Clemson football falls to Notre Dame, ending their 36-game regular season winning streak
The Clemson football team fell short up in South Bend following a double-overtime thriller, but the Tigers will be ready for their rematch in a few weeks.
Clemson fell down 10-0 early, but D.J. Uiagalelei answered with a 53-yard touchdown pass to Cornell Powell making the game 10-7. After the two teams traded field goals, the Tigers suffered two turnovers- fumbles from Travis Etienne and Amari Rodgers– that cost them 10 points and Notre Dame took a 23-13 lead into halftime.
The Tigers dominated the third quarter, taking the lead after B.T. Potter‘s third field goal of the nigh (he’d finish with four) and then an Uiagalelei touchdown pass to Davis Allen.
Though Etienne powered in for a 3-yard touchdown with 3:33 remaining, giving the Tigers a 33-26 lead, Clemson wasn’t able to milk the clock once it got the ball back. Of course, the Fighting Irish were aided by several questionable calls throughout the night.
In the end, Notre Dame drove down the field and scored a touchdown with just 0:22 remaining to tie it up and then the Fighting Irish were able to score the game-winning touchdown in the second overtime and a defensive stop sealed a 47-40 win for Notre Dame.
Uiagalelei finished the night completing 29-of-44 passing attempts for 439 yards and accounted for three touchdowns.
Clemson football will be ready the next time they play Notre Dame
Look, Clemson gave Notre Dame the game in too many ways. From the turnovers, to poor coaching decisions down the stretch, to bad offensive line play and then questionable officiating, there was plenty of blame to go around.
That being said, this game will be a building block for Clemson football.
Despite all of their mistakes, the Tigers still had their chances to win the game and simply didn’t do it. The defense was gassed towards the end of the night and it was clear that they were missing James Skalski, Tyler Davis and Mike Jones Jr.
In the end, everything is still on the table.
The Tigers can still win the ACC Championship and they can still end up in the CFB Playoff. They need to learn from this loss and address the obvious issues within the team on the bye week.
And there’s one thing that’s for sure: Clemson will be ready when the time comes to play Notre Dame again.
It’s a disappointing loss and it stings, but a loss in this one without Trevor Lawrence on the field is not the end-all, be-all for this Tiger team.