Tigers Destroy North Carolina State: Rapid Reactions

The Wolfpack never had a chance. A laser focused Clemson team showed up in Raleigh tonight and showed no mercy on their hapless opponent winning 55-10, while giving Wake Forest a glimpse of what’s to come next weekend.

• We thought we would get a motivated Clemson team tonight and we did. 28 first quarter points. It was awesome to see fans leaving before the opening quarter was over.
• Nine straight years with 10 wins.
• Atlantic Division Champs…. Love the Orange Britches.
• Five games in a row this offense has scored 45 or more points. That is a first for the program.
• If this game had been against a different team other than Dave Doeren’s Wolfpack, does Dabo choose to go for it on 4th down twice in that 1st half after going up big? Both were converted and led to TDs. They converted a 4th and short late in the 4th as well, leading to the final TD.
• Up 49-10 late, Chase Brice is still throwing. They wanted to get to half a hundred, and did.
• Trevor Lawrence is dropping dimes. If he is playing at this level the rest of the way, this team has just as good a chance as any. He was 20-27 for 276 yards with 3 TDs, and had two drops that hit Tee dead in his hands. First two drops of the season for Higgins.
• Tough running by Etienne tonight. Another 100 yard game. The NCST front four played very well making rushing yards tough to come by, but they still had 246 as a team and averaged over 6 yards per carry.
• John Simpson scoring as the tail back in the jumbo package…. awesome
• Skalski getting to try a PAT…. awesome, despite him missing it. Those are reasons why kids want to come play at Clemson.
• Speaking of Skalski, he is playing very well over the last few weeks, and continued to do so tonight. He is rarely out of position and just consistently makes plays.
• Dominating defensive performance in that first half. Just suffocating. State was able to have a little more success once the mass substitutions started but the first group was lights out.
• NCST finished with 285 total yards, so that is 10 straight the Tigers have held under 300.
• I really like Justyn Ross in the slot. Not full time but putting him there at times gives the staff some mismatches on the inside that they can expose. 4 catches, 75 yards and a TD for him tonight.
• What was up with the field in Raleigh? It seemed to be awfully slick. Lots of footing issues for the visiting team tonight.
• Good to see XT back
• Justin Foster continues to impress.
• KJ Henry looks to be getting better each week.
• Some sloppiness in the second half after it was already over.

So, where does Clemson land in the next set of rankings? I am guessing at #3. With Wake losing today, there will be no top 15 showdown in the Valley next weekend. Not that it mattered either way. Wake Forest just doesn’t move the needle, ranked or not. This team needs to just keep winning.