For four hours there was so much bad and ugly all over the place.
From Clemson.
From Pittsburgh.
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And yeah, from the officiating crew.
You could argue the only good that existed was what the Tigers took away from Acrisure Stadium.
A win.
Some way, somehow a 24-20 win.
It's Nov. 16 and it's safe to say Dabo Swinney's 16th team is fairly maddening.
The Tigers were certainly that for most of the second half Saturday, mostly because their offense was making a pretty convincing case that it's not much better than last year's offense, or the one that got Brandon Streeter fired in 2022, or the one that was truly awful three years ago.
But this offense and this Clemson team does have something different than those, and it's a quarterback who can take a game by the throat just when most of the fan base is ready to take the coaches by the throats.
A lot of stuff happened in this game, so much that we could write 2,000 words on it and it probably wouldn't be enough.
More injuries after the team came in hobbled, including to Elyjah Thurmon and RJ Mickens.
A targeting ejection of Sammy Brown that brought in someone (Dee Crayton) who otherwise wouldn't have seen the field.
Some horrific lapses by the officials and the replay booth, including a personal foul that should've been called on Crayton but wasn't ... and then was a few minutes later.
We could go on.
But we can stop there and start giving Cade Klubnik his due for this team sitting at 8-2 overall, and closing its conference slate at 7-1, and its hopes of advancing to the ACC title game somehow still alive.
You can say this team spent Saturday making a strong case that it has zero business being in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
And you won't get much of a rebuttal here.
This team has a lot of injuries and a lot of warts.
A lot of things that make you wonder if Swinney will ever be able to get the program back to tasting rare, elite air.
But on a dreary day in Pittsburgh, this team also had a quarterback who could get it done.
And he knew he could get it done. That was probably the most important part as Klubnik walked onto the field with 1:36 left after Ben Sauls put Pitt up 20-17 with a 47-yard field goal.
To most reasonable people it felt like the game was over because the offense had stunk in the second half to that point.
Twelve yards in the third quarter and a total inability to land the kill shot after exiting halftime up 17-7.
A three-and-out early in the fourth, followed by a turnover on downs at midfield when Phil Mafah fumbled out of bounds a few yards short of the first-down marker but it felt a million miles away because this offense wasn't fooling anyone.
Yeah, Klubnik was going to have to do this himself.
And it's been a while since Clemson has had a quarterback who could do that.
He climbed the pocket and threw left to Antonio Williams for 18 yards on the first play.
Then he threw right to Jake Briningstool for 7 yards.
At that point, Clemson had just 8 yards rushing on the day.
Pitt was geared to defend the pass, naturally. So it was a perfect time for a quarterback draw.
Klubnik found a parting of the Panthers up the middle and cut right.
He was headed for a big gain.
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He wanted more.
He turned on the jets and easily outran the safety down the Clemson sideline for a 50-yard touchdown run.
Yeah, the defense had to hold on for dear life at the end.
Even a Pitt offense that couldn't get out of its way for most of the day was still moving down the field, all the way down to the 26 with 10 seconds left.
Ten seconds is plenty of time to rip out the hearts of the guys in the orange helmets.
But it didn't happen.
Two incomplete passes, and then an interception by Khalil Barnes two yards from the end zone.
So much bad.
So much ugly.
But so much good from the quarterback when they needed it.
They're still alive because they have a quarterback who gave them life.
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