By William Qualkinbush.

Brent Venables does not need to watch the film. He is fully confident in what he saw with his eyes in Saturday’s 50-35 win over North Carolina that did not exactly feature many defensive highlights.

Clemson’s defensive coordinator said his team’s performance this week and the one he witnessed in Tallahassee that allowed the Tigers a chance to beat Florida State were “on two different planets”.

Even in a win, Venables is not the kind of coach that will let his players rest on their laurels after a sloppy finish. He knows his unit is capable of better.

“I thought we had matured beyond that,” Venables said. “But it’s not all on them. We’ve got to do a better job, obviously, of getting them to understand what we want and how to defend certain things.”

A week after holding the nation’s top-ranked team to 317 yards of total offense and 17 points, the Tigers surrendered 342 yards and 28 points in the second half alone to a North Carolina team that was reeling at halftime. Often times, it takes some film study to identify the culprits for big plays, but Venables is certain he knows what went wrong for his defense late in the action on Saturday.

The short touchdown pass on fourth down to Quinshad Davis late in the third quarter?

“We’ve got a fourth-and-goal, we’re not getting the call and we don’t have a contain player. We’re going to sack him. We’ve got great coverage. You can’t cover them for 15 seconds.”

The 75-yard catch-and-run on a short pass to explosive all-purpose player Ryan Switzer on the first play of an early fourth quarter drive?

“They ran the basic jailbreak screen, as elementary as it gets against the screen. They blocked us on it, and they blocked us good. We just did a poor job reacting.”

Elijah Hood’s eight-yard run with just more than five minutes to play?

“We’re running basic zone plays and letting guys run outside of us.”

They were mistakes that made Venables cringe. He was unequivocal in saying last week that, despite the strong play by his unit in a tough environment, he chalked the Florida State defeat up as “just another loss” in the grand scheme of things.

Even though results matter to Venables, he also expects the Clemson defense to play sound and disciplined football, and he said those things were lacking on Saturday night.

“I didn’t think we played with the same kind of passion and intensity and focus that we needed to finish the game,” Venables said. “We needed a good, strong four quarters.”

His players agreed. They were out there in the trenches as things started going wrong, and they knew—as Venables did—where the problems began.

“We weren’t really focused in the second half,” said defensive end Shaq Lawson, who was credited for a sack and a safety prior to halftime. “We felt like we dominated the whole first half. In the second half, we just didn’t come out ready to finish the game.”

Safety Robert Smith felt the fast pace of North Carolina’s offense led to sloppiness and a lack of attention to detail.

“I think that’s really where the missed assignments came from,” Smith said. “But it’s nothing that we can’t correct.”

The unique challenge presented by North Carolina’s offense was not lost on any observers in Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, but Venables is not giving his unit a pass. He knows similar issues can crop up at any time, in situations that might be less forgiving to his defense.