Clemson Football: It’s okay to expect better and still be happy with a win

It’s okay for Clemson football fans to expect better and still be happy with a win

There is always this sense of division among Clemson football fans when the Tigers win a game by less points than they were supposedly expected to coming into a game.

One side of the coin speaks to their disappointments with how the Tigers played and wants to see the team improve. The other side speaks of the history of the Clemson football program and talks about how they remember the days when the Tigers ‘would’ve lost that game.’

Following a 47-21 win over Syracuse on Saturday, the same discussion was being held.

The overall truth of the matter? It’s okay for Clemson football fans to expect better yet still be happy with a win. Both things can be true.

Dabo Swinney has implemented the phrase ‘Best is the Standard’ in Clemson football, as well as ‘the fun is in the winning’

Dabo Swinney was the first to admit that the Tigers didn’t play well Saturday afternoon. Clemson rushed for less than 150 yards against one of the league’s worst rush defenses.

The Tiger wide receivers didn’t create separation against the Syracuse defensive backs and Trevor Lawrence threw several inaccurate passes while putting the ball in jeopardy more times than what we had grown accustomed to seeing over the course of the first few weeks of the season.

Add all of that in with a busted 83-yard TD pass given up by the defense, a pick-six, a snap over Lawrence’s head, a missed field goal, a blocked punt and a suspect performance from the offensive line, and Swinney said it best: “We simply didn’t execute.”

Here’s the thing: You can take two vastly different ends of the spectrum, but neither are completely right.

There were some disappointing aspects of the game Saturday. There were some things that need to be corrected by this Clemson football coaching staff and there’s nothing wrong with this fan base adopting the phrase ‘Best is the Standard’ when that has been preached by Swinney for so many years.

It’s also not fair, though, to expect that every single time a group of 18-23 year olds take the field that they never make any mistakes or have trouble executing. It happens.

The blessing is the fact that even in a situation where Clemson probably played its ‘D’ game, the Tigers still won by 26 points. Was it against a bad Syracuse team? Yes. But they still got the win and there have been plenty of teams in the history of this program that would’ve lost that game Saturday.

So, as we move forward, both things can be true. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that the Tigers didn’t play well. There’s also no reason to not celebrate a win with the understanding that this all can come crumbling down at any moment. We aren’t entitled to anything.