed for at least one touchdown in 21 consecutive games, every game since the start of the 2018 season.
Clemson recorded three sacks and has now posted multiple sacks in a 14th consecutive game for the first time since the 2012-13 seasons. It represents Clemson's fifth multi-sack streak of 14 games or more since 1980 (18 from 1991-92, 17 from 1998-99, 15 from 2012-13, 14 from 2000-01).
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 17-of-25 passes for 170 yards with three passing touchdowns and rushed six times for 40 yards with one rushing touchdown prior to exiting the game with a 42-point lead in the middle of the third quarter.
On his final passing touchdown of the game,Lawrence tied Woodrow Dantzler (41 from 1998-2001) for fifth on the program's all-time leaderboard for career touchdown passes.
Lawrence has now thrown a touchdown pass in 16 consecutive games and has thrown a touchdown in 20 of his 21 career games.
Lawrence passed for three touchdowns and rushed for another touchdown in the first half, marking the first time in his career he’s been responsible for four touchdowns in a single half.
Lawrence tied Cullen Harper (47) for eighth on Clemson's all-time leaderboard for career total touchdown responsibility.
Running back Travis Etienne recorded 127 rushing yards on 17 carries, a 23-yard pass completion and a three-yard receiving touchdown.
The 100-yard rushing performance was Etienne’s second of the season and the 11th of his career. He is now one game shy of tying Andre Ellington and C.J. Spiller for fourth-most 100-yard rushing games in school history.
With 127 rushing yards on the day, Etienne (3,013) broke 3,000 career rushing yards, becoming the seventh player in school history to record 3,000 career rushing yards.
With 130 all-purpose yards in the game, Etienne (3,630) passed Artavis Scott (3,568) to enter the Top 10 in career all-purpose yards in school history.
Etienne recorded his first career pass completion on a 23-yard pass to Justyn Ross in the first quarter. Etienne became the first Clemson running back to complete a pass since C.J. Spiller on Nov. 14, 2009, at NC State.
During the contest, Etienne (3,013) passed Kenny Flowers (2,914) for seventh on Clemson's all-time rushing yardage leaderboard.
Etienne’s 127 rushing yards were the fourth-most by a Clemson player against Florida State all-time.
Clemson opened the scoring on a three-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to Etienne. Clemson pushed its record to 43-0 when scoring first since 2015.
The touchdown reception was Etienne’s first of the season and the third of his career. He most recently caught a touchdown pass in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Lawrence added to his single-season career high in rushing touchdowns, adding his fifth of the season on an eight-yard scoring rush in the first quarter.
Lawrence has now rushed for a touchdown in five of Clemson’s first six games. He is the first Clemson quarterback to rush for a touchdown in five of the first six games of a season since Woody Dantzler in 2000.
Lawrence’s touchdown run gave Clemson a 14-0 advantage after one quarter. Florida State entered the contest having outscored its first five opponents this season, 59-9, in the first quarter of games.
Clemson added its third touchdown of the opening half of a 10-yard pass from Lawrence to wide receiver Justyn Ross.
The touchdown reception was Ross’ second of the season and his first since the second game of the season against Texas A&M.
Ross recorded his second touchdown reception of the season in the second quarter, tying his single-game career high. He recorded two touchdown catches against Notre Dame in the 2018 Cotton Bowl, a game in which both of his scoring receptions also came in the second quarter.
Wide receiver Amari Rodgers recorded his first career rushing touchdown on a 29-yard run in the third quarter.
Rodgers joined Adam Humphries, Jacoby Ford, C.J. Spiller and Chansi Stuckey as the only Clemson players since 2000 to score via rush, reception and punt return in their careers.
On his second reception of the game, a four-yard pass from Lawrence, wide receiver Tee Higgins reached 100 career catches. On that same play, Lawrence became the eighth Clemson player to complete 350 career pass completions all-time.
Safety Tanner Muse recorded his career-high third interception of the season in the first quarter, picking off Florida State Alex Hornibrook, who had opened his Seminole tenure with 62 consecutive pass attempts without an interception prior to Muse’s interception.
Clemson has now recorded an interception in nine of its last 10 games, dating to last season.
Linebacker Chad Smith recorded his first career interception in the second quarter, giving Clemson its first multi-interception game since the season opener against Georgia Tech.
Linebacker Isaiah Simmons added to his single-season career high in sacks in the second quarter, forcing a fumble on his fourth sack of the season.
Simmons added a fumble recovery in the third quarter, recovering a fumble forced by safety Denzel Johnson.
Cornerback Derion Kendrick recorded his first career interception and returned it 38 yards for a Clemson touchdown. It was Clemson’s second pick-six of the season, joining safety K’Von Wallace’s 66-yard interception return against Charlotte.
Clemson has now recorded multiple interception returns for touchdowns every year since 2013, the longest such streak in the FBS.
A 14-0 advantage in points off turnovers pushed Clemson’s edge in that category to 97-21 in the last nine games, dating to the start of the 2018 postseason.
Linebacker Kane Patterson recorded his first career sack in the fourth quarter.
Kicker Steven Sawicki recorded his first career field goal, a 26-yarder in the fourth quarter.
Clemson carried a 28-0 lead into halftime against Florida State for the second year in a row. Clemson has now won 71 of its last 73 games when leading at halftime. In the first halves of Clemson’s last two games against Florida State, Clemson holds a 56-0 edge in points, a 614-128 advantage in total yards and a 35-10 advantage in first downs.
Clemson improved to 92-2 since 2011 when leading after three quarters.
Clemson now has a 92-2 record when totaling more first downs than its opponent since 2011.
Clemson won the turnover margin, 4-2, and now has a 50-3 record when winning the turnover margin since 2011. It was Clemson’s third time winning the turnover margin this season and snapped a three-game streak of losing the turnover margin.
Clemson improved to 59-1 when rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.
Clemson is now 45-0 when both passing and rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.
Clemson improved to 40-1 since 2015 when outscoring opponents in the "Middle Eight," defined as the final four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half.
Clemson is now 42-2 when having a 100-yard rusher since 2011.
Clemson did not allow a 100-yard rusher in the contest and has not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 27 straight games, the longest active streak in the FBS.
Captains for the contest were offensive lineman Gage Cervenka, linebacker James Skalski, linebacker Isaiah Simmons and guard John Simpson.

