Four Downs: Clemson

Programs with long histories play memorable games. They're easily recognizable by a single name or phrase, and their short titles add weight to the standard wins and losses. They burn deep through the years and are the fabric and hallmark of rivalries and matchups, even if the outcome doesn't automatically end with singing the fight song in the locker room.

Like other programs, Boston College's history has equal parts celebration and pain not requiring superfluous explanations. Lane Stadium went quiet three years after the Diamond Ferri Game, which was one year before the Kiwanuka knee injury game against Virginia. The David Gordon Kick is tempered only by the Duke Doink in 2011, and the David Green Fumble sits somewhere in between the Ed Reed Game against Miami in 2001. Hail Flutie is still the gold standard.

Saturday's game against Clemson might not hold the weight of those games, but the 19-13 loss will unquestionably leave some extra sting on the 2021 BC season after the Eagles outplayed a nationally-ranked Clemson team. The Tigers were reeling, but a fumbled snap in the last minute sent them home victorious over the visitors from Massachusetts for the 11th consecutive season.

"I'm really proud of our guys," head coach Jeff Hafley said after the game. "They came out in a tough environment, in a night game [during Clemson's] homecoming. We thought we could take it in the fourth, and we had a chance to take it in the fourth. I'm proud of our players."

Clemson badly needed the win, but the result wasn't indicative of the frustration imbued by BC under the Death Valley lights. An offense that sputtered against Georgia Tech and NC State again struggled with consistency, and neither the ground game nor the passing attack sustained any consistent success against BC's stout team defense.

There were explosive plays, but the 87 yards on two passes by D.J. Uigalelei kept him under water over the rest of the game. He finished 13-for-28 for 207 and barely hit leading receivers Joseph Ngata and E.J. Williams for more than half of their 13 targets, and he lost the services of Justyn Ross sometime in the first half.

"We definitely showed that we're one of the top secondaries in the country," cornerback Brandon Sebastian said. "We basically played [man-to-man] the whole game, and we wanted to go up and challenge the receivers. That's essentially what we did, and we took a lot of their stuff that they game-planned for us. We took that away by playing press-man on every snap."

The effort kept the score close into the waning minutes, and Clemson reeled when quarterback Dennis Grosel executed a 42-yard drive in 59 seconds for Boston College. He completed five consecutive passes to move BC from its own 36-yard line to the Tigers' red zone, but a bungled snap forced the game into a disappointing outcome when defensive end K.J. Henry burst through the line for a fumble recovery.

It stung BC and forced the Eagles to fall short against a perennial national championship contender. Losing in that manner made it seemingly hurt worse and, for the players and coaches, hung the result in line with those other memorable games. It visibly burned them, no matter how often it happens in sports.

But ultimately what will determine the team's future isn't the way it lost to Clemson or the way the Tigers escaped. There won't be excuses or finger-pointing. That's not what's in this team's culture and this coaching regime, and by the time Monday rolls around, it will be behind them in order to focus on healing during a bye week.

"We're a team," Hafley said. "We win as a team, and we lose as a team. There's no pointing fingers, and there's none of that. We'll stick together, and we'll be better. We can play with anybody, anywhere in any venue at any time of the night. I'm proud of the team [but] certainly really hurt right now."

Here's more from the loss in Death Valley:

*****
First Down: The Unavoidable

The ending forced an unavoidable conversation on Dennis Grosel, but the backup-turned-starter faced the music regarding what happened on the last play of the game. Those five straight passes had BC on the precipice of a season-defining win, and that he completed the passes to Zay Flowers and Trae Barry with no timeouts complemented his poise as the clock wound down.

It just lacked the happy ending after the final two plays. Grosel's first pass from the red zone for the end zone was broken up by James Skalski, and the second down play resulted in the turnover. He was in shotgun, but Alec Lindstrom's snap bounced off his hands and bounced to the 22-yard line. Henry had broken containment at the line and used his forward momentum to fall on the ball. The 11-yard loss was irrelevant, and it allowed Clemson to kneel down to finish.

