Swinney says a sloppy win is better than an ugly loss

Swinney reacts to a play during the win over Syracuse. (Photo courtesy of ACC)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sat Oct 24 17:24:23 GMT-04:00 2020

CLEMSON – A sloppy win is better than an ugly loss, and head coach Dabo Swinney is proud of the way his team responded in a mistake-filled win over Syracuse Saturday.

No. 1 Clemson overcame a plethora of mistakes in defeating Syracuse 47-21 in Death Valley. Swinney was asked if he thought his team lacked energy and he responded by asking if he was in the right press conference, mentioning that his team still managed to win the game.

“It was a sloppy win, but I would rather have a sloppy win than an ugly loss any day of the week,” Swinney said. “That is what it's all about. We are 6-0. It isn't easy to win. I know a lot of people think we should just show up and win. But everybody has good players and everybody has good coaches. We had some guys out today, but I am proud of our team. The game isn’t played on paper.”

Swinney said he was proud of the effort.

“Proud of our team. A tough game, but sloppy in a lot of areas. We really came out of the gates pretty good and got up 17-0, and then just a lot of miscues,” Swinney said. “Some things that really we have got to clean up. We always talk about let's take care of Clemson, let's don't lose to Clemson, and let's control the things we can control. It's hard enough to win, you don't have to make it any tougher. We just did some dumb things. We had some dropped balls, some missed throws, a couple of penalties in the red zone, the blocked punt. That is about as simple as it gets. Just some miscues but really proud of our team and how they responded.”

He then said the team put itself in harm’s way with the mistakes.

“A lot of teams, this is a game they would lose, for sure. There were a lot of things that happened in the game that can cost you games,” Swinney said. “We did some bad stuff on both sides, but both sides responded. When we had to have drives we put drives together. I was really proud of the drive right before the half there. A lot of good things that will be teachable things, and then some bad things. We had a snap over the quarterback's head after we had a nice drive going. We had way too many negative yards. We put ourselves in harm's way with some things we haven't done.

“But at the end of the day, if you can be a little sloppy and still win a game by 26 points against a team that is fighting with everything they've got, that really says a lot about the character of your team. We will get better and learn from it and go back to work. We are 6-0 and that is where we wanted to be at this point. We are looking forward to getting back in on Monday and preparing for another tough challenge in BC.”

Syracuse was 1-4 overall and coming off a 38-21 loss to Liberty in Syracuse last week, but Swinney says he knew the Tigers would get their best shot.

“As I said earlier in the week, it was 10-6 up at North Carolina going into the fourth quarter. It was a tight game at Pitt,” Swinney said. “They just didn't play well last week. When you watch their other games, and then see how they played against Liberty, I knew they would be disappointed in that. Dino (Babers) is a good coach. Again, give credit. But we didn't make anything easy, that is for sure. That is the way they are. They will fight and claw and scratch against everybody. They played hard. They were down 17-0 and didn't quit and that speaks volumes to the job Dino does. Those guys are always going to fight hard. But we won the game by almost four touchdowns. A lot of sloppy plays. There is a reason you play four quarters. It isn't always going to be perfect, but it is all in how you respond.”

Clemson-Syracuse box