The Clemson football team somehow came away with a win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday despite trying to give away the game in every single way imaginable.
The Tigers took a 7-0 in the first quarter following a Will Shipley touchdown and it would be quite a while before we saw any more scoring. The two teams traded punts in the second quarter before Georgia Tech went on a drive right before the end of the half.
Unfortunately, the game was stalled for nearly two hours with 0:39 remaining in the first half due to a lightning delay. We finally got back underway and Tech kicked a field goal to make it a 7-3 game heading into the third quarter.
Clemson’s offense showed some life towards the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, but a fumble by D.J. Uiagalelei negated one drive. On the next drive following that fumble, the Tigers marched 66 yards down the field and Shipley scored from three yards out to make in 14-3.
Just when we thought the game was comfortably in hand, the Tiger defense allowed Georgia Tech to go on a 70-yard drive that took 6:53 off the clock and ended with a field goal. No problem, right? You’re still up 14-6. Well, Georgia Tech recovered the onside kick and they drove down the field to the Clemson 2-yard line.
With less than 30 seconds left, Tech attempted a shovel pass on 4th down and it was stuffed by James Skalski, securing the win. Or so we thought.
Clemson took over with less than 10 seconds remaining– no Georgia Tech timeouts left– at its own two-yard line just needing to run a play to secure the win. They elected to go shotgun despite having a 250-pound quarterback and Shipley, who had been the workhorse for the offense, fumbled the ball on the handoff. He recovered in the end zone for a safety and the Tiger defense held on to secure the 14-8 win.
There’s too much to unpack here, but we all have the same question: What’s wrong with the Clemson football program and can it be fixed?
Name a game where we saw:
- A two-hour lightning delay where 85 percent of the fans left
- An onside kick recover
- A goal line stand with less than 20 seconds remaining
- A fumble on the ensuing play resulting in a safety with 7 seconds left
It’s got to be the weirdest game in the history of Clemson football, right?
There’s too much to unpack here in this space, but we all are coming to say the conclusion: There’s something wrong with this Clemson football team.
Yes, the defense made some mistakes in the third and fourth quarters, but that unit still hasn’t given up a touchdown on the season. We can’t fault them for the problems that we’re seeing. No, it’s the offense.
In particular, it’s:
- The putrid offensive line
- The terrible play-calls
- A quarterback who hasn’t shown any confidence despite a cannon arm
- Wide receivers who aren’t creating separation against the defenders
- Oh, and let’s also throw in some drops along the way, as well
If there’s any good news to come out of this game, it’s the last two drives– before the Shipley fumble– for the Clemson offense.
The Tigers, in particularly D.J. Uiagalelei, finally showed some fire on offense. Uiagalelei was effective in the quarterback running game and that opened up the door for that fourth quarter touchdown drive.
The play-calls on those two drives were much more creative than what we have seen and maybe, just maybe, there is a way to build off those two drives moving forward.
It all starts with Dabo Swinney and Tony Elliott admitting there’s a problem, though.