Clemson outlasted Boston College 19-13 at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
It wasn’t pretty but behind the boot of B.T. Potter, an efficient ground game and a stellar defensive performance, Clemson (3-2, 2-1 ACC) was able to eek its way out to a much-needed victory in front of its home crowd.
The Tigers never trailed, but Boston College surely had Clemson on its heels for a full 60 minutes on Saturday night in The Valley.
Boston College drove 50 yards down the field with a chance to tie the game and potentially take the lead, but an errant snap went beyond the reach of Eagles quarterback Phil Groseel and was recovered by K.J. Herny, sealing Saturday night’s result.
Clemson’s offense outgained Boston College 438-357. The score would indicate otherwise, but this was the Tigers’ best offensive performance against an FBS opponent this season.
Boston College came out of the locker room at halftime looking like a different team than the one Clemson held to just six points in the first half. The Eagles pinpointed where they needed to attack the Tigers and tied the game just 55 seconds into the second half.
The Eagles did a sufficient job of getting their tight ends the ball on their second-half opening drive. Dennis Grosel connected with his tight ends, Trae Barry and Joey Luchetti on back-to-back plays for gains of 33 yards and 39 yards, respectively.
Boston College drove the ball 75 yards on four plays, capped off by a Pat Gawo III three-yard rushing touchdown.
But that was about all the damage Boston College was able to inflict during the game’s final 30 minutes.
It didn’t come without some opportunities, though.
With just over nine minutes remaining in the third quarter, Will Spiers had his punt blocked. The ball went sideways, and luckily out of bounds, as Boston College took over at Clemson’s 35-yard line. What could have been an abject disaster, ended in a three-and-out, with Clemson’s defense holding tight and drawing a critical false start penalty.
After multiple drives stalled out, R.J. Mickens intercepted an errant Grosel pass with the Eagles pinned deep in their own territory. Clemson was able to take advantage of the short field. However, the Tigers had to overcome multiple mental mistakes to open the door for Potter’s 35-yard field goal, which gave Clemson a 16-13 lead.
That was the momentum shift the Tigers would need. They would never relinquish that lead.
Xavier Thomas sacked Grosel on a crucial third-and-3, marking the end of the fourth quarter. From there, Boston College couldn’t do much of anything. They were able to string together 167 yards of offense in the second half, but Clemson made life for Grosel uncomfortable and did a good job of taking away the ground game.
Garwo had 57 rushing yards on just 12 carries. He came into the game averaging 6.8 yards per carry, but was only able to muster 4.8 yards per touch on Saturday night. However, Boston College netted just 46 rushing yards on 34 attempts.
As for Grosel, he completed 23 of 40 passes for 311 yards with two interceptions. He was sacked four times and hurried another six, but he certainly found the turf more than that.
With Justyn Ross on the sideline in sweats, Clemson’s offense leaned heavily on the run game, as it did for the majority of the first half. The Tigers rushed for 162 net yards on 17 carries in the game’s first 30 minutes. Those rushing numbers were, of course, inflated by Pace’s 59-yard scamper, which gave Clemson an early 7-0 lead.
Behind a new-look offensive line, the Tigers were able to rely heavily on both Pace and Phil Mafah, who made for an electrifying 1-2 punch.
Will Putnam was ruled unavailable pregame. An injury that was suffered during the week enabled the Tigers to insert Marcus Tate at left guard, while shifting Matt Bockhorst to right guard and placing Hunter Rayburn at center.
Between Pace, Mafah and Uiagalelei, the Tigers carried the ball 40 times for 231 yards.
In addition to Ross, Clemson played the majority of Saturday’s game without Will Taylor, Davis Allen and Braden Galloway. Having to dip deep into its depth at the skill player position, Clemson took the football out of Uigalelei’s hands, for the most part. After completing 9-of-15 passes in the first half for 99 yards, Clemson’s starting quarterback went just 4-of-13 with 108 yards, aided by some big completions to Joseph Ngata.
He finished the contest 13 of 28 with 207 yards passing. It was an atypical performance for Uiagalelei this season, but it was enough to deliver Clemson a much-needed win heading into its bye week.
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