RALEIGH, N.C. — In the past, Carter-Finley Stadium has been a difficult place for Clemson to play. However, the fifth-ranked Tigers were so locked in on Saturday, even a packed house could not faze them.
Clemson scored on its first four possessions, while tying a school record with 28 first quarter points as it rolled to an easy 55-10 victory over ACC rival NC State.
“This has always been a difficult place to come to play, and the crowd does an amazing job here. It’s a great environment, but our guys were locked in and were just ready to play,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “Our execution was tremendous in that first half. We played about as clean as you can play and didn’t make any mistakes.”
The Tigers (10-0, 7-0 ACC) got 276 passing yards and 3 touchdown passes from quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who also ran for 59 yards and another score, while running back Travis Etienne ran for 112 yards and scored three times.
The Clemson defense forced four turnovers and held the Wolfpack to 4-of-13 on third down. The Tigers also held NC State to less than 300 yards, the 10th straight game they have done that and just the second team since 2000 in college football to do it. Alabama did it in 2011.
“So many good things in the game that were good to see,” Swinney said.
Below are some of those things and numbers.
0: Clemson did not produce a giveaway, representing a third straight game with zero giveaways for the first time since the North Carolina, Maryland and Georgia Tech games in 2010.
1: Clemson has now outscored opponents by a 128-7 total in first quarters this season.
3: Trevor Lawrence became the first Clemson quarterback to throw three touchdown passes in five consecutive games.
5: Clemson clinched the ACC Atlantic Division title and will play the Coastal Division champion in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 7, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. Clemson will become the first ACC team to represent a division in five consecutive ACC Championships Games.
7: Clemson earned a berth in the ACC Championship Game for the seventh time, passing Virginia Tech (six) for the most total ACC Championship Game appearances in either division. Clemson earned its eighth overall division title, including a co-championship in 2012 in which the Tigers did not appear in the ACC Championship Game.
10: Clemson has now won 10 games for a school-record ninth consecutive season. Clemson matched Texas (2001-09) for the third-longest streak of 10-win seasons in FBS history.
13: Clemson held NC State to 10 points and has now held 13 consecutive opponents to 20 or fewer points for the first time since the 1958-59 seasons under head coach Frank Howard.
18: With 18 points in the game, Etienne (324) passed C.J. Spiller (308) to become the highest-scoring non-kicker in Clemson history. Etienne now trails only kickers Chandler Catanzaro (404), Greg Huegel (379) and Aaron Hunt (329) on Clemson’s all-time career scoring leaderboard.
45: Clemson has now scored 45 points in five consecutive games for the first time in school history.
55: Clemson has now scored at least 55 points in three straight games for the first time in the program’s 124-year history. Clemson has scored at least 50 points in three straight games for the first time since 2013 against Virginia, Georgia Tech and The Citadel.
3,638: During the game, Etienne (3,638) passed C.J. Spiller (3,547) for third on the school’s all-time career rushing yardage leaderboard. Raymond Priester own the record with 3,966 yards.
—Clemson Athletic Communications contributed to this story
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