While Clemson’s offense obviously had a much better showing in Saturday’s 66-17 win over Charleston Southern at Death Valley, the 25th-ranked Tigers continued to have issues in a critical area offensively during the early going of the game.

Clemson (1-1) turned the ball over two more times Saturday coming off the season-opening loss at Duke on Monday when the Tigers had three giveaways that led to 15 points for the Blue Devils.

Both of Clemson’s turnovers against Charleston Southern came in the first quarter, and those mistakes resulted in two touchdowns for the Buccaneers, keeping them in the game through halftime.

First, the Tigers coughed the ball up with a fumble on a fourth-and-1 play inside their own 30-yard line. Charleston Southern’s Trayson Fowler scooped up the fumble and returned it 25 yards to the 1, before the Buccaneers punched the ball into the end zone on a touchdown run from JD Moore that tied the score at 7 midway through the opening period.

Then, on Clemson’s next possession, the Tigers saw Charleston Southern take a 14-7 lead late in the first quarter on a 67-yard pick-six thrown by quarterback Cade Klubnik, who ended the game with a career-high 315 yards and four touchdowns.

Those two turnovers are the main reason Clemson (a 50.5-point favorite) went into halftime only up 24-17 over an FCS foe (that nearly lost to DII North Greenville a week ago) despite the Tigers having a 265-43 advantage in total yards and 18-2 advantage in first downs at the break.

Clemson has now turned the ball over five times in the first two games of the season, with three lost fumbles and two interceptions. But on the bright side for the Tigers, they did significantly better in another area of the game that plagued them in the loss to Duke.

After going just 1-for-4 in the red zone against the Blue Devils due to a couple of fumbles and a blocked field goal, Clemson bounced back by scoring on seven of its eight trips inside the red zone against Charleston Southern.

All but one of those red zone scores were touchdowns — kicker Robert Gunn also turned a red zone opportunity into points by booting the first successful field goal of his college career.

The only time the Tigers didn’t score in the red zone was at the end of the game when the clock ran out after Clemson picked up a first down.

Despite the early miscues Saturday, Clemson was still able to come out with a lopsided win after a dominant second half on both sides of the ball. After scoring 42 unanswered points in the second half against Charleston Southern, the Tigers will return to action next Saturday against Florida Atlantic at Memorial Stadium (8 p.m., ACC Network).

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