Clemson Football: 3 takeaways from pull-away win over Syracuse

1. Teams trending in opposite directions

Dabo Swinney said it best, “A sloppy win is better than an ugly loss any day of the week.” The law of averages says that any team — even a team as talented as Clemson — will have sloppy games. It is not easy playing at a high level every single week. Every team trying to win a championship has at least one or two “survive and advance” games every year; this was one of Clemson’s.

The defense was excellent, creating turnovers and wreaking havoc in the backfield against the Orange today. Though the offense took a while to get going, the Tigers played well in the second half pulling away from Syracuse. All in all, the Tigers are still undefeated in the driver’s seat for the ACC title game and the playoff.

This was a third consecutive loss for the Orange. Syracuse is abysmal in the trenches. They have issues along their offensive line and defensive line. Andre Cisco, Syracuse’s best defensive player, has opted out for the rest of the season. That does the pass defense no favors. The talent gap between the Orange and Tigers is obvious.

Nykeim Johnson scored Syracuse’s two offensive touchdowns, both on 60 plus yard plays. Johnson is a nice piece if the Orange only had more pieces to put around him. There might not be any hot-seat talk around Dino Babers because of COVID-19, but there is some unrest in upstate New York.