USA TODAY Sports
The mood outside the visitor’s locker room last Thursday at Bobby Dodd Stadium in midtown Atlanta was ebullient, the way it hadn’t been after a Clemson game since last New Year’s Eve in South Florida.
The Tigers had just beaten Georgia Tech, 26-7, the program’s first win in that venue since 2003. For that reason, as well as a stifling performance on defense and some signs that their offense was breaking out of a mysterious malaise, coach Dabo Swinney was only interested in focusing on positives and not some lingering questions about whether No. 3 Clemson is still not performing as well as expected.
“Clemson folks know how hard it is to win down here,” Swinney said.
But as Swinney’s team heads into Saturday’s showdown against No. 4 Louisville, there’s an air of suspense about whether Clemson is capable of the same offensive potency it displayed at the end of last season when it destroyed Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff semifinals and then nearly won the national championship, falling to Alabama 45-40.
Putting aside Clemson’s 59-0 victory against an overmatched South Carolina State on Sept. 17, the Tigers have not been the weekly fireworks show many expected with nine returning starters, including quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Those performances, including a narrow 19-13 win at Auburn in the season opener, have translated to some doubts about whether Clemson is primed for another playoff run. One is example is Las Vegas oddsmakers moving Louisville this week into a slight favorite’s role Saturday, a notion that would have been unthinkable before the season began but underscores the feeling that something is amiss with the Tigers.
“There’s nothing (wrong) that’s not correctable,” Swinney insisted. “Nothing major at all.”
It’s possible Clemson is simply the victim of unrealistic expectations. The final memory of Watson last season was slicing up Alabama for 405 passing yards and 73 rushing in the championship game, a performance that boosted him into the role of Heisman Trophy preseason favorite.
With so much returning talent around him, including running back Wayne Gallman and the deepest group of receivers in the country, the narrative around Clemson was that its offense would produce big numbers and its defense, which lost eight starters, might be a question mark.
Instead, Clemson’s defense has been terrific — it’s currently ranked third nationally overall (218.5 yards per game) and fifth in points allowed (11.0 per game) — while the offense is still waiting to play to its potential.
Even in the Georgia Tech game, as Clemson rolled up 442 yards and completed 32 of 48 passes, there were enough mistakes and missed opportunities to prevent a complete blowout on the scoreboard.
Though Swinney attributed much of it to Georgia Tech’s ball control offense in the third quarter and playing conservatively with the lead in the fourth, Clemson didn’t necessarily look like it was in midseason form in the first half, either, leaving points on the board via a missed field goal, a red zone interception and some offensive line breakdowns at inopportune times.
If not for Clemson’s defense, it could have been another scary trip to Atlanta.
“I think we have a lot of room to improve,” co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “We have a lot of things we have to clean up, but we get to work every day, it’s Game 4 and hopefully we’ll get it figured out and peak at the right time.”
Elliott doesn’t think the issues are systemic, but Clemson doesn’t have much more time to recapture its 2015 dominance. Louisville has played as well as any team in the country, and Clemson absolutely needs to win the game to stay in control of the ACC’s Atlantic division.
While Watson looked better last week after a slow start to the season, Clemson still needs to show it can be as effective running the ball as it was last season. Gallman, for instance, is averaging 1.3 fewer yards per carry this year while Watson has been employed more conservatively in the running game.
The good news is, Clemson knows it can be better than it has played so far this year — not based on hope but past performance with the same personnel. It needs to show that by Saturday.
“We’re definitely getting closer,” tight end Jordan Leggett said. “Having two big away games under our belt, I feel like we’re going to start rolling.”
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