There was no secret to what was coming. Wesley Goodwin said as much.
In fact, Clemson’s defensive coordinator spent a good chunk of time earlier in the week talking to reporters about how his unit knew what it had to do against Notre Dame’s offense. It was almost as if Goodwin and head coach Dabo Swinney, who made a reference to his team needing to bring its “big-boy pants” to South Bend, wanted to send a message to their players publicly about needing to match the physicality of the Fighting Irish’s running game.
“You have to stop their run game,” Goodwin said of Notre Dame’s top-40 rushing offense.
The Tigers left those pants back in Clemson.
Notre Dame walloped the fourth-ranked Tigers late Saturday night at Notre Dame Stadium, improving to 6-0 this season when rushing for at least 150 yards in the process. Using that metric, the Tigers didn’t come close to giving themselves a chance. Instead, Clemson’s star-studded front seven bullied by an offense that’s largely been one-dimensional this season.
“Super surprised,” Swinney said afterward. “Nobody’s fault but mine. Didn’t play anywhere near like we have played and can play. (Saturday), that’s what you saw. They were clearly the more physical team and executed better. It will be a painful tape to watch for everyone.”
The Irish did it against the nation’s No. 7 run defense, though Clemson had shown some cracks of late. There were those 206 yards Florida State rushed for in the Tigers’ six-point win on Oct. 15. And Syracuse did the Tigers a favor two weeks earlier by only getting five carries for its all-ACC back, Sean Tucker, who averaged more than 10 yards on those touches.
On Saturday, the Tigers broke.
It didn’t matter that Notre Dame had the 106th-ranked passing offense in the country with a backup quarterback because the Irish did just about anything they wanted on the ground. They gashed Clemson through the A and B gaps and bounced runs outside when Clemson lost contain on the edges. Even that backup, Drew Pyne, who isn’t much of a runner, benefited from all the attention Clemson had to give to Notre Dame’s stable of backs by keeping on some read plays, including a 5-yard touchdown scamper late in the second quarter.
Even when the Tigers had things fitted correctly and players in position to make tackles, there was no guarantee it was happening. Logan Diggs and Audric Estime, Notre Dame’s primary battering rams, often turned shorter runs into longer gains by plowing through the arms of Clemson defenders, continuing the Tigers’ recent trend of having issues getting ball carriers to the ground.
“It was just a combination of misfits, missed tackles and guys getting knocked out of their gaps,” Goodwin said. “It was a bit of everything here and there. Got to get back to work on Monday, fix the issues that showed up and get better with where we got exposed.
“Obviously we were not the most physical team, and that’s 100 percent on me and getting them prepared the right way to execute.”
Veteran defensive end K.J. Henry wasn’t willing to give himself and his teammates a pass. Clemson’s fifth-year senior said the players were also part of the problem on a night when play calls weren’t solely to blame for Notre Dame’s bludgeoning.
The Irish, who ripped off nearly 6 yards per carry, had 122 rushing yards in the first half – 35 more than what Clemson had been allowing per game – and finished with 263. Of their 24 first downs, 17 were on the ground with five of them coming on one of their touchdown drives.
“Coach Wes put us in the right spots and made a lot of the right calls,” Henry said. “I know technique has to be cleaned up on the defensive side of the ball. We can’t be complacent with just being in the right spot.”
As for why the Tigers were no match for Notre Dame’s physicality up front, Henry struggled to come up with an answer.
“I’d have to go back and see the film, but being a fifth-year guy, I can’t sit here and act like the game plan wasn’t set up for us to win the game,” he said.
Diggs (114) and Estime (104) each eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground, the first time a team has had multiple 100-yard rushers in the same game against Clemson since 2012. Clemson has now surrendered at least 200 rushing yards in two of its last three games.
“They just physically kicked our butt,” Swinney said. “Period. The end.”