These analysts had plenty to say after fourth-ranked Clemson was blown away at Notre Dame on Saturday night.
On ACC Network’s ACC Huddle show, Eric Mac Lain, EJ Manuel, Mark Richt and Eddie Royal offered a lot of thoughts on the Tigers’ upset 35-14 loss to the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend.
“The lack of juice from the offense – offense and defense, Clemson in general,” said Royal, the former Virginia Tech standout and longtime NFL wide receiver. “It was a statement game for them. Everybody’s watching this game, you’ve got a chance to represent the ACC, represent Clemson the right way, and they just came out flat.”
Notre Dame (6-3) set the tone early on Clemson’s first possession, forcing the Tigers to punt and then blocking that punt, which Prince Kollie returned 17 yards for a touchdown to give the Irish a 7-0 lead less than six minutes into the game.
Clemson (8-1), which saw its nation-leading 14-game winning streak get snapped, could never recover after that. The Tigers trailed 14-0 at halftime before eventually falling behind 28-0 in the fourth quarter and ultimately losing by 21 points.
Manuel, the former Florida State and NFL quarterback, wonders if the Tigers showed immaturity in their lack of response after the early special teams punch from Notre Dame.
“When you hear Coach Swinney talk about this team, he brings up immaturity a lot, and I’m curious if that’s something that had to do with their performance today,” he said. “Not to say they’re immature in the sense of they’re not grown men and all that kind of stuff, but just in the sense of when you have that punt get blocked early in the game and they score a touchdown, they weren’t able to come back from that. Like you said, Eddie, they lost their juice. They were almost stunned like wait, this team is actually jumping out on us, how do we react.”
Offensively, Clemson was only able to muster a season-low 281 yards of offense and had just 71 at halftime. Notre Dame scored 14 points off two turnovers – one interception apiece thrown by Cade Klubnik and DJ Uiagalelei, including Uiagalelei’s 96-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, the Tigers allowed a season-high 263 rushing yards, while Clemson rushed for just 90 itself.
“Total domination on both sides – offensive line, defensive line, dominated,” said Richt, the former Miami and Georgia head coach. “And the thing about Clemson, they had two explosive plays – they had one 22-yard pass and one 21-yard run, and that was DJ running it. They got no shot.”
Both Audric Estime (18 carries, 104 yards, one touchdown) and Logan Diggs (17 carries, 114 yards) surpassed the century mark in rushing for the Irish as they averaged 5.6 yards per tote as a team.
“It was (dominant),” Manuel said. “We talked about it coming into the game, can Clemson stop the run? We thought they could personnel-wise, and they couldn’t. You have two rushers going over a hundred yards. I’m sure the home-field advantage for Notre Dame helped them in that benefit. But look, this was a Notre Dame team that was still ranked top five at the beginning of the season, and people can say, ‘Oh, they’re not a good team.’ Sometimes you have to find your ebb and you have to find your flow, and they’ve certainly found that now with their new coach, Marcus Freeman. So, they’re off to a great start.”
Clemson came into the game ranked seventh nationally in run defense, allowing less than 90 yards per game on the ground. But Saturday marked the second time this season that the Tigers have given up more than 200 yards on the ground in a game, with the other occasion being at Florida State back on Oct. 15 when the Seminoles ran for 206 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
“That big offensive line from Notre Dame said, ‘You see all those press clippings? Light them on fire. This is what we do at Notre Dame.’ They blew those guys over,” said Mac Lain, the former Clemson and All-ACC offensive lineman. “And I think it’s a little bit of the case of you think you’re a little better than you are, you’re not working your tail off like you’re supposed to be. This is supposed to be one of the best defensive lines ever in college football – not just Clemson. They’ve been embarrassed now by Florida State running for over 200 yards and by these guys running for 260.”
Mac Lain added that “this has not been the Clemson defense we’ve seen of years past” and mentioned the Tigers’ lackluster defensive showing against Furman in September when the FCS opponent outgained Dabo Swinney’s team in total yards (384 to 376).
“There’s like these little crumbs along the way if you’re really paying attention,” he said. “The Furman game, Coach Swinney lit into his defense, saying that it was an embarrassing effort, that defensive line, calling some guys out. And I think that’s just the deal, man. Where you’ve been told you’re so good, you’re so good, you’re so good, and then results like this start happening.”
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