There were a lot of things that went wrong for Clemson in Saturday’s 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York, N.Y.

The offense dropped at least seven passes. Quarterback Cade Klubnik took a couple of sacks he should not have taken. The Tigers averaged just 1.7 yards per carry and perhaps did not try to run the ball nearly as much as it should have.

Then there was the defense. Clemson allowed Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer to have a career day, as he completed 22 of 34 passes for 262 yards and 2 TDs. 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.

Yet the Nittany Lions (7-6) still gained 397 total yards. They still ran for 135 yards. They still averaged nearly four yards per carry and they converted the most third downs of anyone against the Clemson defense all year.

The nation’s eighth best third down defense allowed Penn State to convert on 11 of 19 third downs.

“It’s 6-3 in the fourth quarter and you got every opportunity. Kind of an ugly game, but got every
opportunity to go win the game and defensively just really poor,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said afterwards. “We played really good the first 29 minutes of the game, and from one minute in the first half through the end of the game, really poor.”

Following a Nolan Hauser 48-yard field goal to tie the game, 3-3, with 56 seconds to play in the first half, the Tigers allowed Penn State to drive 42 yards in 52 seconds to reclaim the lead. The key play came on third-and-two from the Clemson 48 — a 15-yard Grunkemeyer to wide receiver Coby Howard pass to setup Ryan Barker’s 48-yard field goal as time expired for halftime.

“Just poor critical awareness from some situational stuff,” Swinney said. “One minute to go and they’ve got no time-outs and we’re just giving up the outside throw. I mean, just giving it up. No time-outs. Just poor awareness of what we need to do in that situation and they get a field goal.

“That’s a critical field goal in that moment. So that was a really disappointing thing.”

The disappointment continued in the second half. As of matter fact, it got worse.

Penn State (7-6) converted on 6 of 8 third down plays in the last 30 minutes, including a third-and-10 play from their own 27 that turned into a 73-yard TD by Trebor Pena, who caught a Grunkemeyer pass over the middle, broke the arm tackles of Ricardo Jones and Corian Gibson and ran the rest of the way for a 73-yard TD with 12:51 to play.

“They had 269 yards in the second half, so we didn’t deserve to win the game,” Swinney said. “The critical stops, we didn’t get them. It’s 6-3, it’s third-and-nine and it’s a 73-yard touchdown, like Keystone Cops out there just banging into each other, knocking each other off. It was hard to watch.”

It got harder to watch later in the fourth quarter. Following Adam Randell’s 2-yard TD to pull the Tigers within five points, 15-10, the Nittany Lions were faced with a third down-and-seven from their own 38-yard line.

“Then we battled back. We get the score, and again, only had one possession in the third quarter. Third-and-seven, got to have it, got to get the stop,” Swinney said.

However, Grunkemeyer found Devonte Ross 35 yards down the right side to the Clemson 27.

Then, a few plays later, on third-and-four from the Clemson 21, Tikey Hayes ran 10 yards up the middle to keep the drive going to eventually setup the game-clinching TD — an 11-yard TD toss from Grunkemeyer to Andrew Rappleyea with 4:56 remaining.

“You’ve got a chance with plenty of time, plenty of time-outs to go win the game because they’re going to have to punt it right there if we get a stop and it’s another big play,” Swinney said. “So that’s kind of been the story of our defense all year. We just been really poor pass defense. We’ve been a pretty
good third-down defense, but they were horrendous today. Eleven of 19, not going to win many games.

“So again, that leads to time of possession, that leads to field position. They didn’t score a lot of points in the first three quarters, and then again, the two plays kind of kept them alive, the one big play touchdown and then the one on third and seven. So just not winning football.”