Tigers hang on for dear life in sluggish, delayed close-call over Tech

Clemson's defense held on for dear life late

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sat Sep 18 21:06:50 GMT-04:00 2021

CLEMSON – James Skalski’s shoulder saved the day. Barely.

Trailing 14-6, Georgia Tech faced a 4th-and-goal at the two with just 19 seconds remaining and tried a shovel pass into the middle of the Clemson line, but veteran linebacker James Skalski read the play and buried his shoulder into Dylan Devaney’s knees, preserving a sluggish, drawn-out victory Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.

The game wasn’t quite over at that point – the Tigers fumbled back into the endzone for a safety that made it 14-8 – and a free kick gave the Tech the ball at their own 25 with just a few ticks left on the clock. Two incomplete passes later, however, Clemson had the win.

The game featured an almost two-hour lightning delay and more stoppages of play than anyone would care to count, the Clemson offense sputtered and spluttered to just 14 points and the defense held on for dear life as the Tigers improved to 2-1 on the season. Georgia Tech falls to 1-2.

The Yellow Jackets outgained Clemson 309-284, had more passing yards (203-126), more first downs (21-19), and more total plays (72-66).

Will Shipley had 21 carries for 89 yards in an effort that seems to cement his place atop the depth chart, while quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was 18-for-25 for just 126 yards. Justyn Ross had seven catches for 61 yards.

Clemson had just nine drives – four ended with a punt, there was the safety, a critical fumble, the two touchdowns and a turnover on downs.

"First of all, congratulations to Georgia Tech. They fought their tails off. We are going to get everybody's best shot. That's something we earned around here," head coach Dabo Swinney said. "Unbelievable effort by our guys. Tremendous heart. Tonight was an incredibly strange game with some unbelievable situations that came up. We are getting better but still a work in progress. This is the type of game we can grow from."

Swinney said he was proud of a defense that hasn't allowed a touchdown this season.

"The name of this game is points and when the other team can't score, you're going to win a lot of games. Really proud of our defense," Swinney said. "Defensively they got outside of us too many times. We should've had more sacks if we leveraged better and stayed on uphill shoulder. Where we have to get better is taking better care of the football."

"Offensively, they absolutely lined up in nothing we prepared for every decided they were going to make us go everything in-between the tackles and not give up the big play. We only had eight possessions, and six were eight plays or more. 9-of-15 on third down. But we got very few points. I think that was a philosophy of theirs, to make us keep snapping it and see if we could finish the drives. And we did a poor job of finishing it."

The teams traded punts to start the game, and the Tiges relied on Shipley to get them into the endzone on the second drive. Following a sack by Xavier Thomas that pinned the Jackets at their one four, Georgia Tech punted and the Tigers took over at the Jacket 39. Shipley ran on six of the seven plays and scored on a three-yard run up the middle, giving Clemson a 7-0 lead with just under five minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Then the weirdness started. Clemson’s offense was stuck in neutral while Georgia Tech failed to gain any traction. However, the Jackets put together a long drive near the end of the first half, but play was delayed with 32 seconds left in the half due to lightning in the area. The delay lasted one hour and 52 minutes, and both coaches agreed that the delay would be halftime. Once the teams returned to the field, the Jackets capped a 14-play drive with a field goal to end the first half. Almost 3 ½ hours after it started, the first half ended with Clemson clinging to a 7-3 lead.

The third quarter was a slog, with neither team gaining much traction. The Tigers did put together a nice drive – behind the running ability of Uiagalelei – but he fumbled on a third-down play to end the threat. In the meantime, there were stoppages of play for injuries, reviews and timeouts that completely ruined the pace of play.

The Tigers finally put it together in the fourth quarter. Clemson took over at its own 34, and riding the hot hand of Shipley and a little room in the passing game. The Tigers moved steadily down the field, and a Shipley 15-yard run brought the remaining crowd to its feet. However, Shipley threw off his helmet and rolled around in pain as the stadium held its breath.

He eventually popped up and ran off under his own power – to the cheers of the Clemson faithful – and following a seven-yard pass to Davis Allen the Tigers had the ball at the Georgia Tech three-yard line. Shipley ran in behind left guard Marcus Tate and was met at the line of scrimmage, but kept his legs moving and bulldozed his way into the endzone and Clemson led 14-3 midway through the final quarter.

Georgi Tech took over and then proceeded to bleed all the time off the clock despite being down by 11 points. The Jackets put together a 16-play, 70-yard drive that took almost seven minutes off the clock. The drive ended with a 22-yard field goal that made it 14-6 with just 1:19 left on the clock.

The Jackets then went for the onside kick and recovered at their own 47 – the ball bounced high and a Jacket grabbed it as he fell out of bounds – for a last-gasp try to get a touchdown. On the first play from scrimmage, the Tigers were called for roughing the passer, giving Tech the ball at the Clemson 37 with 1:14 remaining.

Clemson goes on the road in ACC play next week, traveling to Raleigh and Carter-Finley Stadium for a 3:30 pm kickoff with NC State.

Clemson-GT box