Clemson Football: 3 takeaways from Georgia defeat in Charlotte

3. The Clemson run game offered no help to the offense

Last year, as Clemson reached the College Football Playoff for the sixth straight year, the Tigers ranked in the top 15 nationally in rushing offense. Travis Etienne is gone, though, and last year’s understudy Lyn-J Dixon was nowhere to be seen as Georgia took down the Tigers. Dixon’s absence was especially notable as Clemson’s other backs struggled to move the ball effectively on the ground.

The transition to a new starting quarterback was not eased in any way by the running game. Clemson finished with two yards on the ground thanks to the glut of sacks. Even subtracting the yards Uiagalelei lost when he was taken to the ground on sacks, the Tigers managed to gain only 48 rushing yards on 16 carries.

Veteran back Lyn-J Dixon got only one carry in the second half, yet his 10-yard burst made him Clemson’s leading ball carrier. Will Shipley and Kobe Pace each added seven yards on four carries apiece. Uiagalelei balanced seven carries across the line of scrimmage for 24 yards with his seven sacks.

If Clemson is going to run the table and get their way back into a spot in the College Football Playoff for a seventh consecutive year, they need someone in the backfield to figure things out as soon as possible. Another double-digit performance as a team could yield even more losses for a program that has been the ACC’s standard-bearer of excellence for a half-decade and beyond.