CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney says his Clemson team played their best game of the year in Saturday’s 37-0 victory over Charleston Southern.
The Tigers had a season-high in total yards, 438. They ran for 231 yards and threw it for 207 more. The defense held the Buccaneers to 76 total yards and recorded their first shutout in five years.
On special teams, Kylon Griffin returned a fumbled kickoff for a touchdown, while kicker Nolan Hauser made kicks of 41, 44 and 59 yards – the second longest in Clemson history.
It was a good day for Clemson, but it was not perfect.
It was not perfect because the Tigers could not push the football down the field. Though quarterback Tait Reynolds completed 17 of 26 passes, he only threw the ball for 127 yards and once again, he did not throw a touchdown pass.
“We just have to catch the ball,” Swinney said.
The Clemson coach is not wrong. Reynolds’ numbers should have been much better, but of his nine incompletions, a couple of them were dropped and a few others should have been fought for better than they were.
One of the drops came on the Tigers’ opening possession, when T.J. Moore could not haul in a long throw into the end zone from Reynolds. The two misconnected on a few more jump balls, as well.
Reynolds could not connect with Bryant Wesco downfield either.
“I mean we can’t throw it no better,” Swinney said. “Put three, really four, right on the money. We just got to make plays. So, and then there was a couple there, I think, maybe before the half, we had a little swing pass to the left and we throw the ball behind and low.”
It was just one of those days for the Tigers.
Tight end Christian Bentancur led Clemson with four catches for 74 yards, including a 32-yard catch-and-run. Wesco finished with four catches for 25 yards, while Moore had two catches for nine yards.
“There’s some like precision type stuff, but I thought we did a lot,” Swinney said. “I mean, the biggest thing was, if you catch a couple of those touchdowns, you probably are not asking me that question today. Just got to finish the plays that are there.”
