Clemson senior linebacker Ben Boulware was injured in the third quarter against Troy as he was blocked hard by an offensive lineman and was down for a few minutes before walking off the field slowly with the trainers.
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Instead of a 20-10 halftime lead, McCloud’s premature celebration kept it a 13-10 game after two quarters. Watson finished with 292 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. “I believe there were eight dropped balls”.
Officials reviewed McCloud’s fumble and ruled Troy would take over on a touchback.
It was the fourth consecutive game in which Renfrow has had at least one touchdown reception.
To his credit, the sophomore didn’t hang his head and go cower in a corner.
Wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud had seven receptions for a career-high 86 yards, while Artavis Scott had seven catches for 71 yards. They gave Clemson offense fits early in the game.
The Tigers (2-0) were out of synch on offense and could not break away from the Trojans (1-1) until the fourth quarter.
Troy safety Cedarius Rookard (24) intercepts a pass to Clemson wide receiver Deon Cain (8) during the second half an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Clemson, S.C. Clemson won 30-24.
Troy’s last touchdown came with 44 seconds to play. A failed onside kick attempt ended the upset threat and allowed the more than 70,000 gathered at Death Valley to finally exhale.
We have seen players do this before and it still boggles the mind. “We’re not going to do that. We know what we have in that room, and for whatever reason we’re just not on the right page right now, but we’ll get that right”. Late in the second quarter, Clemson’s Ray-Ray McCloud broke free on a punt return and appeared to have scored a back-breaking touchdown, but he flipped the ball before he crossed the end zone and Troy recovered, preventing Clemson from going into the break up by 10.
“I thought (Troy) played well enough to win today, and I thought we played bad enough to lose in a lot of areas”, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said. “I don’t know”, Brown said.
Troy will try to bottle up its performance and see if it can carry it for a good part of the season.
The Troy Trojans (1-0) defeated Austin Paey Governors last week. Through two games, he is 46-of-87 for 540 yards with four TDs and three interceptions.
After struggling to defeat Auburn last week, the Tigers almost were upset by Troy on Saturday. The offense has not looked like the unit that matched up with Alabama in January and that was expected to be even better with the return of injured 1,000-yard receiver Mike Williams.
“He got rolled up on his ankle”, Swinney said. Troy had most of its success in the first half on the ground. Troy lost to the Golden Eagles 30-27 in the 2008 New Orleans Bowl.
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Six plays later as Clemson faced 2nd-and-goal on the 1-yard line. In a game like that one, where the opponent can not score or move the chains, the No. 2 program in the nation should run away with it.
