The Virginia Cavaliers hung with the top-ranked Clemson Tigers well into the third quarter on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
The outcome of the contest was never really in doubt in Clemson’s 41-23 victory at home, but the score was uglier than the game. After leading 49-0 before halftime against The Citadel and taking a 34-3 lead against Wake Forest just minutes into the third quarter, the Tigers had to play something closer to a full football game against the Cavaliers.
For starters, Clemson’s had to play the whole game. Trevor Lawrence navigated an entire game—with the exception of the final 1:11—for the first time this season, going 25-for-38 passing for 329 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He had to navigate the offense through a handful of big third downs in the first half, and passed the test with flying colors.
The Tigers were 7-for-11 on third downs in the first half, and maybe the highlight of the night for Lawrence came on a long conversion. With Clemson facing third-and-15 and holding just a 10-3 lead late in the first half, Lawrence uncorked a deep ball to Amari Rodgers, and the senior receiver managed to get a foot down in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. The play made it 17-3 Clemson with 5:23 remaining in the first half, and created some separation for the first time all night.
It was one of three third-down conversions for Clemson of at least 15 yards and two third-down plays that found the end zone. For a few moments tonight, the Tigers actually needed to come up with a play to keep the momentum in the game.
They also had to put together a second half drive of some significance. Virginia cut the lead down to 27-17 midway through the third quarter, and had a chance to pick up another stop and seriously apply some pressure on the top-ranked team in the country.
Six plays, 65 yards, 2:11 off the clock for a touchdown to reassert control.
Yes, all of this came against a Virginia squad the Tigers beat 62-17 in the ACC Championship Game last December. Sure, Dabo Swinney’s team was probably never in any real danger of losing the game, even after the lead was trimmed to 10 in the second half.
But in a way, a game like this is probably better for Swinney moving forward than one of the beatdowns his team usually hands out against conference opponents.
The Miami Hurricanes will invade Death Valley next Saturday night. The jury is still very much out on how real Miami’s resurgence is, but it’s probably going to be the toughest game on Clemson’s regular-season schedule save maybe a trip to Notre Dame in November.
Not only did tonight’s game give Clemson’s players an opportunity to get some reps in a game that wasn’t over in the blink of an eye, it provided some things to work on ahead of next week’s showdown.
Virginia picked up 417 yards of offense on the night, averaging a tick over five yards per play. Clemson will see one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in Miami’s D’Eriq King, and tonight they got a little preview from Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong.
Armstrong made life difficult for a supremely talented Clemson team tonight, throwing for 270 yards and three touchdowns while adding 89 yards on the ground. He broke off one run of 28 yards on a fourth-and-1 play, enough to drive the Tigers crazy in this week’s film session.
In fact, Virginia converted four fourth downs in the game. Bronco Mendenhall kept his offense on the field in four fourth-and-1 situations and picked up the required yard on all four occasions, with the only fourth-down failure of the game coming on a fourth-and-7 incompletion.
And to that point, Miami is 5-for-6 on fourth down attempts so far this season including 3-for-4 last week in a statement win over Florida State. This is an offense that will use all four downs, and has the personnel to make life difficult next week.
Clemson picked up a win tonight to move to 3-0 on the season, but it was the smallest margin of victory in a home conference game since surviving a 2018 scare against Syracuse. It was the first time since November 4th, 2017 that the Tigers allowed over 400 yards of offense in a conference game. It was a night where Clemson committed eight penalties compared to just one for Virginia.
And all of it came in a dress rehearsal game for maybe the biggest game Clemson will play before another trip to the College Football Playoff.
Coaches love to talk about how their teams made a lot of mistakes and have things to work on, even after wins. It’s part of the lingo. But tonight it might actually be true for the No. 1 team in America.
It also might not be a bad thing.
