The Wolfpack, which led three different times in the first half, did enough on offense to pull off another upset of a top 10 ACC heavyweight.
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“Of course, they’re a great team, they’re the (No. 3) team in the nation”, Wolfpack safety Hakim Jones said.
Coach Les Miles said last week that his players understand the task before them. The sophomore quarterback suffered a concussion last week and hasn’t practiced all week, meaning that freshman Rosier will probably have the honor of making his first career start against Jeremy Cash and a Blue Devils defense allowing only 14.1 points and 281.3 yards per game.
Can we, as a collective, bring an end to the word “Clemsoning?” Clemson also carries a 35-game win streak over unranked opponents in the AP poll, the last lost coming to the Wolfpack in 2011. “Sometimes you’ve got to put lipstick on a pig and you’ve got to roll with it – that’s your date for the night”, Swinney said. “That’s kind of the story of the night”. Through Clemson’s first seven games, No. 4 has thrown for over 1500 yards and rushed for over 300, and he just has a real football instinct.
No. 6 Clemson attempts to avoid looking ahead to a huge matchup next week when it visits North Carolina State on Saturday afternoon.
Takeaway: The Tigers withstood a hostile environment for another victory and now they get to play host to Florida State in a showdown for first place in the Atlantic Division.
The Seminoles chances of returning to the playoff were severely damaged nine days ago when Georgia Tech returned a blocked field goal 78 yards for the game winning touchdown. “They understand the importance of getting off to a fast start”.
N.C. State had third-and-3 from the Clemson 18-yard-line, setting up for either a short field goal or lead-boosting touchdown. Today in Raleigh, on an afternoon that the Clemson D struggled badly, Watson bailed his guys out with five touchdown passes, a touchdown run and a bunch of picture-perfect passes. Watson completed 23 of 30 passes without an interception, racking up 383 yards through the air.
Clemson’s Jayron Kearse (1) reaches for North Carolina State’s…
Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson had another sterling afternoon in the victory over NC State and was named the National Offensive Player of the Week by the Walter Camp Foundation on Sunday. The Tigers’ touchdowns included a 57-yard toss to Hunter Renfrow, a 42-yard pass to Charone Peake, a 40-yard pass to Deon Cain, the 36-yard throw to McCloud, a 35-yard catch-and-run by Zac Brooks, and a 24-yard run by Watson that put the Tigers on the scoreboard with 11:16 left in the first quarter. Jaylen Samuels, who filled in for Dayes in the second half, had a 66-yard run set up a 1-yard touchdown in the third quarter, which cut Clemson’s lead to 33-27.
But N.C. State played the second half without top rusher Matt Dayes due to what was described as lower-body injury.
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“It was just a great testament to the type of team that we are”, Swinney said. “They have really talented receivers and their running back runs really hard”. With teams having to regularly devote extra blockers to Lawson, whether tight ends or running backs chipping him at the line of scrimmage, other Tigers get the opportunity to make plays.
