CLEMSON — After experiencing so many struggles at home this season, Clemson put the roar back in Death Valley on Saturday night with a 24-10 win over ACC rival Florida State.
The loss snaps a three-game home losing streak and also ends the Tigers’ six-game home losing streak against Power-4 opponents.
Clemson moves to 4-5 on the season and 3-4 in ACC play, while FSU falls to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in league play. The Tigers now just need two more wins to qualify for a bowl game.
The 10 points are a season low for the Seminoles, as was the 110 rushing yards.
Snapped Skid At Just Right Time
Much has been made about the Tigers not having beaten a Power-4 opponent since October of last year. That streak stretched back more than a year.
If Clemson had lost this game, the next opportunity to have snapped that skid wouldn’t have come until next September. Almost two years would have passed between wins over Power conference teams at home. At a minimum. This victory over FSU saves the fan base of having to hear about that all offseason.
Caught Some Much-Needed Breaks
After the way this season has gone for Clemson, this team was due for a break or two, and they finally caught a few in this one. While it wasn’t nearly to the level we saw last week against Duke, there were still some coverage busts for the Tigers. Florida State just failed to take advantage of those opportunities. Tommy Castellanos was the victim of some drops, and he was also off-target multiple times on guys who were running wide open. The Seminoles’ placekicker even shanked a short field goal attempt early in the third quarter.
Still Too Many Busts
Once again, the back seven struggled in coverage. Maybe not to the level it did in the loss to Duke last weekend, but if Florida State hits on some of the plays they missed, this might have been a very different ballgame. The Tigers just have major issues at safety, and there are no immediate answers.
Bounce-Back for Terrell
There was one defensive back who played pretty well in the win. Junior Avieon Terrell had three tackles, two sacks and one pass breakup. He was extremely effective and made sure the Seminoles knew it, taking advantage of every chance he had to do some chirping.
Pressuring Castellanos
Clemson had a season-high six sacks on the night, with Terrell recording two big ones. Kobe McCloud, Will Heldt, Sammy Brown and Jeremiah Alexander all had one each.
Freshman Back
Gideon Davidson continues to prove how valuable he can be to this team next season. The freshman running back has the vision and the balance to excel at this level. He averaged four yards a carry against Florida State’s Top 25 run defense and also once again showed he can be a factor in the passing game when given the opportunity.
Win the Margin
For whatever reason, the Tigers just haven’t been able to force many turnovers this season. They did force two tonight, with Jeremiah Alexander recovering a first-quarter fumble after the Noles were approaching midfield. Ricardo Jones added a late interception to seal the win. The Tigers didn’t turn the ball over all night.
3 Down Issues
Win or not, Clemson was just 4-of-15 on third down. That’s just not very effective. The offense did convert both fourth-down tries.
Kudos to the Crowd
It would have been easy for the Clemson faithful not to show up for this one. However, that just wasn’t the case. Not only was the place mostly full, but the crowd was lively from the jump. If you just went by the atmosphere, you would have never known this was a game between two teams going nowhere.
Photo by Bart Boatwright