Following Saturday’s 24-17 loss at NC State, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney assessed the performance of his starting quarterback, Cade Klubnik.

In his ninth career start, the sophomore went 33-of-50 passing for 263 yards and threw two interceptions.

One of those interceptions was a crucial pick-six early in the second half that gave NC State a two-score advantage. It came off a pass that was deflected by Devon Betty and then caught by Payton Wilson, who returned it 15 yards and dove into the end zone for a 17-7 lead five minutes into the third quarter.

Swinney isn’t blaming Klubnik for what transpired on that particular costly play.

“He did a lot of good things. Obviously, he made the right read on the tipped ball. I mean, it was a really good read,” Swinney said. “It was coming open really nice, good design. (Phil) Mafah is who he was getting ready to trigger the ball to. I mean, he’s expecting hands down, and the guy got a hand on it. It’s a game of inches, so that was a critical error. Like I said, I don’t know what else he could do right there. He made the right decision, and he came back and made some good plays.”

Klubnik’s other interception occurred in the first quarter when a pass sailed over the intended receiver’s head and into the hands of NC State’s Devan Boykin. That pick led to seven points for the Wolfpack as well, as they capitalized on the mistake with a 9-yard touchdown pass from MJ Morris to Kevin Concepcion.

Swinney gave his overall evaluation of what he saw from Klubnik, whose 33 completions were a career-high and 50 pass attempts were four shy of his career high of 54 attempts set in last year’s Orange Bowl.

“He missed a couple early. He missed a little swing route early in the game, but he came back and hit a few of those,” Swinney said. “He gave us a chance. There was one other screen on third down and maybe 5 that he just needed to probably get a little more air on it, and we had it. It was a crack screen. I think it was Beaux (Collins) coming across, and the ball got knocked down. He was under a little bit of pressure, but maybe that play right there to get it to him. But we’ll watch the tape.”

After NC State (5-3, 2-2 ACC) took a 24-7 lead to the fourth quarter, Clemson rallied with a rushing touchdown and field goal to get back within seven points.

The Tigers (4-4, 2-4) had a chance to tie the game on their final possession, and they got as far as the Wolfpack 48-yard line before the drive stalled with a sack and ultimately ended with Klubnik’s incomplete pass on fourth-and-19 in the waning seconds.

“Again, he battled his butt off and he gave us an opportunity, made some good decisions,” Swinney said of Klubnik. “I thought he was seeing it well. We had one big drop that could’ve helped us there on that last punt that we had to punt. That hurt.”

“But just not good enough by me, mainly,” Swinney added, taking responsibility.

Swinney, Klubnik and the Tigers will try to bounce back from two consecutive losses when they take on Notre Dame this Saturday at Death Valley. Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. on ABC.