CHARLOTTE — D.J. Uiagalelei had no issue admitting he had a bad night.
The Clemson quarterback owned up to his 19-of-37 performance for 178 yards. He even tried to take blame for the interception, which Georgia safety Chris Smith returned 74 yards for the game’s only touchdown.
Smith’s interception return was the difference in the third-ranked Tigers’ 10-3 loss to No. 5 Georgia Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
“We had a route there for (Justyn) Ross. He broke in. I put it right there and the DB made a good play on it,” Uiagalelei said after the game. “That was about it. The DB made a really good play on it and took it to the house.”
But that is not the way Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney or offensive coordinator Tony Elliott saw it. They both felt the interception was on Ross because he did not do what he was supposed to on the route.
“It was a situation where we were targeting Ross there and giving him the ability to read leverage,” Elliott said. “If you are going to read leverage and go inside, then you have to make sure you do a good job of protecting the quarterback by crossing any kind of inside leverage in the defender’s face and we did not get across his face. I think the quarterback was trusting his receiver. He delivered the ball, and we did not protect him from a receiver’s standpoint by crossing that guy’s face.
“It was just one of those critical plays that I was talking about that we did not execute at high enough level, and they ended up making a play.”
It was the play of the game. Like Uiagalelei, Ross also had a bad day.
In his first action in 19 months, Ross caught just four passes on 10 targets for 26 yards. It was not the kind of return Ross, nor his coaches, hoped for. The mistake on Smith’s interception was just part of what was not a good day for Ross or the Clemson offense.
“The pick-six was on the receiver. He really was supposed to sit down and turn out,” Swinney said. “It was an option route. He has an option there and he chose to run a slant. If you are going to run the slant, you have to run it off the defender. You have to be flat.
“Anytime a defender beats a receiver off the face on a slant route, that is all on the receiver. He just did not make the right decision and it was a critical play. D.J. gave it all he had. It was an incredible effort to try and go make the tackle. Great play by them and a bad play by us.”
It was just a bad day for the Tigers all around.
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