Critical mistakes make Swinney sick to his stomach

Swinney said the Tigers made too many mistakes (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Sep 24 10:21:03 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – One or two plays made the difference. A mistake here, a mistake there.

Head coach Dabo Swinney said his team played good enough to win in Saturday’s 31-24 overtime loss to Florida State, but once again mistakes were the critical difference between a win and a loss. And it’s a loss that leaves Swinney sick to his stomach.

“Well, that honestly is probably as tough a loss as I’ve ever been a part of. You win one like that, it’s top of the world; you lose one like that, you’re just sick to your stomach,” Swinney said. “But it was a great college football game, no question about that, and tremendous effort by both teams. You got to congratulate Florida State. They literally made one more play than we did. Games like that can come down to two or three plays, and they made a couple critical plays and found a way to get it done.

“I’m super, super proud of our guys and how they competed. That was a very competitive, physical, hard-fought football game. We never trailed in the game until overtime. We led pretty much the whole game and had a little bit of time there where we were tied up. Just some critical moments and plays. It comes down to kind of the story of our season to this point, which is turnovers.”

Turnovers are the difference between 4-0 and 2-2.

“We were minus-1 in (turnover) margin. Honestly, we're 2-2 right now because we've given up 36 points of turnovers,” Swinney said. “It’s not just having a turnover, it’s a scoop-and-score, it’s a pick-6. We gave up 38 points off turnovers last year in 14 ball games. And we’ve given up 36 points. Just big picture, that's what happened in the game. Very, very disappointing. We think we’re about to go up 14 points, and we get a miscommunication with our running back on protection and next thing you know, it’s a tie ball game. Again, you got to give Florida State credit for that.”

It wasn’t just the turnovers – Clemson’s defense played too soft at the end of the first half and allowed the Seminoles an easy touchdown. Otherwise, the defense played well enough to win.

“Critical factors in the game, I thought the two-minute before the half, the touchdown,” Swinney said. “The two touchdowns in the first half, if we can just turn one of those into a field goal, you win the game. But the two-minute drive was critical. I’ll say this, man, our defense, wow, what a second half. They were unbelievable. If you give up 17 points to a great offense like they have, you should win the game every time. Our defense gave us a chance to win the game in the second half. They had the one big play, which they got a field goal and then it was punt, punt, punt, downs the rest of the half. So I was super proud of them. We stopped the run. We out-rushed them 146 yards to 22 yards. And again never trailed until overtime.

“Obviously the offensive fumble for the touchdown was the critical play in the game with a chance to go up by 14, and all the momentum turned there. We missed a kick that could have given us a chance. But man, I’m really proud of Jonathan Weitz. Nobody was perfect today. He made one that gave us a chance to be in the situation that we were in. There were a lot of plays.”

Clemson trailed by a touchdown in overtime and faced a 3rd-and-1 at the Florida St. 16. However, a wide receiver screen was blown up.

“And then at the end there, third-and-1, just situationally, that’s the job where we got to be better as coaches there and help our quarterback,” Swinney said. “That ball’s got to get handed off. That’s just built into what we do, but he’s got to make sure that we lock that, and that’s not an option. So, that’s on us. Obviously a young player that’s growing situationally he’s got to know that as well. A lot that we can do better in a game like that. Again, there’s a play or two.

“I thought Cade (Klubnik) was amazing. That kid was amazing. An absolutely amazing performance by him, 25-of-38, made some huge plays. I thought our receivers really did a lot of good things and played well. And again, the defense shut them down in the second half and gave us a chance to win. But just a couple of critical plays that didn’t go our way. All you can do is learn from it, pick yourself up, and keep moving. And give Florida State credit, that’s a really good team as we know. We’ve had a lot of battles with them. Today was their day."