WITH THE WIN…

Clemson won its 21st consecutive game, dating to the start of the 2018 season, to extend the longest winning streak in school history and second-longest winning streak in ACC history.
Clemson won a 15th consecutive ACC regular season game for the second time in school history (20 from 1981-84). Including postseason play, Clemson has now won 17 consecutive games against ACC competition.
Head Coach Dabo Swinney won his 122nd career game as a head coach, passing the career total of College Football Hall of Famer and Clemson legend Danny Ford, who won 121 career games (96 at Clemson and 25 at Arkansas).
Clemson, who entered the game second in the AP Poll after being ranked No. 1 last game, won its 14th consecutive game when ranked lower in the AP Poll than in its previous contest. Clemson is now 22-4 under Swinney when playing a game at a lower AP ranking than in its previous contest, including season openers in which Clemson opened lower than it finished the prior season.
Clemson has now won five consecutive games against Florida State for the first time in series history. Clemson was already the first school to defeat Florida State in ACC play in four consecutive years and pushed that mark to five. (Note: Miami previously accomplished defeated Florida State in six straight games from 2000-04, including a bowl game, but only the final game of that streak came during Miami's ACC membership.)
Clemson earned its 13th all-time victory against Florida State.
Clemson improved to 8-1 in its last nine home games against Florida State and evened its all-time home record against the Seminoles at 8-8.
Swinney pushed his all-time record against Florida State to 7-5.
Clemson won its 10th straight game against ACC Atlantic Division opponents and has now won 30 of its last 31 games against divisional foes.
Clemson pushed its winning streak in Saturday games to 35 to extend the longest Saturday winning streak in school history. Clemson's current 34-game run of consecutive Saturday victories is the longest active streak in the country.
Clemson has now won 64 of its last 68 games overall dating to 2014, including 38 of its last 40 games against ACC teams.

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