Clemson football hit the road to take on Syracuse in Week 7 and the Tigers came away with a monster upset loss at the hands of the Orange.
It wasn’t pretty. Clemson football hit the road to take on 3-3 Syracuse in Week 7 and the Tigers were sent home with their tails between their legs. The Orange pulled off the biggest upset of the season, knocking off the defending champs, 27-24.
The Carrier Dome was rocking all night long, but that didn’t seem to phase the Tigers as much as the lack of a consistent offense and poor defense exploited by Eric Dungey and the Syracuse receivers. We learned a lot about both teams tonight, but mostly the Tigers.
Are their playoff hopes smashed to pieces? Absolutely not. They lost to Pitt at home last year and still won the national title.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Week 7 matchup in the ACC.
3. Running back duo of Feaster-Etienne is scary
Let’s face it, Travis Etienne and Tavien Feaster are a scary duo of running backs. These two didn’t have the biggest games, but they showed up when it mattered most.
In fact, Feaster broke off a 37-yard touchdown run with his team down 7-0 in the first half, capping off a quick response drive to Syracuse’s first score. He had just seven carries, but finished with 57 yards and a touchdown.
Later, Etienne pulled the Tigers even with about six minutes to go in the third. He burst through the offensive line for 52 yards and a crucial score. He finished the game with 68 yards and a touchdown on just five carries.
During both of these long runs, the backs looked untouchable and scary fast in the open field. If they can both play at high levels from this point on, it won’t matter who the quarterback is.
2. Kelly Bryant is nowhere near healthy
It was obvious from the first snap, Kelly Bryant is not healthy nor is he anywhere near it. It was a bit of a mistake for Dabo Swinney to run him out there on Friday night, but he must have been given the green light by the trainers.
However, even in the first quarter on a scramble play, Bryant walked toward the sideline and shied away from contact. That’s not like him. He was very timid on his runs and didn’t want to take the hits, although no quarterback does, but he looked almost nervous in the open field.
Later in the second quarter, he was limping on a scramble, which made it obvious that his ankle was in serious jeopardy. It didn’t matter that he was looking accurate through the air. He was unable to avoid pressure in the pocket and conceded a sack and a couple short gains.
Right before halftime, Bryant was sacked and slammed to the ground by a Syracuse defender and suffered a scary injury which looked like a bad concussion. He may need to take the game after the bye week off in order to rest up both his ankle and his head. Zerrick Cooper is more than capable of succeeding in this offense.
1. Clemson is plenty flawed; bye week comes at perfect time
I get it , no team in college football is perfect, but Clemson proved that time and time again on Friday night as it fell to the Syracuse Orange in upset fashion. The Tigers kept shooting themselves in the foot, and that was even with a relatively-upright Kelly Bryant.
What were the issues? The defensive backfield and discipline. The Tigers kept mentally falling apart in key situations such as third and long missed conversions by the Orange which they bailed out with pass interferences, personal fouls and offsides penalties.
Those type of discipline mistakes burned Clemson all night as they had their worst penalty performance of the season, finishing with 11 for 119 yards. Syracuse had 12 penalties for 100 yards, so they weren’t much better, but the Tigers are coming off a national title so the expectations in that regard are completely different.
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As for the secondary, it seemed that it was getting burned early and often and when it didn’t get burned, it was called for holding or pass interferences. This needs to be cleaned up as the bye week comes at the perfect time.