Post-Game Quotes: Dabo Swinney, Grady Jarrett Discuss Clemson Tigers’ Loss to Georgia

After the loss to Georgia, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and some of his players talked a bit about the game and his impression of the Bulldogs. Here are a few of the more interesting quotes, courtesy of Clemson Athletics.

In his opening statement, Dabo Swinney outlined some of the things that went wrong but tried to look on the bright side.

"“I’m proud of our guys for competing hard against a really good Georgia team. We made too many mistakes against a really good team. It was 21-21 at the half and we really missed some opportunities in the first half with some drops and missed field goals. We were right there in it in a tough environment. It was a three point game late in the game and we just could not get the field position flipped. We talk a lot about the game within a game. We cannot keep a good offense the ball in great field position like we did tonight.”"

Hard to argue with any of that. The Tigers were in the game right until the fourth quarter. The defense was clearly gassed by the end and things just fell apart. With a little distance, it’ll probably start to feel like this game wasn’t nearly as bad as the final score made it look.

Swinney speaking more about field position and some of the other problems

"“Georgia’s average start was on their 43 yard line and our average start was on our own 19 yard line. That’s the difference in the game. Eventually that is going to catch up with you. They did a great job of getting us behind the chains and we got into some long yardage situations where we couldn’t convert. We were playing uphill the entire second half. It’s a three-point game late and we don’t go down there and get it done and then they come back and score to make it a 10-point game. Even then, I thought that we were right there. We just couldn’t get that critical play when we needed too. If we can get that first first down, there is a high percentage that we score. We just couldn’t do that in the second half. You have to give them credit for putting us in that position.”"

Field position really was a problem all night. Things may not have gotten away from Clemson until the fourth quarter but maybe the Tigers could have went into halftime with a lead if nearly every drive hadn’t started deep in their own territory.

Grady Jarrett spoke about the defense’s struggles to stop the Georgia running backs.

"“We just didn’t tackle. The aim of the defense is to get the guy on the ground. It’s fixable, but we knew what we were getting when we came into this game. They have great running backs and to be successful we had to tackle them and make the play. We did a good job of that for three quarters but then it got away from us, so we’ve got to learn from it and get better.”"

Jarrett also said that the defense didn’t get tired at the end.

"“I wouldn’t say we wore down. If the offense gets stopped for a three-and-out, we’ve got to go out there and get a stop, too. We are working together as a unit, and in all three phases, offense, defense, and special teams, we didn’t execute well enough to win this game tonight. Everything that happened, we are going to learn from. We know that Georgia is a really good team, and we can’t afford to make mistakes like the way we did with the tackling performance that we had in the fourth quarter. We’ve just got to finish.”"

Jarrett really says all the right things, but it’s hard to believe him when he says the defense didn’t get worn down by the end. Todd Gurley and Georgia’s other running backs were tough all night but by the end the defense just looked like they couldn’t keep up. In any case, the good news is that the Tigers won’t face another team that can run the ball like that for the rest of the year. There will be tough teams that present other challenges, of course, but there are no more running backs like Gurley left to worry about.

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