ATLANTA -- Overcoming a sloppy and gradual start that has been all too frequent, No. 4 Clemson topped Georgia Tech forty one-10 on Monday night as the Tigers look to return to the excellent of the ACC after falling short of expectations in 2021. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who turned into the discipline of offseason scrutiny after a lackluster sophomore crusade, turned into 19 of 32 passing for 209 yards and a landing. The junior additionally brought a massive 9-yard touchdown run with 1:forty three to play in the third quarter to push the cause 24-10, comfortably putting the game out of reach for the Yellow Jackets.
A scoreless game after one quarter with both sets of offenses struggling out of the gate, the first spark of the nighttime came from Clemson's Carson Donnelly, who blocked a Georgia Tech punt and returned it to the 5-yard line. That set up a 4-play landing pressure that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Will Shipley to ultimately put the Tigers on the scoreboard.
Uiagalelei cranked things up on the next power when he led the Tigers on an eight-play march and tossed his lone touchdown move of the nighttime -- a 6-yard pass to Beaux Collins in the lower back of the end zone to make it 14-0.
Georgia Tech had its options, even though. Quarterback Jeff Sims discovered E.J. Jenkins for a 13-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter to cut the rating to 14-10. besides the fact that children, the Tigers' suffocating protective front prevented the Yellow Jackets from sustaining drives for almost all of the evening. Sims accomplished 23 of 36 passing for 164 yards, one landing, one interception and forty one yards rushing.
listed below are the excellent takeaways from Monday night's video game.
Clemson has a QB combatok, so it won't be "legitimate" unless the end of September after Furman and Louisiana Tech come to city, but any individual gazing may see it. despite good stats on paper, Uiagalelei remains cumbersome in an offense that used to be a drive below previous quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson and Tajh Boyd.
Uiagalelei, who had a fumble early within the first quarter, became almost relegated to a "one examine and bail" quarterback for the majority of the night. although he had drive in his face quite a bit, which did drive him off of his mark, he didn't seem lots distinctive than he did ultimate yr when he accomplished 55.6% of his passes and threw greater interceptions (10) than touchdowns (9).
The Clemson crowd changed into longing for freshman Cade Klubnik, and that they got their wish on their crew's final drive. Klubnik, a 5-superstar prospect and the No. 6 standard player within the most recent recruiting category, was four of 6 passing for 50 yards and a landing -- a stunning three-yard touchdown pass to Will Taylor to cap off a 10-play, sixty six-yard force.
yes, the video game changed into in the books at that element. still, when you mix the first three-plus quarters from Uiagalelei with his lack of creation last season, a full-time switch — or at least a prolonged scan — has to as a minimum be considered.
Clemson's protective front is the true dealThe Tigers had been broadly viewed as having one of the vital proficient defenses in the country, peculiarly up entrance with Bryan Bresee, Tyler Davis, Myles Murphy and k.J. Henry along the road. They lived up to that hype on Monday.
these four lived within the Yellow Jackets backfield, forcing seven tackles for loss and permitting simply 4.5 yards per play. On the night, the Tigers defense gave up just two third-down conversations on 16 attempts.
Henry became the famous person of the demonstrate with six tackles, 2.5 of that have been for a loss, one sack and one pressured fumble. The senior was a drive from the outset when he hit Sims on the first play of the online game, which resulted in an interception through Andrew Mukuba.
Tonight became Henry's evening, and opposing offensive coordinators will must center of attention more attention on him relocating ahead. that allows you to just open up much more room for the leisure of his teammates up entrance to do hurt.
The offensive line wants work, howeverClemson's line of defense changed into a force, however the same cannot be mentioned for the different side of the road of scrimmage. The Tigers only gave up one sack, but the stats do not all the time inform the total story. Uiagalelei become working for his life and the Yellow Jackets, regularly handiest bringing four, were disrupting the running online game at the back of the road all evening.
The offensive line became a priority coming into the season, and train Dabo Swinney has to consider even worse about it exiting tonight's game. The Tigers have difficult conference matchups with Florida State and Miami — two defenses that appeared stout in Week 1 — and a trip to Notre Dame nevertheless on the docket. these can be tough games for Clemson in the trenches.
If that difficulty would not get fixed, or not it's difficult to photograph this crew as a real hazard to make the college football Playoff.
Geoff Collins ought to show he deserves to dwellCollins is now 9-26 as the head instruct of the Yellow Jackets, and tonight's video game in opposition t Clemson become a perfect illustration of why he has been a disappointment. effortlessly put, some of decisions have been flat-out lousy.
in one of his extra egregious choices, Collins selected to take a 10-2d runoff to place the clock at 33 seconds at the end of the primary half when Clemson had already lined as much as punt despite having all three of his timeouts in his returned pocket. Then, he burned all three of his 2d-half timeouts before the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
What's greater, Collins took the ball out of Sims' arms on a fourth-and-2 while down 14 points at Georgia Tech's forty two-yard line early within the fourth quarter, however Sims become the team's leading rusher on the time. Clemson became certainly the stronger team on Monday, however even a few better situational calls might also have made things extra interesting. these types of selections can be extra costly in tighter games this year.
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