Clemson football: Dabo Swinney explains what went wrong vs. Ohio State
Dabo Swinney explained what went wrong when his Clemson football team got destroyed by the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl.
The Clemson Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes were all tied up at 14-14 after the first quarter of last season’s Sugar Bowl. Then the Tigers defense collapsed and went into halftime trailing 35-14.
Dabo Swinney could only watch from the sidelines as Justin Fields threw six touchdowns and Trey Sermon ran for 193 yards. Trevor Lawrence did manage to throw for 400 yards, but it was not enough in the 49-28 blowout.
Clemson is back on the field for spring practice and Swinney was asked what exactly went wrong in the loss. He provided a blunt answer that summed up what happened.
Dabo Swinney sums up his team’s Sugar Bowl performance in two words
The Tigers did, in fact, “stink” against the Buckeyes. Fields had 385 yards and six touchdowns on only 22 completions and Sermon was unstoppable. Couple that with the Ohio State defense holding Travis Etienne to 32 rushing yards and the Tigers stood no chance.
The Orange Bowl referenced in the tweet is a game Tigers fans never want to think about. Swinney led the Tigers to a 10-3 record during the 2011 season and that was good enough for a showdown with the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Orange Bowl.
The game got off to a solid start as Clemson held a 17-14 lead after one quarter. But it was the second quarter when everything fell apart. Sound familiar? West Virginia outscored Clemson 35-3 in that second quarter en route to a 70-33 victory. Geno Smith and Tavon Austin had their way with the Clemson defense and Swinney was certainly humbled.
The Tigers became a national powerhouse following that loss and remain one in 2021. The goal now is to correct the mistakes that did happen to once again fight for a national championship. That should be no problem for Swinney’s Tigers.
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