The Replay: Clemson
October 09, 2022 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The Tigers showed why they're national championship contenders with their win on Saturday.
There's never any shame in losing a football game to Clemson. The Tigers are the class program of the ACC and represent the conference in a tier normally occupied by constant championship teams like Ohio State and Alabama. Head coach Dabo Swinney was once a 35-year old rising position coach, but after Tommy Bowden resigned in 2008, he became the architect of one of the nation's most powerful, most well-recognized college football teams.
Losses to Clemson are expected to a degree, but sports are littered with unknowns. No result is guaranteed, and there's never a game that kicks off with a predetermined result. It's not until the teams compete head-to-head that a final score is reached, and it in turn stands as the representation of how one roster better executes its skill within a scheme on that particular day.
Repetitious winning teaches a team how to reach that end goal, and no team in the ACC draws on that knowledge more than Clemson. On Saturday night, Boston College received a lesson in how to finish and win from the Tigers, who rolled to a 31-3 win in a game that was within two scores as the fourth quarter started.
"We had opportunities," said Hafley. "We kept the game really tight in the first half. We could have taken advantage of it more. That's what I said to the guys. There were too many mistakes."
Finishing a game is a staple of Swinney's time at Clemson, and Saturday was his 139th victory when leading after three quarters since he assumed the head coaching position as the interim in 2008. The Tigers haven't actually blown a lead after three periods since 2016, but they also rarely trail in those situations to begin with.Â
BC nearly threw a wrinkle into that element by keeping the game tied throughout much of the first half, but the Eagles still faced an uphill battle after Clemson scored late in the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead into halftime. Had the score remained tied, the Tigers would have needed to compensate for a situation they faced just 10 times over the past 15 years, and it would have been just the fourth game tied after two quarters since 2015. Instead, it wound up in a situation where Clemson held a 133-8 record when leading at halftime.
Every football coach emphasizes the need to minimize mistakes, and early in the game, it was Clemson that made uncharacteristic errors that hadn't reared their head through the team's first five games. The opening drive went 54 yards in just over three minutes, but it stalled out in BC territory and ended in a field goal after a potential back shoulder touchdown pass was knocked out of receiver Beaux Collins' hands. Then, after BC was forced to punt from inside Clemson territory, Sam Candotti dropped a coffin corner punt that was downed on the Tigers' one-yard line. Three plays later, quarterback DJ Uiagalelei threw an interception to Josh DeBerry that flipped the field perfectly for a BC scoring drive.
All of that amounted to an early-game situation Clemson hadn't experienced much, but the clear momentum that rippled through the frothing Alumni Stadium crowd was deflated by a defense that held BC to a three-and-out. The balloon fully exploded when Connor Lytton's 35-yard field goal attempt went wide left, and BC was left to chase the Tigers for much of the remainder of the half.
The Eagles hung tough, but any optimism or confidence failed to take into account just how good Clemson played in those types of situations. There was an element where the Tigers had done this before, and BC, still growing as a program under Hafley, again banged on the door before Clemson finished slamming it shut.
"You've got to play four quarters," defensive back Jason Maitre said. "Obviously we didn't do that well enough today, but we played really well in the first half."
Clemson's experience in winning games in the fourth quarter is a big part of why the Tigers are 95-10 since 2015, but BC's challenge for the better part of the first three quarters illustrated how the Eagles are improved and aren't as far away from the top of the conference as the Virginia Tech and Florida State losses looked. DeBerry's interception was the fourth of his career, and linebacker Kam Arnold led the team with eight tackles. Zay Flowers caught eight balls for 75 yards and moved into a tie with Mark Chmura for fourth all-time in program history with 164 receptions.
Phil Jurkovec didn't finish with accurate numbers, but his 188 yards pushed him into seventh all-time in BC history with 4,807 yards. With the game out of hand, Emmett Morehead stepped into the lineup and completed a 32-yard pass to Dino Tomlin. Candotti's punt was one of three that specialists dropped inside the 20-yard line.
Clemson didn't badly outgain BC, and Uiagalelei, despite throwing three touchdowns, had a completion percentage barely over 50 percent while throwing for 220 yards. The Tigers had 19 first downs to BC's 13, but the Eagles possessed the ball for three minutes longer. BC ran eight more offensive plays, and while the net yardage was down, the main difference was Clemson's ability to run the football with Will Shipley, a future surefire NFL draft pick, while BC's struggles went into the teeth of a defense loaded with potential first round draft picks.
Understanding that dynamic builds the chasm that Hafley is trying to close. BC played even with Clemson for the better part of the first half, but the Tigers used the second half to remind everyone how and why they are a national championship program. It's disrespectful to Dabo Swinney to imply anyone could overcome that, but realizing how to reach that level is what BC has been trying to solve for over a decade. It didn't work in the 2010s, but on Saturday, glimmers of how Hafley can lead the team through that glass ceiling offer something to hold onto, even as a disappointing, blowout score stood at the game's conclusion.
