The long game
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Clemson's coaches seemed quite happy late last night in the Carrier Dome as they met with the media.
When your last trip to the place ended with Dabo Swinney walking into Syracuse's locker room to congratulate a three-touchdown underdog pulling off a jolting upset, of course a five-touchdown win is going to produce better vibes.
When you felt enormously fortunate to get past the same program a year ago in Death Valley, of course you're going to be smiling after leaving no doubt this time.
But we couldn't help but think Swinney and his staff -- more specifically his offensive staff -- were pleased that things were hard at times for the offense last night.
Maybe pleased is not the right word. Perhaps "secure" is the better term.
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Secure in the knowledge that they're going to have their players' attention in the coming weeks. Secure in the belief that they're going to be able to coach their guys hard, that there will be an edge at practice as an offense capable of supersonic performance tries to figure out why it's fallen short of that over the first three games.
"The good thing is we still haven't played our best yet," said main play-caller Tony Elliott. "The guys are excited to win, but at the same time too they're very humbled by the fact that two games in a row we've left some things out there. And that's just going to be more fuel for us as we go through the course of the season to get better."
One significant credit to Swinney is he always seems to have a grasp of the long game. Three years ago, the offense was scuffling early and some folks on the outside were freaking out. Swinney, though, knew that group was developing even when most considered it a finished product entering the season.
It was surprising to see the 2016 offense score 19 at Auburn, one touchdown through three quarters against Troy, 26 at Georgia Tech and then just 17 points in regulation against N.C. State.
For a while, that group seemed almost bored. They just wanted to hit the fast-forward button and get that rematch with Alabama in Tampa. Only when the certainty of that was removed, thanks to a home loss to Pittsburgh, did they find their gear and find themselves.
It's hard for us, in the moment, to peer between the ears of this group and make a confident diagnosis for why things have been a bit "funky," in Swinney's words.
One factor we can be sure of: When your quarterback and his receivers treat the 2018 playoff as their personal playground, opposing schemers are going to work overtime coming up with ways to frustrate you.
And that's a part of what has happened the past two weeks. Some credit must be given to the defensive brain trusts at Syracuse and Texas A&M for throwing a bunch of different looks at Trevor Lawrence.
It should also be noted that Clemson just emerged from quite possibly its two toughest tests of the season with wins by a combined score of 65-16. We're guessing most of you would've taken that over the summer.
We're also guessing the coaches are loving having to address some offensive inefficiency and sputters after winning by such margins.
A year ago at this time, the knock on Clemson from some of its fans was that it was letting teams hang around while Alabama was destroying its opposition. People couldn't understand why Swinney was so quick to put his backups on the field instead of going for the throat.
The playoff romps over Notre Dame and Alabama suggested that maybe the head coach knew what he was doing, that in September and October he's more concerned with building blocks than style points.
Maybe he has a similar long game in mind now as he looks to a visit from Charlotte, followed by a trip to Chapel Hill, followed by a visit from Florida State, followed by -- well, the names don't even matter when the point is just how much better Clemson is than everyone on the schedule from this point forward.
Elliott: "It just gives us something to really challenge these guys: We've got to get better on third down. We've got to consistently put together drives. We can't put our defense in bad spots. I know there's a lot of onus on the offense going forward, and we're going to find our rhythm. We're not far off. It's just small things. The good thing is it's not a bunch of busted assignments. Guys are headed in the right direction. We've just got to get back to the fundamentals and the details of every position. And our night is coming."
Yes, the offensive coordinator just said "our night is coming" on the same night his group put up 41 points and 612 yards.
When you produce those numbers and are trying to figure out what went wrong, it might be considered a good problem to have.
"You get spoiled sometimes," Elliott said. "But adversity is good. Adversity builds character."
He was thinking of the long game, and Clemson has been pretty good at it lately.
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