Clemson offense shows glimpses, but can't get out of its own way at times

DJ Uiagalelei had his moments in the 40-10 win.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sat Nov 19 22:36:58 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offense showed glimpses of what it can be in the first half against Miami Saturday, but there were also the same glimpses of what it’s been.

The Tigers put up 447 total yards, scored 40 points, and registered 240 pass yards and 207 rushing yards. Clemson scored 24 points in the first half and finished the game with two late touchdowns. But there were three turnovers, even though just two of five fumbles were lost. And there was an ugly interception where the quarterback and receiver weren’t on the same page.

The turnovers were a big reason the Tigers only scored two points in the third quarter, and those came on a safety by the defense.

Things got so bad that head coach Dabo Swinney gathered the entire offense in a huddle near the offensive bench and spent a long few minutes in animated conversation with his players.

Never seen this before. Dabo gathered the ENTIRE offense in a huddle and is preaching away. He's animated. We are five minutes in pic.twitter.com/rX3T65aAiO
— David Hood (@MDavidHood) November 19, 2022

“It was just sloppy. We were really challenging them to go put a drive together,” Swinney said. “It was frustrating. And they know that. It felt like, 'We need to get back on track here. Let's finish well. We can't do anything about what happened in the third quarter.' We were driving the ball but goodness gracious. But they played their way out of it and responded.”

Swinney sad the turnovers continue to be a concern.

“I thought we were getting rid of the turnover bug. It's frustrating because I thought Street and the staff did a great job on both sides of the ball, putting players in a position to be successful,” he said. “But you have to make plays. A lot of missed plays. Had the huge drop that was going to go inside the redzone. We had a big play and we fumble it on the five. We take a sack in the quick game.”

Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei said the offense can’t get out of its own way.

“I thought the first half we came out and executed really well. We passed the ball good and we ran the ball good,” Uiagalelei said. “I thought the first half was really clean, but in the second half the turnovers really killed us. We have to do a better job of protecting the ball.

“We just get in our own way. After the first half we had I thought we would come out great and then turnovers killed us. But overall, happy we got a win.”

Swinney wants to see his offense put an entire game together that looks the way the first half looked – crisp and clean with execution and no turnovers.

"Absolutely. That’s what they can do. Ability to be explosive and balanced. It was awesome. That was as much complementary football as we've played all year,” Swinney said. “It was good for them to get a glimpse of that. Motivates them even more to believe in what we do and correct those mistakes. Think the belief is really, really high."