After humbly accepting the punishment and paying off his bet on Clemson following the Oct. 24 loss to Virginia Tech, Eric Mac Lain got a reprieve later in the day last Saturday.

The former Clemson offensive lineman and current ACC Network analyst was able to sit back and relish in the Tigers’ bounce-back 36-24 victory over Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla.

“A huge win. Massive win at Florida State, a place that Clemson hasn’t lost since 2014. Pretty much own real estate down there. It’s pretty nice,” Mac Lain said on the Gramlich & Mac Lain podcast.

Mac Lain shined light on various positives for Clemson and what he liked from the Tigers (5-3, 3-2 ACC) in the win over FSU.

Mac Lain highlighted the offensive simplification, praising the effort to minimize thinking, reading and mental processing for the players.

He also complimented offensive coordinator Chad Morris for being “in his bag” with creative, effective play-calling and play designs that saw the right answers against FSU’s defense and produced “electric” touchdown passes from freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds to tight ends Christian Bentancur and Olsen Patt-Henry.

“I do think there was an effort to minimize thinking, minimize thought process, minimize reading. Like, do this or that. That’s it,” Mac Lain said. “If this defender’s here, if that defender’s there, if the overhang’s here – like, that was relatively removed from the situation here. And it was good. It worked very effectively. And I think still some, again, some things you want to clean up.

“But I liked the thought process behind it, and especially liked the fact that Chad Morris was in his bag. Like, there were a couple of play designs that I was just like, ‘Ooh, buddy, he’s been building that.’ Like, he’s working to get to that, and then he saw the answer. Both of those touchdowns were electric. Just the play call, the way that they drew it up was really nice to see who they got it to, like getting it to their tight ends.”

Mac Lain thought Reynolds, who has appeared in all eight games this season and started the last six, played “his best game.”

The first-year signal-caller completed 18-of-32 passes for 189 yards and two passing touchdowns while also leading Clemson with a career-high 85 yards on 14 carries.

He sealed the win with a 79-yard touchdown scramble late in the fourth quarter, the longest run by a quarterback in program history.

“I think Tait had his best game, and again, I don’t want to give backhanded compliments. That’s a low bar, but it was his best game,” Mac Lain said. “And there were some things that I really saw that I loved. Obviously the 70-80-yard touchdown was sick. Like, that was the [play] of the game. It was the situation of third down. … T.J. Moore, like golly, had a tough game, but unbelievable finish there to get ahead of him and block for him. And of course all the everybody in between to get him to that point, but thought that was exceptional. Thought that his — I gave T.J. Moore credit, I’m going to take away the credit — when Clemson was driving and they were like on the 20-yard line or so, wherever it was. And Tait saw the coverage that he wanted, looked to the left, gave T.J. the signal, converted his route to a slot fade, threw a perfect ball — a perfect ball. And we’ve got T-Rex alligator arms not going after the football for an easy touchdown. Gosh, that just drove me crazy. And I just think of, my goodness, think of the confidence boost that that would have given Tait. Think of the what could happen, the ripple effect of what would have, could have, should have happened from that.

“And even going back to the Charleston Southern game and the struggles that those two had to connect there as well. So that was frustrating, but Tait just seeing that and adjusted. I don’t know if I’ve seen him make an adjustment like that all year. That was cool. That was nice to see. So really, really impressed with him, and again, being able to take advantage of a defense.”

As for the performance of Clemson’s offensive line in front of Reynolds, Mac Lain says it was a mixed bag.

“Offensive line, still some good, still a handful of bad,” he said. “Like, the four sacks – three of them were just like, gross, and just guys missing.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Mac Lain gave a shoutout to junior linebacker Sammy Brown, who notched three tackles (one for loss) and a sack.

“Sammy Brown had a big sack there,” Mac Lain said. “That was kind of one of the — he’s had a really steady year. How would I describe it? It’s kind of like, I don’t know, it’s almost like offensive linemen. Like, he’s done so well that you just don’t really even pay attention, but he hadn’t had a bunch of ‘whoa, superstar’ moments. I thought that was a big superstar moment. So that was really nice.”

Addressing social media chatter, Mac Lain had a little fun with some frustrated Florida State fans after the Tigers handed the Seminoles yet another home loss, extending Clemson’s current road winning streak at Doak Campbell Stadium to five games.

“I was seeing so many Florida State fans just dogging Clemson, saying, ‘How the heck are we losing to this trash team?’ and this and that,” Mac Lain said. “And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, man, this is definitely our worst team ever. And we just handled y’all at home.’”

Clemson returns to action this Saturday against Syracuse at JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Kickoff is set for noon on ESPN2.