During his Zoom conference call with the media Sunday evening, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made it clear how he feels about the play of the Tigers’ defense on Saturday afternoon against Furman.
Although Clemson yielded just one touchdown and two field goals in the 35-12 win, the Tigers gave up 384 total yards while allowing the Paladins to convert at a 10-of-18 clip on third downs – a stark contrast to the season opener against Georgia Tech, when the Yellow Jackets managed to move the chains just twice on 16 third-down attempts.
“Defensively, just really disappointed in how we played,” Swinney said. “They were 2-of-16 Monday night on third down, and 10-of-18 on Saturday afternoon.”
Swinney cited some other aspects of Saturday’s defensive performance that he also wasn’t pleased with.
“Just too many easy throws,” he said. “We obviously didn’t play the screens well at all. Didn’t play the quick game well. Just a poor start, and just did not like how we played, defensively, at all.”
On the bright side, Swinney pointed out that the name of the game is points, and the Tigers allowed only 12 of those. He also mentioned how Clemson bowed up in the red zone, forcing two field goals and a turnover on downs inside the 20-yard line.
Furman went 0-of-2 on fourth downs, with one of Clemson’s fourth-down stops coming at the goal line late in the fourth quarter, when Furman’s Dominic Roberto was tackled by Justin Mascoll for a 1-yard loss to the Clemson 2-yard line for the aforementioned turnover on downs.
Clemson also forced a couple of turnovers, one on a forced fumble by Malcolm Greene that was recovered by Fred Davis and another on an interception by Barrett Carter.
However, Swinney doesn’t believe the Tigers brought the same type of energy defensively that they did to start the season in the 41-10 win over Georgia Tech.
“The only thing that I would say – and there’s a lot to be said – at the of the day, it’s about points, and we were outstanding in the red zone,” Swinney said. “Really, really good in the red zone, really good in goal line, really good on fourth down. We did create two turnovers.
“So, those are positives. They did compete and keep them out of the end zone. But kind of a tale of two games. I did not think we played near with the juice, defensively, that we did Monday night.”
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