By Will Vandervort.
After playing what Dabo Swinney said was one of the best first halves he has seen in his seven years as Clemson’s head coach, somebody turned off the power switch to his offense in Saturday’s 45-21 loss to 12th-ranked Georgia.
What else could it have been?
Even after watching the film of the game on Sunday, Swinney still doesn’t t understand why it happened?
“For whatever reason we played fifty plays of really good football and then it was a like a switch flipped and we were having mental errors that we had not had with really nothing (Georgia did) different,” Swinney said in his weekly teleconference with the media on Sunday.
In the first half, the Tigers (0-1) totaled 276 yards of offense, including 102 on the ground. They also converted 7 of 13 third downs, were 2-for-2 on fourth down plays and had 14 first downs.
“I think what we did in the first half was awesome,” Swinney said. “We had control of the game and had them on their heels. The only time we did not score, was when we had the three drops that killed a couple of drives and we missed a field goal.
“On that missed field goal we thought we had the ball on the three-yard line, but Mike Williams had stepped out of bounds.”
After that Clemson was not the same team. In the second half, the Tigers managed only one first down and 15 yards of total offense. They also failed to capitalize on their last seven third down conversions and quarterbacks Cole Stoudt and Deshaun Watson were sacked four times.
“We had some poor fundamental things in pass protection that we can correct. Everything is very correctable,” Swinney said. “The key plays that we missed on I think were there. If you are going to win those types of games, there is a very small margin for error on the road against what is probably going to be a solid top 10 team. You have to make those types of plays.”
Swinney said the Tigers were a little conservative in the second half and it played a big role in what happened. Clemson’s average starting field position in the third quarter was its own 14.
But he said in the end, they have to learn how to make plays in those situations so they can flip the field.
“We just could not get that key play that we needed,” he said. “That was probably the biggest disappointment and will be something we have to get corrected.”
Georgia deserves the credit. Though his offense was horrible in the last 30 minutes, Swinney says Georgia deserves credit for wearing his defense down in the fourth quarter and executing its running game to perfection.
The Bulldogs (1-0) scored three touchdowns on consecutive offensive plays in the fourth quarter with runs of 18, 47 and 51 yards by running backs Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb.
“Give Georgia some credit they started to go outside and around us,” he said. “We were holding up really well inside with our defensive tackles. I thought they played very well, especially DeShawn (Williams) and Grady (Jarrett).
“They did a good job of cracking us, splitting us and cutting us and we did not spill some of the things probably. Again, several things we can correct and learn from, but when you are playing against a guy like Gurley, you don’t have a lot of room for error. They were forcing our corners to come up and make a tackle and we missed a couple of tackles – key ones and it turned into big plays for them.”
Gurley finished the game with 198 yards and three touchdowns.
Breaking up the wall. Swinney said Gurley’s 100-yard kickoff return in the second quarter was simply due to some of his players being afraid to get in there and break up the wedge that opened the hole for the Bulldogs’ powerful running back.
Several players, including running back Wayne Gallman, tried to go around Georgia’s wedge instead of busting it up. When that happened Gurley was able to hit the hole and out run everyone to the Clemson end zone.
Gurley’s touchdown tied the game at 21 with 7:15 to play in the first half.
Injury report. Clemson tight end Sam Cooper broke his fibula bone in his left foot during pre-game warm ups and did not play in Saturday’s game. Swinney said the good news for Cooper and the team is that the injury is not too serious and the bone is a non-weight baring bone in the foot.
Cooper is expected to be back in three weeks.
Swinney said the team came out of the game in fairly good health with only a few bumps and bruises.
Wide receiver Artavis Scott left the game after catching his 35-yard ball from Stoudt in the second quarter which led to a Clemson touchdown, but he returned to the game later on.
Clemson will play South Carolina State this Saturday in Death Valley in the home opener for the Tigers.