Florida State entered Saturday’s game as one of the premier rushing offenses in the country with 230.3 yards per game.
But Clemson found a way to contain its three-headed monster led by quarterback Jordan Travis in a 30-20 win at Memorial Stadium.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney credited his defense for a great game plan, particularly in limiting Travis’ ability to extend the pocket and make plays with his legs.
“I just thought we did a good job tonight against this group with how we had to play,” Swinney said. “He is a nightmare, this quarterback, he’s all over the place and we finally settled in.”
The Tigers held Florida State to 68 yards rushing on 34 carries for an average of two yards per carry. It proved the Seminoles’ lowest yard total and average on the ground so far this season.
Their two leading rushers Jashaun Corbin and Treshaun Ward each enterd the game averaging over seven yards per carry and combined for 52 yards at Death Valley.
For Myles Murphy, slowing down the Noles started with keeping Travis in the pocket.
“It was very difficult actually because he is very shifty,” Murphy said. “It was a big emphasis this week to cage the quarterback so he didn’t have much of a running lane to escape out of the pocket.”
The defensive end finished the game with 2.5 of Clemson’s six sacks.
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables credited assistant coaches Todd Bates and Lemanski Hall for an excellent game plan and his players for exceptional effort.
“First and foremost the credit goes to our players for being determined, playing with tremendous effort, being physical, understanding situational football,” Venables said. “If we weren’t sacking him, I thought we did a great job of harassing him. I thought coach Hall and coach Bates did a great job in their game plan of how to cage him.”
Clemson returns to action at Louisville on Nov. 6.
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