The 411 on Clemson's Fourth Straight Road Win Over Florida State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – All week Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney talked about how good teams win at home and great ones go out and win on the road.

While it certainly wasn’t all pretty, the No. 15 Tigers went into Doak Campbell on Saturday and knocked off a reeling Florida State team 29-13 to move to 4-1 on the season and 2-0 in ACC play. The Seminoles drop to 1-5 overall and 1-4 in league play.

– Clemson’s run defense was much better than it was in the win over Stanford. Florida State managed just 18 yards on the ground. Lawrance Toafili was held to just 16 yards on 10 carries and the Seminoles had just 198 yards of total offense before the final drive in garbage time.

– Didn’t think the defense put enough pressure on Brock Glenn, seeing as the redshirt freshman was making just his third career start. Too often, Glenn had plenty of time, leading to receivers ultimately getting open down the field in the second half.

– The Tigers had multiple chances to put this Seminoles’ team away but had to keep settling for field goal attempts rather than scoring touchdowns. That let this Florida State team keep hanging around. It did not end up hurting them in the end, but great teams don’t let bad teams hang around for four quarters. Clemson made six different trips inside of the red zone and failed to score a touchdown all six times.

– Clemson’s protection on field goal attempts was not at all where it needs to be in this one. Twice Nolan Hauser had kicks blocked because the protection broke down on the left side. That is an issue that could end up costing this team at some point down the road if it is not addressed.

Turning Point

Florida State scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to pull within 23-13 (2 point conversion was no good). On the Tigers’ first play of the ensuing drive, Phil Mafah had a 59-yard rush that set Clemson up in the red zone. Three plays later Hauser hit his fourth field goal of the game to make it 26-13.

Crazy Stat

The Seminoles finished the night averaging less than a yard per carry. Clemson’s defensive front did a really good job of clogging up the rushing lanes and making that Seminoles’ offense one-dimensional.

A limited number of signed replica road signs from Cade Klubnik are available!  Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!