By Heath Bradley
CLEMSON – One word comes to mind following No. 9 Clemson’s 27-17 loss to 12th-ranked South Carolina Saturday night – “frustrating.” Facing a South Carolina team without starting quarterback Connor Shaw, the Clemson defense allowed backup Dylan Thompson to complete 23 of41 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns.
Following the game, both Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables and cornerback Xavier Brewer described the game as “frustrating” with good reason. The Clemson defense was able to make plays, especially Brewer. The cornerback, playing in his final game in Death Valley, totaled a career-high 12 tackles, recorded a sack and had an interception.
The interception came with 13:23 to play in the game, and appeared to have given the Tigers life when he picked off Thompson pass in the back of the end zone.
“I definitely thought it was the spark we needed, but we definitely missed on some opportunities,” Brewer said. “I should have had two other interceptions that could have changed the game. I’ll be looking back on all of that, and I’m still disappointed.”
The Clemson defense was able to rattle Thompson at times, sacking him a total of four times and forcing him to throw the ball away other numerous times. The Tigers also made a number of plays behind the line of scrimmage, totaling four tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
Overall, the Clemson secondary broke up eight passes, but it was not enough as Thompson was able to make the big plays when necessary, converting on several third downs by using both his arms and his feet.
One play that stood out was on third-and-19 from the Clemson 26-yard line late in the fourth quarter, when Thompson scrambled 20 yards up the middle for the first down.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney noted in the postgame press conference the importance of that play, and how it helped seal the game for South Carolina.
“Penalties, and the third-and-19 play,” he said. “It was just poor on our part. Their time of possession was unbelievable. We could never get in rhythm and it was just a bad team effort.”
Third down was the down that described what kind of night it was for the Tigers. South Carolina converted on 11 of 21 third down down opportunities, including seven on scoring drives.
“It’s frustrating,” Brewer said. “Our goal is to get turnovers and to get stops so the offense can get in a rhythm, and they are over there and they cannot get even 60 plays. It’s hard for them to get in a rhythm doing that. Then, you can’t have (Jadeveon) Clowney coming into the game fresh because they were eating up the clock on us.
“We have to get the stops, and we were not able to do that.”
The two biggest third down conversions came on a third-and-16 in the third quarter that saw Thompson hit Ace Sanders for a 34-yard touchdown. The second being the scramble for 20 yards and a first down by Thompson in the fourth quarter that set up his second touchdown pass to Bruce Ellington, which salted the game away.
“They are good team,” Brewer said. “They did not throw us any surprises with (Thompson). It was the same plays that we had been practicing. We just did not go out and execute tonight.”