After an emotional and physical battle against Louisville, Clemson had a short week before they travelled to Boston to take on Boston College on a Friday night. This one had “trap game” written all over it and the Tigers needed to play carefully to avoid an upset.
At the end of the day, there was no real cause for concern as Clemson thumped the Eagles 56-10 to improve to 6-0 overall for the fourth time under Head Coach Dabo Swinney.
Clemson’s offense looked a bit like its old self in this game, even though they only ran 60 offensive plays. The main thing that seemed to help them was the fact that they got off to a hot start, scoring 21 points in the first quarter before stuttering a bit in the second. After halftime, the Tigers went back to relying on an old friend: tempo. While it wasn’t a blazing pace, it was enough to keep a strong Boston College defense on its heels.
Also, unlike in past games, Clemson did not take their foot off the gas after gaining a sizable lead, instead continuing to play their game even when they brought in most of the backups. There are still a lot of issues to clean up but it looks like Swinney’s offense is improving in each game they play.
Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables has not failed to impress yet again this season, getting the Clemson defense ready to compete on a national level despite losing most of his starters to the NFL. Not only have they played well, they have kept the Tigers in games when the offense has been struggling.
While Boston College’s offense is far from the best in the country, Clemson’s defense shut them down. The only points given were results of short fields due to special teams blunders. After Ray-Ray McCloud fumbled a punt at the Clemson 12 yard-line, the Tiger defense held Boston College to a field goal which constituted the only meaningful points scored against the starters. The only touchdown the Eagles scored was after an odd kick from Andy Teasdall. It was far from the prettiest drive for the Clemson defense and Venables was laying into his players on the sideline afterwards but all in all it was a solid performance from them.
However, against better teams, there were still mistakes that could cost the Tigers. The main issue on both sides of the ball is consistency. The offense can go from scoring on almost every drive to sputtering and keeping the defense on the field for too long while the defense goes from being a brick wall to spotty at best.
The offense has to work on its ball control and stop turning over as much and putting the defense in short field situations. They also still have to work on catching the ball. While the number of drops has decreased, there are still too many for a team hoping for a championship victory.
As far as the defense, they have to work on closing out games. While they are shutting down teams in the early going, towards the ends of halves they begin to give up some chunk plays in an attempt not to give up the deep pass. They also have been heavily penalized so far, especially in the secondary. While it is to be expected with young corners, it is still an issue that needs to be addressed before the postseason rolls around.
A team wants to be playing its best at the end of the season and the Tigers are on the upswing over the last several games.
With a few more improvements, they will be the caliber team everyone expected them to be at the start of the season.
The Tigers will be back at home to face NC State on Oct. 16 at noon.