The Clemson Tigers won their fourth straight game Saturday night by defeating the Florida State Seminoles, 29-13, in Tallahassee.
Dabo Swinney passed Bobby Bowden for most wins as head coach at an ACC program — on a field named after the legendary Seminoles coach and personal friend to Swinney. Clemson’s victory was the 174th of Swinney’s career. It was also the Tigers’ eighth win against FSU in the series’ last nine meetings.
The fact that Swinney and Clemson would win the game was pretty much cemented from the moment the Tigers (4-1) took a 17-0 lead facing an anemic Florida State (1-5) offense after the first quarter.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik led two impressive first-quarter touchdown drives. He hit Antonio Williams for an incredible 57-yard touchdown catch that made it 10-0, then hit freshman T.J. Moore for a 23-yard touchdown with just 2 seconds left in the opening quarter.
But the Tigers failed to finish drives for the rest of the night. They settled for seven straight field goal attempts in the red zone from kicker Nolan Hauser, who made five of them with two being blocked.
The inability to finish drives was a sore enough point for Swinney, who lamented as much to ESPN sideline reporter Quint Kessenich at the start of the fourth quarter.
Clemson would finish the night by dominating Florida State in everything that ultimately mattered to the game’s outcome. The Tigers out-gained the ‘Noles in total yards, 500 to 250; indeed, 52 of FSU’s yards came on a final, stat-padding possession. The Tigers’ defense allowed just 22 rushing yards all night.
Klubnik was 19-of-33 for 235 yards through the air and tailback Phil Mafah added 154 yards on the ground on 22 carries (6.2 AVG).
Clemson also committed fewer penalties (three) than Florida State (seven), though the game was relatively laundry-free.
The Tigers managed to get a road win, and that’s more than several Top 25 teams with hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff — Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, USC and Michigan — can say for Week 6. But the Tigers also never flashed a true killer instinct.
When Seminoles quarterback Brock Glenn led a 15-play, 74-yard scoring drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Khi Douglas with 9:36 still to play in regulation, Florida State was a 2-point conversion shy of making it a one-score game.
That never happened, and Clemson would tack on two more field goals to allow itself some breathing room. Speaking of field goals, the two blocked kicks came on weak protection from the left side of the offensive line. That’s something else the Tigers will need to clean up.
Going forward, the Tigers may not be able to win games by committing some of these mistakes. That’s especially true when the competition stiffens in November and December.
Swinney said this week that good teams win at home and great teams win on the road. To that end, Clemson is now 1-0 on the road in ACC play. But greatness also comes in the form of being able to bury teams that simply don’t match the Tigers’ skill set.
NEXT UP
Clemson will face Wake Forest in Winston-Salem next Saturday at noon ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.
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