CLEMSON – The Clemson Tigers are coming off a bye week, and enter a key matchup with Miami on the road. There’s a lot of positives that come with the open date, but it can have its curse at times.

Teams have a rhythm every week, and a week without tackling someone in a different jersey can be detrimental. This cranks to a 10 when you consider the issues the Hurricanes present on the outside.

Looking at the numbers, Miami has 1,871 receiving yards as a team and over half of them with 961 yards have come after the catch according to PFF. The Tigers have 50 missed tackles on the year and that can’t rear its ugly head in Hard Rock Stadium.

Head coach Dabo Swinney talked Wednesday about this challenge, and the bye week put it “at a premium” heading into the matchup against the Hurricanes.

“Tackling is always at a premium, especially when you’ve been off. We’ve done a lot of competitive work last week and this week. Yesterday and today trying to make sure we’re sharp and ready to go as best we can but they’ve got excellent skill,” Swinney said.

The Miami attack comes in a lot of different ways. None bigger than the pair of wide receivers Xavier Restrepo and Jacolby George. With their route running expertise, yards after the catch are an inevitability if you don’t make the play quickly.

Screens are something the Hurricanes mix in heavily under Mario Cristobal and Clemson’s ability to defend them will be put to the test. Wes Goodwin’s defense is up to every test, now it’s time for their latest assessment in tackling.

“Guys have broken a lot of tackles on about everybody they’ve played, but they’re a big screen team,” Swinney said. “So, they do get a lot of yards after the catch…They’ve got some guys that can create a little bit of space with their route running technique that can turn into yards after the catch so it’s a really good group…it’s going to be very very important in a game like this that we tackle well.”