It’s no secret Clemson’s defense struggled mightily in the Tigers’ first loss of the 2022 season on Saturday, allowing 348 total yards of offense and five touchdowns amidst the 35-14 loss in South Bend.
Defensive end K.J. Henry caught up with Don Munson following the loss on the Fifth Quarter show on 105.5 The Roar and shared his thoughts following the loss.
“It wasn’t our night,” Henry said. “A lot of things that didn’t necessarily really go our way, but we didn’t really help ourselves like [head] coach [Dabo] Swinney said. We gotta find a way to bounce back. Just like we do wins, we gotta do losses the same way. We gotta watch the film on Sunday and Monday, wash it out and get ready for the next one.”
A lack of physicality on the defensive side for Clemson seemed to be a huge issue that allowed the Fighting Irish run game to thrive in addition to a plethora of small mistakes that eventually led to the costly outcome.
“That’s what’s unfortunate,” the veteran defender said regarding their lack of physicality. “Definitely within the game when we got stops, they weren’t even quality ones because when they’re able to drive down the field and flip the field, it takes time, and it takes field position from the offense, so defensively we definitely have to singlehandedly do better in that perspective. As a whole, we gotta find a way to turn it around. It’s definitely not the end of the world, we’re still a really good team, but obviously some things happened tonight that we’re not OK with and we gotta fix it.”
Though the loss does sting, Henry knows the season is far from over. With a three-game homestead on deck and the Tigers’ ACC Championship Game ticket punched, Clemson needs to move forward with a windshield mentality and shift its focus to its next opponent in Louisville next weekend.
“Can’t let one loss turn into two, can’t let one bad game turn into two, so that’s what the mindset’s going to be,” Henry said. “Like I said, just correction all we can next week and getting ready for the next opponent.”
