Whether it was on the ground or through the air, Syracuse came out gashing Clemson’s defense.
Syracuse averaged nearly 7 yards per play against the Tigers in the first half of Saturday’s tilt of ranked unbeatens in the ACC. Dual-threat quarterback Garrett Shrader was the Tigers’ biggest issue. Shrader, one of the more improved passers in the conference coming into the game, connected on nine of his first 11 passes against Clemson defense that often chose to sit back and rush just four.
Shrader got Syracuse on the board with a touchdown pass to running back Sean Tucker, who beat defensive end KJ Henry on a wheel route to the end zone. With much of Clemson’s focus on corralling Tucker, the ACC’s second-leading rusher coming in, Shrader also ran for 73 yards in the first two quarters, sometimes on designed runs and other times when breaking Clemson’s contain to make something out of nothing with his legs.
“You don’t realize how fast Shrader is,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “You take a bad angle on him, and he’s a problem.”
So when the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder got out of the pocket against another four-man rush late in the second quarter and also outraced the rest of Clemson’s defense to the pylon for a 7-yard score that gave Syracuse its largest lead at 21-7, defensive coordinator Wesley Goodwin knew something had to change.
“We had to change our mindset,” defensive tackle Tyler Davis said. “We had to tighten up some little things, come out with a whole different mindset and go attack.”
That touchdown run was the last bit of scoring the Orange would do. And with Clemson ramping up the pressure in the final two quarters, yards were hard to come by, too.
Swinney and Goodwin said the plan coming in was to limit Tucker’s touches on the ground, though even Goodwin said he was even surprised the Orange’s All-American tailback got just five carries. That helped Clemson contain Tucker, who averaged 10.8 yards a pop on the few chances he got, as much as anything.
Goodwin said the Tigers adjusted some of their edge pressures to try to better hem up Shrader on the ground in the second half. Some of that was simply putting more defenders at the line of scrimmage and playing man coverage on the back end, an approach that’s also burned Clemson’s new-look back seven at times this season.
But the strategy paid off Saturday with the Tigers’ defense giving the offense every chance to make its comeback. Shrader threw for just 77 yards after halftime and had minus-2 rushing yards as Clemson racked up four of its five sacks in the final two quarters.
Syracuse netted just 35 yards on its first six possessions of the second half, all of which ended in punts. During that time, the Tigers, who committed a season-high four turnovers through the first two and a half quarters, held onto the ball long enough to score two touchdowns to take the lead.
“Guys gained more confidence as we got in the game and realized they match up with them,” Goodwin said. “Just tighten down on our alignments, play tight man coverage, and the guys responded to the challenge.”
After B.T. Potter extended the lead on a 44-yard field goal with 1 minutes, 33 seconds left, Syracuse had one last chance to drive for at least a tying touchdown and perhaps the win. This time, it was Clemson’s turn to come up with a takeaway. With Syracuse marching in Clemson territory, safety R.J. Mickens capped the defense’s dominant second half with one last bit of aggression, jumping a route in zone coverage to intercept Shrader in the waning seconds.
“I just knew they were hitting us on the seams, so I was going to pack it in,” Mickens said. “The quarterback scrambled out, so I just played off his eyes and made the play.”
With the defense’s help, the Tigers are the last unbeaten in the ACC and still have hopes of returning to the College Football Playoff heading into the final third of the regular season.
“We adjusted within our game plan, but our guys responded and obviously rose to the occasion without giving up any points in the second half,” Goodwin said. “They did what we needed to do to win the game.”
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