I understand that Clemson was a lock for the ACC title game after securing that spot in last week’s win over Wake Forest, but good grief.
The No. 7 Tigers got smacked around by a 5-5 North Carolina State team today by a final score of 37-13. The win officially puts Tom O’Brien‘s squad in a bowl eligible position and has Dabo Swinney‘s team limping a little bit into their season-ending game against South Carolina next week. As you can imagine, that game won’t be one where Clemson is heavily favored.
The Tigers weren’t really in the national title discussion, but at No. 7 in the BCS, three weeks is plenty of time for things to get crazy. Just look at what happened Friday night with Oklahoma State. Clemson had to keep playing like they were in the national title discussionn.
I mentioned last week that Swinney would indeed keep his team operating at a high level against the Wolfpack even though the division was won because this felt like a different Clemson team than the ones we’re more accustomed to seeing. They’ve simply had more fight, more “want to” this season. This isn’t to suggest Clemson didn’t play hard today, but this could get bad for the Tigers quickly if they drop next week’s game against the Gamecocks. Combine those losses with the potential for a revenge-minded Virginia Tech, and Clemson could be heading into bowl season on a three-game losing streak.
Suddenly, Clemson’s a 9-4 team again who lost three of their last four or five games. Where have we seen that before?
It’s hard to be perfect every game -- no one should have been too hard on the Tigers for their first loss of the season against Georgia Tech a few weeks back -- but good teams don’t let things spiral out of control. Today’s loss would lead you to wonder if that’s on the horizon.
Swinney needs to make sure it isn’t.
