Dabo Swinney feels like his team had a chance to make a statement in Saturday’s season-opener against top-ranked Georgia.

After a hard-fought first half the Tigers were outscored 28-3 over the final two quarters as the Bulldogs rolled to a 34-3 victory in what Swinney called a playoff environment.

“They’re very frustrated because we missed an opportunity,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “We missed a free opportunity, because that one was free of charge. It’s just on your schedule. To get another one you got to go earn it because that was a playoff environment.”

However, the head coach insists his team will ultimately be better from the blowout loss, while at the same time noting that the final score isn’t indicative of the talent gap between the two teams.

“That’s a great opportunity to teach, I think it’ll really serve our team well,” Swinney said. “They got a chance to see it, do it, smell it, and they’ll grow from it. And then they also got to experience what momentum in a game like that feels like. You know, momentum in a game like that is powerful. When we won the national championship in ’18, y’all think we were 44-16 better than that Alabama team? Check the rosters. Momentum, critical plays.”

With App State coming to town on Saturday (8pm/ACCN), the Tigers will need to get things turned around in a hurry, as the Mountaineers have a Top 25 win in each of the past three seasons. Although, Swinney maintains they will do just that, and that his team will use the disappointment from the blowout loss as motivation to get better this week.

“It was really a great opportunity for us and we missed the opportunity,” Swinney said. “That’s the disappointment. Great opportunity and it got away from us in the third quarter on some very basic stuff.”

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