Clemson polished off a perfect run through its ACC regular-season schedule Saturday with its win over Miami. It also gave the Tigers their 12th straight 10-win season and kept them on the fringes of the College Football Playoff picture.

Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the Tigers’ 40-10 win:

The good

It’s been a rollercoaster season for Clemson’s defense, but the unit turned in its best overall performance Saturday.

Yes, Miami was on its second- and third-string quarterbacks with Tyler Van Dyke unavailable. But Jacurri Brown was coming off a game against Georgia Tech the previous week in which he accounted for more than 220 total yards and threw three touchdowns. Clemson never came close to letting the true freshman replicate that success.

Miami’s offense couldn’t do much of an anything on a day in which it mustered just 98 total yards, the third-fewest in program history. It’s the fewest Clemson has allowed since yielding 44 to South Carolina back in 2014. Miami completed just 50% of its passes, averaged just 1.3 yards per carry and a minuscule 2.3 per play.

Middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter was the defensive standout with a team-high nine tackles, a sack and a pass breakup. He also tracked down Miami running back Jaylan Knighton on a fourth-down run early in the second half to get the ball back to the offense.

Outside of a 40-yard run early in the second half that accounted for nearly half of the Hurricanes’ offensive output, Brown was harassed by a defense that notched five sacks, tying a season-high. Clemson held Miami to 3 of 11 on third down and forced two more turnovers, both of which led to touchdowns for an offense that did its share of heavy lifting in the rout.

It was particularly crisp in the first half when the Tigers scored touchdowns on three of their first four possessions. Clemson moved the ball for a majority of the day when it held onto it, finishing with 240 yards passing and 207 rushing. It’s only the second game this season in which Clemson has reached the 200-yard mark in both.

D.J. Uiagalelei started hot through the air, completing 14 of his first 17 passes. But it was on the ground where Clemson’s quarterback turned in some of his best plays. The Tigers again incorporated him heavily in the run game (17 carries), and Uiagalelei had a number of athletic runs where he juked and sidestepped his way to chunk plays, including an 8-yard scoring run. He finished as Clemson’s leading rusher with a career-high 89 yards.

Clemson’s tight ends were once again productive in the passing game (eight catches collectively), but it was Luke Price who had a special Senior Day moment. Price, largely a reserve during his six years at Clemson, had not caught a pass for the Tigers until his second-quarter touchdown grab.

The bad

As fast as the offense started, the finish was equally as sluggish. Clemson finished with 219 yards in the second half, but 122 of those came on two late drives, one of which was set up by a turnover that gave the offense a short field.

The Tigers went five straight possessions to start the second half without scoring. On four of those, Clemson ran five plays or less.

Toriano Pride Jr.’s sack of Brown in the end zone late in the third quarter were the Tigers’ only points of the second half to that point, and after Miami scored its lone touchdown early in the fourth quarter following a Clemson turnover, the Tigers found themselves in a two-score game despite dominating most of it. Clemson responded with an eight-play, 86-yard touchdown drive – its longest of the day – to put the game out of reach, which was the offense’s saving grace amid an otherwise sloppy second half.

From an injury perspective, starting offensive lineman Marcus Tate went down early with a knee injury and didn’t return, forcing backup Mitchell Mayes to finish the game at left guard. Swinney said afterward he was hopeful that the injury isn’t a long-term concern, but he didn’t want to speculate too much before Tate undergoes an MRI to determine the severity.

The ugly

The biggest reason for Clemson’s offensive lull in the second half was a turnover bug that the Tigers are having the worst time shaking.

Clemson committed three more turnovers Saturday, running its total to 12 over the last four games. The giveaways happened in succession with Clemson coughing it up on three straight possessions in the third quarter.

Uiagalelei had the fumble that led to Miami’s lone touchdown, the second straight game he’s lost one of those. He also threw an interception, running his turnover count to seven in the last four games.

Tight end Davis Allen also fumbled inside Miami’s 10-yard line, which likely kept the Tigers from putting the game away earlier. And there were three other times that Clemson put the ball on the ground but didn’t lose possession, so it could’ve been worse.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney pointed to bad luck as well as a lack of execution on those occasions Saturday rather than anything mental that might be going on with his team in the turnover department. He said Uiagalelei held onto the ball too long on what was supposed to be a quick pass on his strip sack while freshman receiver Adam Randall stopped running on the pick.

“That’s just doing your job. That’s not mental,” Swinney said. “That’s not being on the same page. We can definitely clean that up and be a little more disciplined in doing your job.”

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