After the loss to Notre Dame on the road, Clemson returned home with an 8-1 record and a lot to figure out on both sides of the ball. With only 281 yards on offense in the loss, nothing seemed to be clicking the entire night. Even the effectiveness of the run game that we’ve seen this season was just not working for the Tigers, as they had their worst rushing performance of the season against the Irish.
Offensive lineman Jordan McFadden spoke to the media on Monday and expressed his shock at Saturday’s performance. As a veteran on the team, McFadden gave his perspective about what he believes went wrong in the game.
“It’s definitely about studying the tape,” he said. “Saturday’s game came as a shock to me. I feel like we prepared well. I feel like guys were locked in all week. I felt like before the game, guys seemed super locked in and everything like that. So, it was kind of, you know, a shock. It almost didn’t feel real at times.”
The South Carolina native was candid when reflecting on the game and didn’t shy away expressing his disappointment with the team’s overall performance against the Irish.
“We’re definitely disappointed,” he said. “Not what we prepared for, not what we worked all season for or offseason for, definitely not the outcome we wanted. There’s nothing we can go back and do now to change it.”
McFadden questioned what factors may have contributed to the poor offensive showing and ultimately he believes it came down to the unit’s cohesion. He felt like even if 10 guys did everything right, one guy just wasn’t on the same page, and we saw that lack of cohesion reflect in the outcome of the game.
“I feel like when we have mistakes or when we stall out or when we don’t finish drives, it’s because maybe 10 people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing and one person is not doing the right thing,” he said.
The graduate senior shared where the mindset of the offense is now. Sometimes it may be hard to sweep a loss like the one on Saturday under the rug, but McFadden emphasized the importance of redirecting the team’s focus to the next task at hand, which is facing a dynamic Louisville team in Death Valley this weekend.
“Definitely, I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t want to make it to the playoffs,” he said, “but I think right now our focus is getting back on track beating Louisville. I think if we win out, things will take care of itself.”
