Clemson Football: 3 takeaways from Week 3 takedown of Syracuse

1. The Clemson ground game is as strong as ever

From beginning to end, Clemson ran roughshod on the Syracuse defense. The Tigers finished the night with 221 yards as a team on 29 carries, punching in a pair of touchdowns in the process. Trevor Lawrence contributed four of those carries for 42 yards and one of the scores, but the bulk of the work was done by a deep backfield that came up huge once again.

Travis Etienne led the team in rushing, but he was kept out of the endzone and held under 100 yards for the second straight week as he finished with 14 carries for 76 yards. After opening the year with an eye-popping 206-yard performance with three touchdowns against Georgia Tech, the veteran seems to be stuck in neutral.

Instead, it was Chez Mellusi who busted off a 57-yard touchdown run on his only carry late in garbage time to seal the final score at 41-6. His lone touch put Mellusi second on the team in production, as the freshman made the most of his opportunity to get on the field.

With Lawrence regressing somewhat to the mean in his passing efficiency, it is incumbent on the backfield to keep providing the necessary balance to keep Clemson’s offense humming on all cylinders. They will have a couple of weeks to get back on course before resuming conference play in Chapel Hill against North Carolina on Sept. 28.