Clemson Football: One team was on the attack last night and it wasn’t the Tigers

Like a good chunk of the fanbase, I wasn’t sure what to expect when the Clemson football team took the field Monday night in Durham.

When we last saw this team on the field they were stumbling and bumbling all over the Orange Bowl in a 31-14 loss to Tennessee.

It’s a weird thing to say that a team was stumbling and bumbling when said team accumulated 484 yards of offense, but points are what matters, and as we all recall the Tigers couldn’t punch the ball in the end zone when getting in the red zone that night.

The off-season hire of Garrett Riley was supposed to fix those ills and light up scoreboards all across the ACC.

I didn’t expect a blowout win in Riley’s first game, but I did expect an offense that executed well, scored in the red zone and was more explosive than those of the last two seasons.

We got none of that.

We got three consecutive runs by Will Shipley before a safe pass to Shipley for no gain brought the Tigers to a third and 10 and a poorly thrown pass by Cade Klubnik ended the first drive of the season.

Perhaps the Tigers’ plan was just to pound the ball at Duke, but fairly early it was obvious that was going to be hit or miss.

Yet outside of Antonio Williams, the wide receivers were largely not involved when the game was in doubt.

This looked more like Rob Spence than Chad Morris.

Meanwhile, when the Blue Devils got the ball they executed well and moved the ball right down the field until the Clemson defense stiffened inside the 5.

From drive one Duke was attacking and Clemson was playing not to lose.

Surely adjustments would be made at the half and the Tigers would come out firing on all cylinders, as the saying goes.

Much like in the Orange Bowl, the Tigers offense moved the ball up and down the field, but stumbled, bumbled and fumbled when they got close.

After a first and goal at the Duke 1, a Blake Miller penalty pushed the Tigers back and ultimately the drive ended with a partially blocked field goal.

Eight plays, 71 yards, 0 points.

The next drive saw Clemson drive from their 28 to a first and goal at the Duke 7.

A botched handoff resulted in a fumble and a Duke recovery.

Seven plays, 62 yards, 0 points.

The next drive started at the Clemson 40 and went right to the Duke 1, where Phil Mafah fumbled after a Duke helmet hit the ball.

Eleven plays, 48 yards, 0 points.

Twenty-six plays, 181 yards, 0 points, 2 turnovers and a blocked field goal.

There was a time when those three drives would result in anywhere from 17 to 21 points for a Clemson offense.

These are not those days.

I’m not exactly sure where the blame should be placed, as it seemed like something different on each drive.  A penalty, a bad exchange, a helmet on the ball.

That’s discouraging.

This is not the Clemson Football we are used to and we need to get used to that

No one expected Klubnik to be Deshaun or Trevor, Shipley or Mafah to be Etienne or Randall to be Mike Williams.

They did however expect routine blocks, plays and kicks to be made and they haven’t been.

It was indeed a “weird game”, but it was only weird on one side.

My son says he won’t believe his favorite team is going to be in the MLB playoffs until “there’s an X by their name in the standings” that means they’ve clinched a spot.

We shouldn’t believe Clemson football is going to score until they do.