CHARLOTTE — It was a historic ACC Championship game for the third-ranked Clemson football team as it defeated Virginia by a score of 62-17 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. While the offense put on a show for the Clemson faithful, the defense put together its weakest performance of the season.

It was by no means a bad performance by the defense as they held the Cavaliers to just 17-points in a conference championship matchup, but it was the first time the Tigers defense allowed more than 300 yards in a game this season.

The Clemson defense was put into a position heading into halftime that they haven’t been in all season.

“I told them, I’m not going to let you guys walk through my mind with your dirty feet so don’t even come in here being all mad,” said defensive coordinator Brent Venables.

Coming into the game, the Clemson defense was allowing just 232.8 yards per game. Maintaining such dominance throughout a season is difficult and for many on the Clemson defense, allowing their first 300-yard performance actually lead to some relief.

“I’m kind of happy the whole 300-yard thing is off of our shoulders,” said linebacker James Skalski. “We needed that, it’s been a while since we’ve been challenged and I can tell you right now, they challenged us. That was a really good offense.”

Like all great runs in sports, at some point it has to come to an end. Luckily for the Clemson defense, the team was easily able to defeat the Cavaliers while removing a large weight off their shoulders as well. Expectations will always be high on a Brent Vanbles’ led defense, but even so, the defensive personnel can finally exit the game without worrying about the 300-yard mark.

“Each week we always wondered after the game how many yards the other team had but now we can go out there and play free,” said Isaiah Simmons. “Now we don’t really have to worry about things like that.”

Heading into the matchup, the Clemson defense bolstered the nations top ranked pass defense, allowing only 126.5 yards through the air per game. Not only did Virginia quarterback more than double that mark with 266 passing yards on the day, he also totaled over 300 yards himself in the game.

Perkins was able to do something that no other player or team was able to accomplish throughout the entirety of this season. He was able to move the ball and do it efficiently, going 10 for 18 on third downs in the game.

“Dynamic,” said K’Von Wallace. “He’s a dynamic quarterback. He (Perkins) had to do a lot with our defense and adjustments trying to contain him. He did a great job of escaping the pocket and just being himself. All in all though we came out with the win, and that’s all that matters.”

The Clemson Tigers ares ACC Champions for the fifth year in a row. Get the latest official Clemson ACC Championship gear from Fanatics.