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--- VIDEO: Jimbo Fisher lashes out at officiating crew
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –- With 3:23 on the clock and Clemson down, the big video board at Doak Campbell Stadium reminded everyone about two years ago when the Tigers were down and out on the same field.
In that game, Clemson found a way to lose and there were so many moments on this night that the Tigers were doing the same exact thing.
But after the stadium watched 2014 Clemson fall apart on the video board, 2016 Clemson pulled together on both sides of the ball – and special teams -- for a positively exhilarating and exhausting 37-34 victory over Florida State.
And, yes, it’s becoming a bit redundant to attach “exhilarating and exhausting” to a season that now contains five wins of seven points or less. The Tigers’ crazy train rolls on to November, with Clemson avoiding a road upset on a day filled with them.
“It’s just a very surreal season we have going right now,” Jordan Leggett said. “I think we’re extremely blessed.”
Coming into the season, no one thought it would be this difficult in so many games. And early in this one, with the Tigers up 14-0 and going up and down the field, no one thought Clemson would find itself behind eight in the second half and in serious danger of its first regular-season loss in two years.
But if this team’s flaw through an 8-0 start is an inability to land the daggers that put away teams, its great strength is an uncanny ability to remain strong and poised under the most duress imaginable.
This team has won 16 of its last 18 games decided by a touchdown or less, and this sweat-drenched affair came two weeks after everyone watched N.C. State miss that 33-yard field goal to force overtime.
“I felt like we earned it but we also did enough to lose,” Hunter Renfrow said. “It’s a surreal, out-of-body experience.”
Not long ago, it seemed Clemson would come unglued in situations like these. But as the successes in close games add up, it seems the Tigers gain more confidence when placed in those same situations.
It was merely business as usual after Dalvin Cook (19 carries, 169 yards, four touchdowns) dashed for an 8-yard touchdown to put Florida State up 34-29 with 3:23 on the clock. As helpless as the Tigers’ defense seemed to stop Cook, as frustrated as the offense was for keeping the Seminoles in the game, there was still a collective calm as the offense stood at its 25-yard line with the crowd going nuts and the video board reminding everyone of what happened two years ago.
Deshaun Watson was the reason this game stayed close when it could have gotten out of hand, thanks to an interception in the second quarter and another in the third. The Seminoles turned both into touchdowns, including a 43-yard dash off the right side to put Clemson down 21-20 after Tarvarus McFadden baited Watson to throw his way.
So it was only fitting that Watson would be the reason – or one of them, at least – Clemson went right down the field with ease to take back the lead and make it 37-34.
“The thing I love about Deshaun Watson is he doesn’t crumble,” said co-offensvie coordinator Tony Elliott. “He doesn’t break.”
Two drives earlier, Watson and the offense put together a drive that championships are made of by converting four third downs to trim it to 28-26 when Wayne Gallman reached the ball over the goal line on second effort. This was right before a game-turning personal foul penalty for blocking below the waist negated a long run by Cook that had put the ball at Clemson’s 30 (the Seminoles punted).
One drive earlier, the Tigers extended a drive despite a third-and-21 to put Greg Huegel in position to drill a 46-yard field goal that ended up being, oh, somewhat monumentally important.
Now they needed to reach the end zone with 3:23 on the clock. And it was easy for them to do it – almost too easy, because after three catches by Leggett put them in the end zone (including the tight end’s hurdling 34-yard catch and run on a busted coverage) the Seminoles had two minutes to manufacture a drive that could win the game with a touchdown and send it into overtime with a field goal.
And Florida State moved it so quickly at first that you started to wonder if the Seminoles might score soon enough to allow Clemson enough time for another drive. A 19-yard pass to Travis Rudolph, then a 13-yard toss to Nyqwan Murray put FSU in Clemson territory.
Even after the Tigers pushed back by drawing a holding call to force the Seminoles into a third-and-23, FSU converted when Deondre Francois connected with Rudolph for 26 yards.
So FSU was at Clemson’s 34 and driving, about to add another highlight to the video board to play for the Tigers when they visit again in two years. And that’s when Clemson started to drive them the other way, aided by back-to-back false-start penalties and then massive, withering pressure by the defensive line that gave Francois some parting shots on a painful night.
On third-and-20, Brent Venables sent a three-man rush with Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell that dropped Francois for a loss of 12. On fourth-and-32, they chased him again and Ben Boulware closed the deal with another sack to assure Clemson its school-record ninth consecutive road win while giving the Tigers their first victory in Tallahassee since 2006.
“Special,” Ferrell said. “That’s all I can say.”
Early on, it seemed Clemson was going to chase everyone out of this stadium early. As it turned out the Tigers needed every sack by that defense, every clutch throw by Watson, and every field goal by Huegel.
They needed qualities they didn’t have two years ago in an overtime loss here. But now they have those qualities in abundance.
Said the head man, Dabo Swinney: “We’ve got to be the highest rated TV team in the country this year.”
All aboard the crazy train.
