By Will Vandervort.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Dabo Swinney says he is going to give his team 24 hours to hurt after Saturday’s 23-17 overtime loss to top-ranked Florida State, and then it is time to turn the page and get ready for North Carolina.
Clemson outgained, outhustled and outplayed the Seminoles in every facet at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday, yet in the end they left Tallahassee with another loss. The Tigers (1-2, 0-1 ACC) failed to score on four red zone trips, including two inside the 10-yard line.
Two ended on missed field goals, one on a fumble and the final one came on fourth-and-short in overtime.
“I much rather hang on to the ball, make one kick and get that fourth-and-a-foot, but God never says oops,” Swinney said. “That’s how I live my life. Every time I have had a little adversity, something good has always come from it.
“We will grow, we will get better and we will keep moving forward.”
The Tigers will move forward next week against North Carolina, a team that was drilled by East Carolina on Saturday.
Clemson lost to the Seminoles (3-0, 1-0) despite there being no Jameis Winston, outgaining them 407 to 318, getting five sacks and two interceptions.
“It was a straight dogfight tonight,” Clemson defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “The effort was there. We played a great game.
“We’re about to put this one to bed and get on and get ready for North Carolina. We’re going to take
care of our part. We’re going to bounce back.”
But it’s going to be hard for the Tigers to get over this one because they left so many points on the field. Overall, Clemson failed to score on 4 of 7 red zone drives.
“We had opportunities, but we came up short,” Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson said. “We made a couple of mistakes, but we can’t get down. It’s a long season and you never know what is going to happen.
“We just have to go in there next week and forget about this. We can’t stay down on this loss. We have to keep going.”
Not getting paid for overtime. Clemson falls to 6-6 in overtime games all-time. After winning its first five overtimes Clemson has now lost 5 of 6. Dabo Swinney is now 1-2 in overtime games and all three overtimes have been played on the road against a nationally ranked team.
No turnover for you. Clemson won the turnover margin 2-1 this evening. Dabo Swinney is now 33-4 when winning the turnover margin in his head coaching career.
A first time for everything. Clemson held Florida State to just 13 yards rushing. The Seminoles had -12 after regulation. It is the best rushing defense in a Clemson loss on record.
He is still a beast. Defensive end Vic Beasley had two sacks and now has four for the season. He has had at least one sack in all three games this year and his streak is four games in a row going back to last year. He now has 25 career sacks tied for third in Clemson history with William Perry. He is just three sacks short of the career record of 28 held by Gaines Adams and Michael Dean Perry.
Getting fresh. Watson completed 19 of 28 passes for 266 yards. The 266 yards passing were the most by a Clemson true freshman since Patrick Sapp threw for 273 at Maryland in 1992. That was also in a loss.