After Antonio Williams injured his hamstring on the fifth play of the season, the Clemson offense struggled without him, as the Tigers started the season 1-3. When he returned from injury, Clemson went 6-2, which included a four-game win-streak to end the regular season.

In Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl, the Tigers again found themselves without their leading receiver, due to an injury, which led to him ultimately opting out of the game. And without him, the Clemson offense struggle, again, as it looked like the entire unit opted out of the Pinstripe Bowl.

Penn State held the Tigers to 236 total yards in a 22-10 victory at Yankee Stadium. Clemson ran for just 43 yards and averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. The Tigers were also 5 of 15 on third down.

The loss ended Clemson’s four-game win streak and was the Nittany Lions’ fourth consecutive win to end the year.

The Nittany Lions (7-6) led 6-3 at halftime thanks to two Ryan Barker field goals of 22 and 48 yards, which came on the last play of the first half. After he added a 43-yard field goal to start the fourth quarter, Penn State extend its lead to 15-3 when Trebor Pena caught an Ethan Grunkemeyer pass over the middle, broke the arm tackles of Ricardo Jones and Corian Gibson and ran the rest of the field for a 73-yard TD with 12:51 to play.

Clemson (7-6) answered with a 10-play, 65-yard drive, which running back Adam Randall capped with a 2-yard TD with 8:47 to go. The TD cut the score to 15-10 and gave the Tigers a little bit of hope.

Playing against a worn down Clemson defense, which was missing six starters and several reserve players due to injuries, opt outs and the transfer portal, Penn State answered the Randall TD with an 11-yard TD toss from Grunkemeyer to Andrew Rappleyea for a 22-10 lead with 4:56 remaining. It capped an 8-play, 75-yard drive that took 3:51 off the clock and sealed the Nittany Lions’ victory.

Grunkemeyer, who came in with 1,079 passing yards in six games as the starter, had a career day, as he completed 22 of 34 passes for 262 yards and 2 TDs. The redshirt freshman outplayed his senior counterpart at Clemson, as Klubnik was just 22 of 39 for 193 yards.

The story of the game was Penn State’s ability to control the football after halftime, as the Nittany Lions totaled 269 of their 397 yards in the second half.

Running back Quinton Martin, Jr., who had not carried the football for the Nittany Lions all year, ran for 101 yards on 20 carries, as leading rusher Kaytron Allen did not play in the game and backup Nicholas Singleton opted out.

Penn State ran for 135 yards overall and gave up just 2 sacks and 6 tackles for loss, despite having four starters and two reserve offensive linemen, as well as its starting tight end, opt out or leave the team for the transfer portal.

Tired Defense

Penn State (7-6) held the ball for 10:28 in the third quarter and had 111 total yards, despite not scoring a single point. Clemson had one possession in the third quarter and totaled 18 yards.

The Nittany Lions finished the game with a 33:01-26:59 advantage in time of possession. Penn State was 11 of 19 on third down, including 6 of 8 in the second half. It was the most third down conversion allowed by the Clemson defense all season. The Tigers entered the game ranked eighth nationally in third-down defense.

Streaks are Over

Clemson came into Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl with a 14-year streak of winning at least one post-season game. That was an FBS record. It is no more.

The Tigers also saw their streak of winning at least eight games in a season come to a close. Clemson had won eight or more games every year since 2011, which also ended at 14 years.

Special Teams Blunders

An ill-advised fake punt by punter Jack Smith set up Penn State’s first field goal early in the first quarter, which started what was a bad afternoon for the Tigers’ special teams unit. Smith later had a 28-yard punt.

In the second quarter, the usually sure-footed Nolan Hauser, missed a 33-yard field goal. It was just his fourth miss of the season.

Completion Record

Klubnik’s 44-yd pass to T.J. Moore in the second quarter gave the Clemson quarterback the school record for career completions with 902 at the time. He finished the game with 22 completions to give him 916 for his career.

10,000-yard Mark

Klubnik finished with 193 passing yards to join Tajh Boyd (11,904 from 2010-13), Deshaun Watson (10,163 from 2014-16) and Trevor Lawrence (10,098 from 2018 20) as the only quarterbacks in Clemson history to throw for 10,000 career passing yards. He finished his career third in Clemson history in passing yards with 10,123 yards.

Clemson had the drops, again

Clemson’s pass catchers led the ACC this season in dropped pass. That continued in Saturday’s game. The Tigers dropped six passes. They had four drops in the first half.

Tackling Machine

Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown finished the game with 14 tackles. He had 11 tackles after three quarters.

Injuries

Besides the players who were already reported out for Saturday’s Pinstripe Bowl, Clemson defensive tackle Stephiylan Green was not available.