Losses to Clemson are expected to a degree, but sports are littered with unknowns. No result is guaranteed, and there's never a game that kicks off with a predetermined result. It's not until the teams compete head-to-head that a final score is reached, and it in turn stands as the representation of how one roster better executes its skill within a scheme on that particular day.
Repetitious winning teaches a team how to reach that end goal, and no team in the ACC draws on that knowledge more than Clemson. On Saturday night, Boston College received a lesson in how to finish and win from the Tigers, who rolled to a 31-3 win in a game that was within two scores as the fourth quarter started.
"We had opportunities," said Hafley. "We kept the game really tight in the first half. We could have taken advantage of it more. That's what I said to the guys. There were too many mistakes."
Finishing a game is a staple of Swinney's time at Clemson, and Saturday was his 139th victory when leading after three quarters since he assumed the head coaching position as the interim in 2008. The Tigers haven't actually blown a lead after three periods since 2016, but they also rarely trail in those situations to begin with.Â
BC nearly threw a wrinkle into that element by keeping the game tied throughout much of the first half, but the Eagles still faced an uphill battle after Clemson scored late in the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead into halftime. Had the score remained tied, the Tigers would have needed to compensate for a situation they faced just 10 times over the past 15 years, and it would have been just the fourth game tied after two quarters since 2015. Instead, it wound up in a situation where Clemson held a 133-8 record when leading at halftime.
Every football coach emphasizes the need to minimize mistakes, and early in the game, it was Clemson that made uncharacteristic errors that hadn't reared their head through the team's first five games. The opening drive went 54 yards in just over three minutes, but it stalled out in BC territory and ended in a field goal after a potential back shoulder touchdown pass was knocked out of receiver Beaux Collins' hands. Then, after BC was forced to punt from inside Clemson territory, Sam Candotti dropped a coffin corner punt that was downed on the Tigers' one-yard line. Three plays later, quarterback DJ Uiagalelei threw an interception to Josh DeBerry that flipped the field perfectly for a BC scoring drive.
All of that amounted to an early-game situation Clemson hadn't experienced much, but the clear momentum that rippled through the frothing Alumni Stadium crowd was deflated by a defense that held BC to a three-and-out. The balloon fully exploded when Connor Lytton's 35-yard field goal attempt went wide left, and BC was left to chase the Tigers for much of the remainder of the half.
The Eagles hung tough, but any optimism or confidence failed to take into account just how good Clemson played in those types of situations. There was an element where the Tigers had done this before, and BC, still growing as a program under Hafley, again banged on the door before Clemson finished slamming it shut.
"You've got to play four quarters," defensive back Jason Maitre said. "Obviously we didn't do that well enough today, but we played really well in the first half."
Clemson's experience in winning games in the fourth quarter is a big part of why the Tigers are 95-10 since 2015, but BC's challenge for the better part of the first three quarters illustrated how the Eagles are improved and aren't as far away from the top of the conference as the Virginia Tech and Florida State losses looked. DeBerry's interception was the fourth of his career, and linebacker Kam Arnold led the team with eight tackles. Zay Flowers caught eight balls for 75 yards and moved into a tie with Mark Chmura for fourth all-time in program history with 164 receptions.
Phil Jurkovec didn't finish with accurate numbers, but his 188 yards pushed him into seventh all-time in BC history with 4,807 yards. With the game out of hand, Emmett Morehead stepped into the lineup and completed a 32-yard pass to Dino Tomlin. Candotti's punt was one of three that specialists dropped inside the 20-yard line.
Clemson didn't badly outgain BC, and Uiagalelei, despite throwing three touchdowns, had a completion percentage barely over 50 percent while throwing for 220 yards. The Tigers had 19 first downs to BC's 13, but the Eagles possessed the ball for three minutes longer. BC ran eight more offensive plays, and while the net yardage was down, the main difference was Clemson's ability to run the football with Will Shipley, a future surefire NFL draft pick, while BC's struggles went into the teeth of a defense loaded with potential first round draft picks.
Understanding that dynamic builds the chasm that Hafley is trying to close. BC played even with Clemson for the better part of the first half, but the Tigers used the second half to remind everyone how and why they are a national championship program. It's disrespectful to Dabo Swinney to imply anyone could overcome that, but realizing how to reach that level is what BC has been trying to solve for over a decade. It didn't work in the 2010s, but on Saturday, glimmers of how Hafley can lead the team through that glass ceiling offer something to hold onto, even as a disappointing, blowout score stood at the game's conclusion.
Players Mentioned
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