CLEMSON -- With less than 13 minutes left, Clemson had delivered what felt like the deflating and defining uppercut.
Florida State had four tries to get a measly two yards for a touchdown. The Tigers pushed the Seminoles backward and got off the field after K.J. Henry tore into the backfield and deflected Jordan Travis' fourth-down pass.
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The ESPN broadcast went down to Holly Rowe, who shared some insight from her conversations with players and coaches during the run-up to this supposed showdown.
"Players told us they came back this year and it's personal," she said. "You can see a renewed emphasis, a renewed consistency. And it is showing up big-time for Clemson right now."
And then some of those qualities showed themselves out of Doak Campbell Stadium alongside a large number of Seminoles fans who thought it was over.
Most of the time, a three-plus-hour football game provides an easy and obvious takeaway.
This one was an exception. This one did not provide one crystallized conclusion that we can take into Week 8 and a suddenly mammoth home date with No. 14-ranked Syracuse.
For a while, the theme felt every bit like a reprise of Clemson's habit of going into an opposing stadium and sucking the hopes, dreams and life out of the home team and its fans.
Fans of this team -- and the team itself -- wanted so badly for this to happen because it would be a signal that they're on their way back to dusting the rest of the ACC on their way to challenging for another championship.
You also wanted so badly for this to happen to extract a pound of flesh for all that time spent on buses and a charter plane two years ago when no game was played and Clemson couldn't generate more jokes at FSU's expense.
So of course there's going to be some frustration when, less than 11 minutes after this whooping seemed cemented, you have to rely on the sure hands of Brannon Spector to corral an onside kick to preserve a six-point victory.
The frustration was obvious in the demeanor of the head coach. Yes, he said he told his players in the locker room that they were going to dance and celebrate this win because that's what they do after every win.
But he also said something you seldom hear from a coach whose team just improved to 7-0 with a win over a pretty good team playing on its home field in front of a packed stadium and a national audience.
"It's never as good as it seems, and never as bad as it seems."
We will suggest that the second part of that applies to the final 12:48, after that stop that supposedly slammed the door a final time.
Maybe you're among those who late last night wanted some coaches' heads on late-night platters for some of the decisions in the midst of FSU getting back in it.
Maybe you think what unfolded was inexcusable.
We're not there.
If a play here and there can be the difference in a game that's tight through four quarters, the same can be true when we're trying to figure out how a blowout turned into some surprisingly anxious moments late.
We don't often play the what-if game, because the snake tends to bite both ways. But the holding snake hasn't been all that equitable lately, evidenced most recently by the infraction on Blake Miller that nullified a touchdown run by DJ Uiagalelei with 8:26 left in the third quarter (Clemson settled for a field goal that made it 34-14 instead of 38-14).
