Clemson fans left fuming after worst call of the year costs Tigers a win

An already disappointing season somehow reached a whole new low for the Clemson Tigers on Saturday afternoon. But instead of Dabo Swinney or Garrett Riley or Cade Klubnik, fans now have a whole new scapegoat to direct their anger towards: the officials.

And in their defense, it sure does seem like Clemson had an upset win over Duke ripped out of their hands. The Blue Devils trailed by a touchdown in the game's final minute, facing a fourth and 10 at the Tigers 18-yard line. Clemson's defense heated up Darian Mensah, forcing a wild prayer of a throw off his back foot. The ball fell harmlessly to the ground, not particularly close to any Duke receiver and the party began ... until everyone noticed that a flag had landed on the field.

To the bafflement of just about everyone in the stadium, the officials had called defensive pass interference on Avieon Terrell. Despite the fact that it was Duke's receiver who pretty much tackled Brown trying to get to the ball. See for yourself.

Granted, Terrell had his hands all over Que'Sean Brown early on in the play. But the officials called PI, not holding, and by the time the ball was in the air, Terrell had his head turned around and Brown was barreling over him. The fact that the flag was thrown well after the ball had already hit the turf sure made it seem like the refs were simply guessing rather than reacting to what they saw.

And of course Duke immediately took advantage. Nate Sheppard scampered in for a touchdown on the very next play, and after Manny Diaz decided to go for two, Mensah flipped the game-winning toss to Sahmir Hagans. Final score: Duke 46, Clemson 45.

As you might imagine, Tigers fans were ... not so kind about the call after the game.

Clemson fans let refs hear it after brutal pass interference call vs. Duke

A season that began with national title hopes has fallen apart amid a 3-5 start. Frustrations were already high, and this latest indignity just gave everyone something to focus it on.

Even Swinney lost his cool, seemingly spending an extra timeout just to give himself a bit more time to berate the officials.

Of course, while the PI was no doubt questionable, and this whole thing looks a lot different if there's no flag thrown and the Tigers win, it's also worth noting that one call was not the only reason why Clemson lost this game. Their once-vaunted defense gave up 46 points, after all, with the Tigers secondary allowing Duke receivers to run free all afternoon long.

It won't be too long before some of that anger turns back toward Swinney himself. This wasn't an aberration of a performance; this was Clemson's fifth loss of the season already, and at a certain point it's obvious that this roster just isn't nearly as good as we all thought it was at the start of the year. Clemson has lost to Georgia Tech, Syracuse, SMU and Duke, the sorts of programs they used to be comfortably a cut above. Get mad at the refs all you want, but they're not the reason this game came down to the final play.