Tigers aren’t earning any stripes after uninspiring win
There’s a crossroad in every game at which a team truly believes it can win, regardless of the betting line or the presumed stature of its opponent. Troy reached that intersection early Saturday and delivered a stout performance that required antacids for Clemson fans anticipating a picnic.
For three quarters, Clemson played like a wreck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Until the fourth quarter, when a defensive lineman caught Clemson’s second touchdown pass, the game shimmied precariously.
After the white-knuckle affair at Auburn, this was supposed to be lovefest for the home crowd, a return to Death Valley after six on the road during last season’s run to the national championship game, and last week’s season opener.
Clemson was favored by five touchdowns. The grills were smoking and the furniture was in place for a feast, but Troy, which cashed a check for nearly a million bucks to make the trip, wasn’t about to be the main course.
Other than a few vacancies in the highest corners of Death Valley, nearly 79,000 seats were occupied by the faithful as Clemson kicked off. When the teams returned to the field for the second half, Clemson led by a field goal and, in what could be construed as a referendum of dissatisfaction, many more seats were empty.
This wasn’t what Clemson fans expected from the nation’s second-ranked team with a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback. Smoke poured from Twitter and the message boards.
The heady air of preseason was gone as players and coaches admitted they haven’t been near peak.
The defense, which delivered a promising performance at Auburn can be afforded some latitude, even after giving up a 66-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter. Clemson intercepted three passes, limited Troy to 2 of 15 on third down and slowed a team that pounded Austin Peay for 706 yards to 386.
Issues in special team continued to surface. Andy Teasdall had a couple of wounded duck punts, and Ray Ray McCloud returned a punt 74 yards to the one-yard line, where he dropped the ball thinking he’d already scored. Troy recovered in the end zone.
Most troubling was an offense that sputtered as if it had water in the gas tank. Deshaun Watson missed open receivers and threw a pair of interceptions. Passes were dropped, including two no-doubt touchdowns.
At times, the left hand didn’t seem to know what the right was doing, Some of the confusion can be attributed to coach Dabo Swinney’s need to reward so many players for their work during preseason. A total of 38 players were used at Auburn. In the first half alone Saturday, 54 played.
“We have a lot of depth on our offense,” Watson said, who left room to read between the lines. “A lot of guys deserved to play. That was what Coach Swinney wanted to do, so it was his call.”
Watson guided two drives that ended with touchdown passes. One was caught by Christian Wilkins, whose intriguing versatility as a defensive tackle, defensive end, linebacker, blocking back and tight end first surfaced during the playoff game with Oklahoma.
That seems light years ago weighed against these first two games. The third should be easier, but suddenly there are warning flags.
“We’re happy we got the win. We’re not going to apologize that we’re 2-0 right now,” said Wilkins. “We’re going to enjoy this as a team then on Monday go back to the drawing board, make those corrections so we can have a better result next week.
“We’re going to have to grow as a team generally.”
The clock ticks.
This story was originally published September 10, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Tigers aren’t earning any stripes after uninspiring win."