"It was loud the whole time," Grosel said. "The play clock was ticking down, and we wanted the snap quicker. I took my eyes off to see what the play clock was, and that's when [Alec] snapped it. We were pretty efficient with the noise all night. There were a few miscues that are going to happen, but that was just one where I took my eye off for a half-second."

Grosel finished 23-of-40 passing for 311 yards, and he completed 12 of his 20 targets to receivers Zay Flowers and Trae Barry. He effectively managed the game and stepped up when the running game was stuffed by the stout Clemson defense, and he used his vision to create opportunities either by scrambling or moving quickly between receivers. It wasn't perfect - he threw two interceptions and had the fumble at the end - but he was the reason BC was in that game with a chance to win at the end.

"[Tight ends] are rarely the primary read," Grosel said. "There's a few where they are, but with them being primarily inside and attached [to the blocking scheme], they're not usually the first read. It's a result of going through progressions, of getting off my first and second and third guys and getting to the tight ends in that situation. They're really sure-handed in those checkdown areas and really sure-handed anywhere on the field. It's just being in the right spot at the right time and working their butts off to do what they're supposed to be doing."

*****
Second Down: Stocking Stuffers

Television cameras love a good offensive game because the excitement of nonstop points makes for great theater, but Saturday night's game was really an excellent exhibition of defensive football. BC constantly adjusted to Clemson's big, physical, grinding attack, and the backfield played the aforementioned press coverage against the highly-athletic receiving unit. Clemson, meanwhile, stuffed the BC offense for 46 net yards after it spent the last two weeks blasting through opponents.

"It was a little bit of everything," Jeff Hafley said. "I thought [defensive coordinator] Tem [Lukabu] called a great game. I thought we stayed a step ahead. We did a bunch of different things. After the first couple of drives, we felt like there were things they were trying to take advantage of, but overall, what a great effort by the defense."

The defenses prevented both teams from pulling ahead at various stages of the game and particularly at the end of the first quarter and start of the second when Clemson had two successive scoring drives. The first went 94 yards in five minutes but ended in a field goal after the defense stopped the Tigers at BC's two-yard line, and after Grosel threw the first of two interceptions, Clemson only progressed 27 yards on a short field. Turning those two possessions into six points prevented a 7-3 game from turning into a 21-3, especially when BC scored on its next two drives.

Neither offense could get its wheels moving in situational football, and both defenses were particularly effective on third down. The offenses were a combined 8-for-29 in those instances with BC playing it better at 5-for-15. Clemson only moved into the red zone twice, but half of BC's four red zone trips ended in field goals. The Tiger defense produced four sacks, but Clemson's offense was forced off the field with two, key three-and-outs in the fourth quarter.

*****
HAF-time Hits

-Nostra-Dad-Us did it again and accurately predicted the margin of victory. My weekly prediction text from my father offered me a 34-27 win for Clemson, which means that he hit within a point on the final difference of the score. After nearly nailing the score in each of the first three weeks, he was within a last second field goal of hitting the score margin last week and within a point of doing it again this week. He's been off on the final score exactly, but there's something to asking him for scores every week.

-Weekly new dad story: my wife allowed me to turn the house into the proverbial press box for the game with the condition that the "no cheering in the press box" rule followed me. It wasn't because we were trying to maintain professionalism while sitting in pajama pants, but she just didn't want me waking up the baby over the football game. She told me, "I'm proud of you" when I fist-pumped instead of yelled at the screen, which is why I almost dropped my laptop in shock on the final drive when she yelled, "GO GO GO GO GO" at the BC offense.

-That said, my press box meal was fantastic. Santa Fe slow cooker chicken. She's the best.

-It's a shame the game was played at Clemson because we had picture perfect weather up here yesterday. I had to go to Southern New England in the morning, and the drive down involved the windows going down and the radio going up. Music of choice? AC/DC.

*****
Third Down: Thurin Time

Special teams doesn't receive proper credit for its role in keeping a team either ahead or in position to win, but BC punter Grant Carlson boomed another six punts for a combined 295 yards with four of his punts landing inside the Clemson 20-yard line. The return game, meanwhile, blocked a punt while the game was tied at 13-13 and gave BC a short field in the third quarter.

