DJ Uiagalelei finally showed some fire in the final drives vs. Georgia Tech

DJ Uiagalelei and the Clemson offense had what might be the most disappointing offensive performance of the CFB Playoff era versus a mediocre Georgia Tech team on Saturday.

The Tigers mustered a grand total of 14 points against a Georgia Tech defense that isn’t by any means filled with future NFL stars, and they nearly lost the game in the process.

The play-calling was bad for much of the afternoon. The offensive line was weak. The wide receivers dropped passes when they finally did get open. DJ Uiagalelei showed no touch on his passes and his footwork continued to be a problem.

But, as much as we have criticized the entire offense over the course of these last couple of weeks, there might be one good thing that we can take away from this performance.

DJ Uiagalelei finally showed some fire in the final drives against Georgia Tech

I know the only thing that many fans will remember about this game when it comes to the offense is their out-of-whack play for much of the day and then the play-call to take a shotgun snap that resulted in a Will Shipley fumble and a safety with less than 10 seconds remaining.

But, amidst all the criticism, and there’s plenty to go around, I want to offer one encouraging sign.

There back-to-back drives by this Clemson offense where we saw DJ Uiagalelei finally activated in the quarterback running game and it worked to perfection.

The first one was a 12-play, 66 yard drive that was cut short by Uiagalelei fumble. In that drive, he ran the ball four times and completed his lone passing attempt to Justyn Ross for 16 yards.

On the next drive, the Tigers again had 12 plays for 66 yards. Uiagalelei was 4-of-6 for 37 yards and had that gutsy 14-yard run on 3rd and 14 to keep the drive alive. Eventually, Shipley punched the ball into the end zone.

On those two drives, Uiagalelei– and the entire offense, for that matter– showed a fire that we simply haven’t seen in either of the two previous games.

Maybe that doesn’t amount to anything. Maybe the offense continues to struggle, but if you’re a Clemson football fan, you better hope that the fire we saw from the group on those two drives can be built upon and that it can serve as a turning point for the unit as we move forward.

If it does, Clemson still has all of its goals on the table and they can make a run.

If it doesn’t, there’s certainly a chance the Tigers lose multiple games this season and may not even win the ACC because let’s not pretend that Georgia Tech team is anything close to some of the other ACC competition the Tigers will face this season.