Going into Clemson’s game against Charleston Southern this past Saturday at Memorial Stadium, former Clemson offensive lineman and current ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain said he wanted to see absolute domination from the Tigers.

Mac Lain laid out clear expectations for Clemson entering the contest, and that included some boxes he wanted to see the Tigers check off.

One of those was zero sacks allowed by the offensive line, and Clemson accomplished that. However, Mac Lain also said he wanted to see Clemson “throw the ball really effectively,” with explosive plays in the passing game.

That unfortunately didn’t come to fruition, and on the Gramlich & Mac Lain podcast this week, Mac Lain expressed frustration and disappointment regarding the Tigers’ inability to score a passing touchdown in their 37–0 win over Charleston Southern.

Mac Lain noted that getting at least one passing touchdown against an FCS opponent shouldn’t have been too much to ask, but yet – despite seemingly trying to force things with the passing game — the offense came up empty in its efforts to score via the aerial attack.

Mac Lain described the ongoing lack of passing touchdowns — leaving Clemson dead last in the FBS in that category (two all season) — as “a little sad.”

“I don’t think it’s that much to ask for, and we didn’t get it. Instead, we got two picks — not from Tait [Reynolds], praise God — but we got two picks,” Mac Lain said. “I don’t know, man. You got the win. … I think it can be a little sad maybe. I don’t know. The fact that, again, the throwing touchdown thing. No sacks, huge deal. Very impressed. Got hit a couple of times, but no sacks. Thank goodness the ball got out. He tripped and like stretched it to the one inch over the sack line, the line of scrimmage.”

Reynolds finished 17-of-26 but for just 127 yards. The true freshman quarterback made a couple of really nice throws to T. J. Moore in the end zone on Clemson’s first offensive possession, but the junior wideout dropped both, failing to help his QB out.

There was at least one more thrown to him in the end zone on another drive that he probably could have come down with. Fellow star wide receiver Bryant Wesco also dropped one.

“I was pretty disappointed in T.J. Moore, too,” Mac Lain said. “You gotta help your guy, right? And I get it. I’m sure there’s a frustration. I can only imagine when you’re as talented as he and Wesco and Tyler Brown, and to not have multiple touchdowns at this point. The fact that T.J. is the only one with one. … And you gotta help him. There was probably two or three that, just, T.J.’s got to do better, and he has to score. He’s got to make that happen. Wesco, maybe one catch that he dropped there that I was kind of disappointed in.”

Before the Charleston Southern game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said the Tigers needed “to dominate somebody,” with Swinney adding that dominance comes from full-unit execution — having all 11 players execute their assignments on a given play.

Swinney pointed out that “too many times” this season, it has only been nine or 10 players doing their job correctly, and Mac Lain pointed to the same issue.

“It kind of just is the theme of this team for the last handful of years here is, you got 10 guys on the same page and the 11th isn’t,” Mac Lain said. “And the 11th, unfortunately, is a big piece of whatever happens, whether that’s the quarterback or the running back going the wrong way or wrong cut lane there, the offensive line missing a block or the wide receiver dropping the ball. It just shows up too much. A frustrating amount of much on the offensive side of the ball there.”

Swinney praised Reynolds’ performance against Charleston Southern, calling it “Tait’s best game, by far” – but Mac Lain didn’t seem to want to go so far as to say that.

“I think Coach [Swinney] called it their best game or Tait’s best game or something. I don’t know if I’m taking too much from that,” Mac Lain said.

After the win over Charleston Southern, the Tigers (4-2, 2-1 ACC) will now turn their focus to a five-game stretch of ACC play, beginning Saturday night against Virginia Tech at Memorial Stadium (7 p.m. ESPN).

The Hokies are allowing 227 yards through the air per game – a number that Reynolds has only hit once all season (in the loss to Miami).

“You got a big one coming, and we’ll preview that ad nauseam with Virginia Tech this weekend. I can’t state how big this game is, really for both teams,” Mac Lain said. “It’s a night game. Glad it’s at home for Clemson. But you kind of got weakness on strength, strength on weakness, which is going to be really interesting to see how it plays [out].

“We’ll talk about more of that throughout the week. But it’s, we need to see it. We need to see improvement. And I wanted a lot more than I got in that Charleston Southern game.”