Getting out of hand wasn’t good for Clemson

Late in the first half of Saturday’s game, Ray-Ray McCloud returned a punt 74 yards before dropping the ball and celebrating. The problem was he needed to go 75 yards at Death Valley.

McCloud dropped the ball at the 1-yard line and Troy recovered in the end zone for a touchback to keep the score 13-10 heading into halftime.

“It was a bone-headed play. … A lack of maturity,” Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said after the 30-24 win over Troy. “We coach hand the ball to the ref, and when you do that you don’t have issues like that.”

McCloud was Clemson’s leading receiver with seven catches for 86 yards and the one big mistake, which upset his coach.

“He told me to grow up,” McCloud said. “It wasn’t no yelling or nothing it was, ‘You need to grow up.’ ”

McCloud didn’t realize he dropped the ball early until after he celebrated with teammates.

“I came to the sideline and sat on the bench and got some water and somebody said something to me,” he said.

Sure hands of a D-lineman

With Clemson’s receivers struggling to hang onto the ball, the Tigers decided to get a defensive lineman involved in the passing game.

Clemson led 13-10 early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Deshaun Watson connected with defensive lineman Christian Wilkins on third-and-goal from the 1.

The play was made from the jumbo package with Wilkins and fellow defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence in the backfield.

“We put the D-lineman in there to see if he could catch it and he did,” Swinney said.

Last weekend at Auburn, Clemson lined up in the jumbo package and Wilkins and Lawrence were lead blockers for Wayne Gallman to score on a 1-yard run.

“We’ve practiced it several times. We installed it and they said be ready,” Wilkins said.

LATE STRUGGLES

Clemson’s defense played well for most of Saturday, but struggled late, allowing two touchdowns in the final five minutes.

The touchdown drives were for 86 and 68 yards and came after Clemson’s offense finally started moving the ball.

“When the offense started moving the ball there in the fourth quarter we couldn’t slam the door shut,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “You’ve got to slam the door. It was just one of those days where we couldn’t feed off each other, and that’s very rare.”

INJURY UPDATE

Linebacker Ben Boulware, Clemson’s defensive leader, left the game in the third quarter with a leg injury and didn’t return. Swinney said he doesn’t believe the injury is serious, but Boulware was on crutches on the sideline before leaving for the locker room before the game ended.

This story was originally published September 10, 2016 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Getting out of hand wasn’t good for Clemson."