Shortly after DJ Uiagalelei's bootleg touchdown iced the victory, Dabo Swinney turned to walk the opposite direction down the sideline, burst into a big grin and pointed to the coaches box -- presumably at offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter.

The first three games would tell us plenty about Clemson's personnel, we wrote.

The Wake Forest and N.C. State games would tell us about this team.

They are far from perfect. But they are still awfully good. Saturday night's performance demonstrated both how far the offense has come since last season and how much this defense can still rise to the occasion.

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Again, we're not labeling it a masterpiece by any means.

But after spending the whole offseason -- and then the opening three games -- wondering whether the offense would schematically and philosophically change, the coaching staff answered the bell.

They have crafted several unique ways to utilize their tight ends with large catch radiuses and reliable hands in the red zone, and the bootleg was a high-risk, high-reward call that -- like it or not -- absolutely deviated from their norm.

The Tigers are hitting crossing routes, Uiagalelei looks fantastic throwing between the hashes, and this observer would argue the main thing they don't do well in the passing game is what has long been the bread-and-butter -- the 50/50 ball for perimeter receivers.