"We blocked a punt and flipped the field," Jeff Hafley said. "Coach Thurin and special teams are doing a great job and continue to keep us in games. I'm so proud of what they do and proud of the way Coach Thurin coached. I'm really proud of the way special teams played."

Specialists are a unique breed and are almost required to maintain an elite compete level because teams don't draft them in mass quantities. They're often brought in to compete for one position spot against an incumbent, and drafted specialists carry the weight of added attention. Yet Carlson, who blasted a long kick of 72 yards on Saturday, is fast receiving the spotlight as one of the premier college kickers, and he is likely going to earn a spot with a team on Sundays if he continues to perform at this level. He is within striking distance of the four punters averaging over 50 yards per punt.

The field goal and extra point attempts are likewise stabilizing after Connor Lytton kicked two attempts in the first half. It kept him perfect at 4-for-4 on the season and kept pace with the 19 kickers registering minimum attempts for the NCAA field goal statistics.

*****
Fourth Down: Won on Points

The win marked Clemson's 11th straight win over Boston College, its 31st consecutive home win and the 57th straight game where the Tigers won when leading at halftime, but it was hardly the closeout expected compared to the Mike Tyson-like devastation incurred over the 2010s. From 2016-2019, Clemson allowed seven points on three separate occasions while bookending two, 50-plus point games. The average margin of victory over that time was around 44-8 or a difference of about 36 points per game.

That's all shifted under Jeff Hafley, and Saturday was the second straight year where Clemson only beat BC by six points. Both are the second-smallest margin of victory over the Tigers' home winning streak, and each of the last two games definitively closed the gap between the Eagles and the six-time conference champions.

That was of little consolation to Hafley, who wore the brunt of disappointment on his face. Ever the competitor, it wasn't enough for him to simply show up at the door in 2020 or kick it open in 2021. He wanted to barge into Clemson's home and spoil the party, and that clearly didn't happen in either year.

"We have to beat them," Hafley said. "They executed better than we did at the end fo the game. We have to execute, and we have to finish. I certainly have to coach better. We get to see them every year, and we're going to move on. Next year, hopefully, I'll do a better job."

Every team prepares to win every game, but the ACC's parity in 2021 means the loss doesn't hurt BC's chances at the division championship. Wake Forest is still in the lead with an undefeated, 5-0 overall record and a 3-0 conference record, but the road behind the Demon Deacons is littered with teams with one loss or a limited number of games played.

BC, Clemson, Louisville and Syracuse all have one loss, and NC State is only 1-0 after beating the Tigers last week. Florida State picked up a huge win over the Orange on Saturday, but it's clear that the season is still nowhere near complete, even as it nears the halfway point. A win over NC State in two weeks at home would muddy those waters even more, and the last three games of Wake's season are against NC State, Clemson and Boston College.

*****
Point After: Bye Week

The immediate aftermath of a loss forces players and coaches to run an emotional gamut akin to the stages of grief. They begin with sadness over the disappointment in their week's preparation before advancing into anger and reasoning. They don't necessarily lash out at each other, but losing, as difficult as it is to admit, is a teachable moment for a team to refresh and recenter focus. It's important, even though nobody wants to lose, to flip the switch and attack the week ahead in order to prepare for the next opponent.

Unfortunately for BC, that can't happen, and the determination built by the loss will have to hold for a week because of the bye week next week. It comes at a well-placed moment after five games, and it's a good reset for the team to take stock of where it was, where it's going and how to get there. It will also offer a good opportunity for younger players who are often subject to practice squads and scout teams to practice within the BC scheme against one another for a few days while the experienced starters heal.

With the off week, BC won't play again until an October 16 game against NC State, which is at home in Alumni Stadium.

Related News

Players Mentioned

Trae Barry

Grant Carlson

Zay Flowers

Dennis Grosel

Alec Lindstrom

Connor Lytton

Brandon Sebastian

Related Videos