Clemson Football: Tigers down Noles, remain unbeaten

On a day when three more Power 5 undefeated teams fell by the wayside, Clemson football went to Tallahassee, fell behind, dominated for a large swath of the game, then ended up holding on for a 34-28 win over Florida State.

The critics will be, and some already are, out as the Tigers gave up a couple of late scores to make this one interesting and truthfully there are some things worth criticizing.

We’ll get to those at some point, but on a day when Penn State fell to earth, Alabama gave up 52 and Southern Cal once again disappointed, one thing still rings true – it’s really hard to win in college football and it’s even harder to win every week.

That’s not an excuse, I’ve said before that this team is a notch or two behind the top teams in college football, but here’s the thing – if you make the playoff no one cares what happened in October.

D.J. Uiagalelei completed 15 of 23 passes for 203 yards and 3 scores and once again protected the ball, while Will Shipley ran for 121 yards and the “middle eight” turned into more like the “middle thirteen” and that was that.

I had predicted a breakout game for Antonio Williams and that appeared to be on the table early with the 59-yard touchdown pass for the Tigers first score, followed by a 17-yard reception, but apparently, Brandon Streeter forgot he was out there and he disappeared from the game plan.

Speaking of the offense, they went into a shell in the fourth quarter when the most exotic play was D.J. off tackle.

Clemson football has plenty of work to do, but there’s something to say for being undefeated in mid-October

Yes, there are nits to be picked, mistakes to be corrected and questions to be asked, but let me remind you of this – by season’s end Georgia or Tennessee will have a loss, as will Michigan or Ohio State.  Those are facts.  One of them may have two after the conference championship games.

First, though, the undefeated Syracuse Orange come to Death Valley next week for a matchup of unbeaten ACC teams in late October.

Who could have imagined that back in August?

No one, probably.  Not even those who “knew” D.J. Uiagaleli would have 17 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions after 7 games.