By Will Vandervort.

TALLAHASEE, Fla. — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said he rather get his butt kicked by not making a fourth-and-a-foot play than missing another field goal, and that’s exactly what happened in Saturday’s 23-17 overtime loss to No. 1 Florida State.

On fourth down, and a little less than a foot to get a first down, on the Tigers’ overtime possession, Swinney and the Tigers called a power run to the right side with freshman running back Adam Choice. But Florida State’s Chris Casher and Reggie Northrup got penetration on the play and held Choice to no gain, turning the ball over on downs to the Seminoles.

“I was just trying to find the hole and the line was trying to give me a push, but I let them down,” Choice said. “The seniors worked so hard getting us in this position. I have to do better.”

Two plays later, Carlos Williams bounced a run outside and scored the game winner from 12 yards out as FSU celebrated a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

“It’s fourth-and-foot, on the road against the defending national champions–that have an 18-game winning streak—that’s on me. We did not get it done,” Swinney said.

Actually, kicker Ammon Lakip did not get it done. The redshirt junior missed two earlier kicks from 23 and 40 yards that influenced Swinney’s decision to go for in overtime.

“I rather get my tailed kicked by not making fourth-and-a-foot then I would missing a third field goal,” Swinney said. “We might have very well made it, but I wanted to put the ball in the hands of our offense. Give Florida State credit, they made the stop. They made the few critical plays that made the difference in the game.”

One of those critical plays was a caused fumble by defensive tackle Eddie Goldman when Clemson had the ball inside the FSU 20-yard line with 1:36 to play in the game. The junior stripped Clemson running back C.J. Davidson at the 14-yard line, allowing safety Nate Andrews to recover it and force overtime.

“It was a basic zone call and we had a nice little push, and the ball came out,” Swinney said. “We have to take care of the ball. Everyone in the stadium knows that. He has to take care of the ball. We are trying to go win the game right there. That’s as base and simple as we had and we turned it over.”

Clemson’s mistakes on short-yardage and goal line plays were glaring in the overtime loss. Besides the fumble and the fourth-and-short, the Tigers also failed to execute on a first-and-goal prior to the snap center Ryan Norton sailed over quarterback Deshaun Watson’s head for a 23-yard loss. That mistake led to one of Lakip’s two missed field goals.

A lot of people wonder why Watson was not under center on that play.

“Everyone is going to second guess,” Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris said. “That’s an area, where if I can say Deshaun has struggled, that’s where he has struggled the most. He has struggled with handling snaps.”

But as both Morris and Swinney said, that’s a snap they have done 10,000 times before and it’s a play Norton needs to execute.

“We have been down there many times before in my four years here and we made the snap. That is tough,” Morris said. “I thought we got it in the play before to be honest with you.”

The play before was a run by Davidson, but his back end hit the ground before the ball crossed the goal line. Before that play, Watson hit tight end Stanton Seckinger for 19 yards to the FSU one, but his knee went down before the ball crossed the goal line and replay officials overturned the touchdown the referees called on the field.

The Tigers ended up getting nothing out of that drive as Lakip missed his 40-yard kick wide right.

“When you get down there, especially when you are on the road, you have to come away with points and we did not do that,” Morris said. “The missed opportunities obviously hurt you.”

And that’s why Swinney went for it on fourth-and-short in overtime instead of kicking what should have been an easy field goal.