Clemson football got ‘plenty of yards.’ In upset loss to Duke, where were the points?

Dabo Swinney fired an assistant coach for the first time in 11 years this January in hopes of getting Clemson football’s offense to a championship level.

Eight months later, he was delivering the same message he delivered after the 2022 Orange Bowl, the final straw in a run of losses and missed opportunities that prompted the Tigers’ longtime coach to fire his offensive coordinator after one season.

“The name of the game is points,” Swinney said late Monday after No. 9 Clemson lost its season opener, 28-7, to unranked Duke.

And the Tigers, once again, had very few of them.

Sophomore Cade Klubnik threw an interception and very well could’ve had three, Clemson (0-1, 0-1 ACC) turned the ball over twice inside the 10-yard line on botched hand-offs and the Tigers managed just one offensive touchdown in 13 possessions at a packed Wallace Wade Stadium.

And even that score came gift-wrapped, the direct result of the Blue Devils (1-0, 1-0 ACC) muffing a punt inside their own 20-yard line.

Swinney fired Streeter after one season and hired the highly touted Garrett Riley from TCU – fresh off an improbable national championship game appearance – to avoid outputs like this, heavy on yardage and first downs but low on multiples of seven on the scoreboard.

But Clemson, which has now lost a game to an unranked opponent as an AP Top 10 team three seasons in a row, once again found itself setting the wrong sorts of records.

Never before had the Tigers passed for 200-plus yards and rushed for 200-plus yards and lost a game. They were 58-0 when they did that under Swinney, who’s in his 15th full season as coach, and 108-0 in program history. Until tonight.

“I’ve been beat,” Swinney said. “I’ve had my butt kicked many times in my career. But I can honestly say that’s one of the strangest games I’ve ever played.”

In the aftermath of a 21-point loss, there’s plenty for Clemson’s defense to clean up. A unit that returned four preseason all-conference players and may have the 2024 NFL Draft’s top two linebacker selections whiffed on too many tackles and blew too many coverages against Duke quarterback Riley Leonard and company.

But the Tigers’ defense kept them in this game. Their offense – much like it did in inopportune moments throughout the 2021 and 2022 seasons – didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.

“From my perspective, as a defense, it’s our job to not let them score,” defensive end Justin Mascoll said. “If they don’t score, they don’t win. And they had a lot of opportunities to score. So therefore, they were able to come out with the W.”

Tigers ‘lost to Clemson,’ Klubnik says

Clemson didn’t exactly struggle to move the ball, as Swinney emphasized multiple times during a postgame news conference in which he also praised Riley’s “demeanor, presence and poise” during his first career game as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator and playcaller.

Klubnik – starting his second career game after he dazzled in place of DJ Uiagalelei in last year’s ACC championship game – settled down after a rocky start for 209 passing yards and completions to nine different receivers. Star running backs Will Shipley (114 yards) and Phil Mafah (65 yards) helped the Tigers go for 213 rushing yards and put up 29 first downs to Duke’s 17 first downs.

The failures came in the little moments – on the most “basic, basic, stuff,” as Swinney put it. Receivers Antonio Williams (56 yards) and Cole Turner (21 yards) had critical drops. Klubnik opted to slide on a critical 4th and 7 instead of diving forward, which turned a would-be targeting penalty (and a first down) into a dead-ball penalty (and a turnover on downs).

And Klubnik and his running backs – first Shipley, then Mafah – weren’t in sync on shotgun hand-offs right near the goal line, leading to two fumbles in the second half, both of which Duke recovered in spots where they’d have been ecstatic to force a field goal.

That’s not to mention the ugly run of plays after Clemson reached Duke’s 1-yard line in the third quarter – false start, -4 yard Klubnik run, incomplete pass, 6-yard Klubnik run – that nixed another touchdown and allowed Duke to block a second Robert Gunn III field goal attempt.

“We were putting drives together and we just lost to Clemson,” Klubnik said. “At the end of the day, that’s what happened. Just stuff that we were doing on our own … Just gotta finish.”

“Really, it’s just us as a defense supporting our offense as much as possible,” Mascoll added. “Because they did put 200 on the ground, 200 in the air. … We just gotta do the little things right – ball security, things like that.”

All told, Clemson outgained Duke 422-374 in total offensive yardage and 29-17 in first downs, ran 83 plays to Duke’s 64 plays and possessed the ball for 33:33 to Duke’s 26:27. That’s the “good news,” Swinney joked, if there is any from Monday’s loss.

The bad news was in the red zone efficiency – Clemson was 1-4 in those opportunities inside Duke’s 20-yard line – and the turnover margin

The bad news is Clemson’s 2023 offense – despite making arguably the splashiest hire of the coaching cycle – still looks like Clemson’s 2022 offense. Lots of production. Not a lot of points. And frustration abound because of it.

“Again, we got plenty of yards and stats and all that stuff,” Swinney said. “The name of the game is finishing when we have opportunities. We’ll get back to work.”

Next Clemson game

Who: Clemson (0-1, 0-1 ACC) vs. Charleston Southern (1-0)

When: 2:15 p.m. Saturday

Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson

Watch: ACC Network