Clemson football’s only weakness is that they’re just too damn good

Clemson football is the best team in the nation and they all know it, which is also their only weakness as they have to battle against complacency.

Breaking news: Clemson is really, really good.

And that’s the problem. Well, it’s not so much a problem, because every team in the nation would love to have Clemson’s problem, so much as it’s something to guard against.

Clemson is so good and they know it that they are susceptible to taking their foot off the gas pedal and playing down to their competition.

It happens with great teams across all sports, so this isn’t just a Clemson thing. It happened all the time with Alabama where they’d have a game they’d sleepwalk through and escape with a win that was much closer than it should have been.

That’s what happened when Clemson beat Syracuse 47-21, but when the Tigers were 46.5-point favorites, it’s almost a disappointment that they only won by 26 points.

Clemson football’s only problem is they’re too good

Clemson is so dang good that winning by 26 points is a disappointment. When you set the bar that high, and when you come off a 73-7 win vs. Georgia Tech the week prior, it was almost like Clemson was expected to go out there and win 220-0 like the Yellow Jackets did to Cumberland in 1916.

And for whatever reason, Syracuse plays Clemson closer than just about anyone this side of Joe Burrow and LSU over the last few years.

But after building a 17-0 lead in the first quarter, Clemson was outscored 21-17 in the second and third quarters, respectively, and came within six points when the score was 27-21. Clemson realized they were Clemson in the fourth quarter and blitzed them with 13 unanswered points to arrive at the final score, but those long lapses of imperfection could come back to cost Clemson in games that really matter, such as the Nov. 7 game vs. Notre Dame or in the College Football Playoff against Alabama or Ohio State when you do have to be perfect.

A big part of this is Clemson football players probably knowing they were going to have little trouble with a bad Syracuse team and didn’t have the same killer instinct they would most definitely have against a better opponent like we saw when they man-handled then-No. 7 Miami earlier this month.

There may be one or two teams in the nation that can beat Clemson, but the Tigers have to guard against beating themselves and taking their foot off the throat of their opponent. Something tells me head coach Dabo Swinney and his assistants, as well as leaders like Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, will hammer that point home this week.

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