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Clemson Football: UNC victory reminiscent of Pitt, Syracuse losses in previous years

By Shawn Spencer

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 28: Aaron Crawford #92 of the North Carolina Tar Heels wraps up Trevor Lawrence #16 of the Clemson Tigers during the second half of their game at Kenan Stadium on September 28, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Clemson won 21-20. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 28: Aaron Crawford #92 of the North Carolina Tar Heels wraps up Trevor Lawrence #16 of the Clemson Tigers during the second half of their game at Kenan Stadium on September 28, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Clemson won 21-20. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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The Clemson football team came away with a 21-20 victory over UNC Saturday. The game is reminiscent of a couple of losses suffered in previous years.

The Clemson football team came away with an ugly victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium.

The Tigers certainly didn’t play up to their potential and allowed North Carolina a shot a winning the game late in the match up.

As a matter of fact, North Carolina was just a two-point conversion away from taking the lead with just a little over a minute to go in the ballgame.

Looking back at the victory, it was certainly reminiscent of a few Clemson football games from previous seasons:

  • 2016: Pittsburgh (43-42 loss)
  • 2017: Syracuse (27-24 loss)
  • 2018: Syracuse (27-23 win)

The Tigers came into those games as heavy favorites. However, they weren’t necessarily focused on the task at hand and in the cases of 2016 and 2017, they lost the game.

The Pittsburgh loss in 2016 was at home in November with Deshaun Watson at the helm.

Though many Clemson football fans want to credit the two Syracuse games (a loss in 2017, a close win in 2018) to injured starting quarterbacks, the truth is that the Orange were battling the Tigers way before Kelly Bryant or Trevor Lawrence went down with an injury.

It just seems like every season, the Clemson football program has a scare like this. The 2016 team is somewhat similar to this year’s Tiger team. The Tigers in 2016 just seemingly slept walked through a bunch of games. They barely beat NC State earlier in the season. Finally, the Pittsburgh loss was the wake-up call they needed. They kicked into full gear and went on a tear through the postseason, eventually winning the National Championship.

The difference? This team came away with a win, they’re still undefeated.

Last season, that Syracuse win served as a wake-up call for this Clemson football team. They were able to regroup and refocus on the task at hand. From that game on, the closest match up they had was a 20-point victory on the road at Boston College. Clemson beat its opponents by a combined score of 358-84, an average of nearly 40 points per game.

Next. What went wrong in UNC victory?. dark

Hopefully this was the wake-up call that Clemson football needed. The Tigers have a bye week to regroup and refocus and I expect that we’ll see a different looking team when they take the field against Florida State two weeks from now.

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