Clemson offense made plays when it needed to against Auburn

Clemson’s last drive of Saturday’s game at Auburn had a peculiar ending with Dabo Swinney opting to go for it on fourth-and-4 instead of attempting a field goal that would have put the game away, but Deshaun Watson and his star-studded offense made plays earlier in the drive to put Clemson in position to preserve the 19-13 win.

Auburn had just scored a touchdown to cut the lead to six and had momentum and two timeouts left when Clemson took over at its own 25 with 3:22 remaining.

Clemson faced a critical third-and-8 at its own 37 with under two minutes left when Watson connected with Mike Williams for a 20-yard gain on a back-shoulder throw.

“At the end of the day to take that ball with 3:20 left when it’s 19-13 on the road, end of the fourth quarter, they just scored, they’ve got momentum, and to march down the field we handled that well,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said during his Sunday teleconference. “That was huge. It was good to see our guys respond and show some maturity in that situation.”

Clemson advanced to the 15 with about 40 seconds left before turning the ball over on downs and the defense knocked down a couple of Hail Mary attempts as Clemson held on for the win.

Clemson didn’t execute perfectly as running back Wayne Gallman ran out of bounds to stop the clock with under a minute left, but in the end Auburn ran out of time.

“If you go three-and-out right there that’s a tough situation. For us to put that drive together, we end the game if we execute properly right there at the end. We go all the way down and leave them with 83 yards to go and no timeouts,” Swinney said. “That was great to see. That was the sign of an experienced football team with a lot of poise.”

PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Swinney announced that left guard Taylor Hearn, defensive end Christian Wilkins and holder Seth Ryan were the offensive, defensive and special teams players of the game.

Hearn, a redshirt sophomore, was making his first career start.

In addition to those three, Swinney was also impressed with true freshman defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, who finished second on the team in tackles with seven and added a tackle for loss.

“He played great. He graded very well, 80 something percent. Y’all just got to see what we’ve been seeing since he got here,” Swinney said. “He’s a really good football player with great instincts for a young guy.”

NOT IMPRESSED

Junior wide receiver Mike Williams caught nine passes for 174 yards but did not impressed Swinney, who was disappointed that Williams dropped a couple of balls he got his hands on.

“It looked like his first game in a while to us. We don’t ever see him drop a ball,” Swinney said. “It’s a good start but not what we expect... There’s a lot more than the stats at that position.”

SWINNEY STANDS BEHIND DECISION

Swinney’s decision to not kick a field goal that would have put the game away was questioned by many, but he stood behind the decision.

“Most of the time we would kick a field goal, but in that moment, those circumstances, that situation We had already seen a high snap, we’d seen a low kick, and our defense had played well,” he said. “They’ve got to go 83 yards against our defense. We’ll take our chances.”

This story was originally published September 4, 2016 at 11:46 PM.