Clemson football stones Virginia Tech: Final Score, Analysis, Stats

Clemson football stones Virginia Tech Hokies in Blacksburg

The Clemson football team came away with a win in its final regular season game as the Tigers downed the Virginia Tech Hokies 45-10 in Blacksburg.

It wasn’t pretty by any means, but the Tigers ultimately got the job done.

Virginia Tech actually took an early 7-3 off a 4-yard Khalil Herbert rush with 3:45 left, but Clemson answered with its own touchdown- a 17-yard rush from Trevor Lawrence– to retake the lead 10-7 with 0:12 remaining in the first quarter.

The Hokies tied it up with their own field goal and Clemson answered with another touchdown on a 19-yard rush from Lyn-J Dixon to make it 17-10, but things got extremely interesting right before halftime. Virginia Tech threw up a Hail Mary and it was caught by Raheem Blackshear off of a tip. Had he been able to reach out his arm, it would’ve been a touchdown and we would’ve been all tied up. Instead, he was forced out of bounds just a half-yard short and the Tigers kept the lead.

Though Virginia Tech kept it close for much of the third quarter, things began to unravel for the Hokies as fumbles proved to be costly. Lawrence scored another touchdown and Derion Kendrick cashed in on a scoop-and-score to make it 31-10 heading into the fourth quarter. We saw Lawrence connect on 65-yard touchdown pass to Cornell Powell in the fourth, followed later by a 50-yard rush up the middle by Darien Rencher to give us a final score of 45-10.

Stat Leaders & Analysis for Clemson football against Virginia Tech

Passing: Trevor Lawrence 12-of-22 for 195 yards and 1 TD, 1 INT.

Rushing: Travis Etienne 16 carries, 66 yards; Darien Rencher 1 carry, 50 yards; Chez Mellusi 3 carries for 44 yards; Lawrence 7 carries for 41 yards, 2 TDs; Lyn-J Dixon 3 carries for 37 yards, 1 TD.

Receiving: Cornell Powell 4 catches for 90 yards, 1 TD; Braden Galloway 1 catch for 49 yards; Amari Rodgers 3 catches for 32 yards.

Analysis:

It was disappointing to see the Clemson football team come out and just look flat. Virginia Tech was flying around and the Tigers were just vanilla offensively and struggled early on to get off the field defensively, with James Skalski sidelined after the first drive.

Clemson was able to finally establish a bit of a running game (finishing the day with 238 yards rushing) but the passing game was probably the worst we’ve seen all season. Lawrence had a couple of throws where he simply didn’t see defenders and the Tiger wide receivers struggled to create separation on the corners.

Clemson got it figured out defensively, but it took some time. The Tigers were out-played physically early on, but the defensive line began to get more pressure and create negative plays- including fumbles- as the game progressed. However, it was still disappointing to see the defensive backfield get burned on a few occasions by leaving guys opens particularly near or moving towards the sideline.

In the end, the Tigers covered the spread and came away with a 35-point win while playing their ‘C’ game. We’ve yet to see this Clemson football team put together a full four quarter effort yet and that’s something they’re absolutely going to need as we move forward with the ACC Championship matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and- if they find a way to win that one- in the CFB Playoff.

All of Clemson’s goals will be on the line when the Tigers take the field again in two weeks against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte.