What’s wrong with Clemson’s offense? Dabo explains struggles after UGA loss
About two hours after Clemson lost to Georgia here on Saturday, a worker on a machine went line by line, slowly clearing the word “CLEMSON” — displayed in bright orange — from the turf in one of the end zones at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
No worries for the Tigers. They never reached it anyway.
For the second season in a row, coach Dabo Swinney’s offense is under the microscope, this time after a deflating 34-3 loss to No. 1 Georgia in which the No. 14 Tigers were outgained by 259 yards, reached the red zone just twice and failed to score a touchdown for only the fourth time in Swinney’s 214-game Clemson career.
Whether it was an untimely penalty or a bad decision from quarterback Cade Klubnik or a wide receiver losing track of a ball, Clemson’s offense was rarely on the same page during the 2024 Aflac Kickoff Game after spending the offseason preaching improvement under offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, one of the highest paid assistants in the country.
The end result: 188 total yards of offense to Georgia’s 447, seven punts in 11 possessions, two trips to the red zone, zero touchdowns and lots of questions.
Those offensive struggles on a national-television stage were reminiscent of last year’s season opener against Duke, when the preseason No. 9 Tigers were considered a championship contender before mustering just one touchdown in a 28-7 upset loss. There were hints, too, of a 2022 loss to Tennessee in the Orange Bowl.
And a 2021 loss to Georgia.
See the pattern?
Swinney summed up that troubling trend postgame as such: “We haven’t done some of the basic things the way we need to do it. I mean, we didn’t make some critical plays that we had a chance to make. When we did make a big, critical play to create momentum, we get a penalty. It’s just (not) creating the rhythm.”
“It’s disappointing,” he added. “That’s where it is.”
Whether you’re going off hard numbers or general feel, Clemson (0-1) has been suffering from a lack of explosiveness on offense ever since its last College Football Playoff appearance in 2020.
No matter the quarterback (DJ Uiagalelei, Cade Klubnik) or the offensive coordinator (Tony Elliott, Brandon Streeter, Riley) or the wide receiver group (a whole lot of top recruits), Swinney and the Tigers have struggled to get back to their 2015-20 peak.
And it’s cost them.
Errors adding up
Things compounded last year when Clemson’s offense caught a case of the fumbles, lacked a vertical passing game and got out to a 4-4 start with Klubnik in his first year as starting quarterback and Riley in his first year as offensive coordinator after a sizzling year at TCU.
The Tigers rebounded and won five straight, and they carried the momentum from that streak — which included a crisp, game-winning drive against Kentucky in the Gator Bowl — into the offseason.
Add in two stud wide receiver recruits in Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore, and the thinking was Clemson’s offense had to be a little sharper in 2024. Right?
Not on Saturday.
Klubnik, who was 18 of 29 for 142 yards with an interception on Saturday, said the Tigers were “just shooting ourselves in the foot.”
“They’re a great team,” Klubnik said of the SEC powerhouse Bulldogs “I think we have a great offense, and I think we’re going to be able to do some really good things this year. Just gotta continue to fine-tune the details.”
Indeed, it’s worth noting Georgia (1-0) is at the top of the sport, has won 40 consecutive regular-season games and has the sort of depth to where its second-string defense could probably hold its own as a starting unit at lots of schools.
Still, Clemson’s first chance to show the world it was headed back in the right direction — or, if not upset Georgia, at least stay competitive — did not go as planned.
The Tigers, who closed as a two-score underdog, chose to receive after winning the coin toss to get their group out there first … then gained 2 yards and punted.
That end result — punting — held true on all five of Clemson’s non-kneel-down possessions in the first half. Even, somehow, after Klubnik hit receiver Antonio Williams for 36 yards and got Clemson to UGA’s 48-yard line in the first quarter.
Minutes later, an illegal-motion penalty (Clemson’s second that quarter) ended up nullifying a third-down conversion and a key touchdown chance in a 0-0 game.
Later, in the third quarter, the Tigers finally appeared to have something going and had marched down to Georgia’s 7-yard line while trailing 13-0. From there, running back Phil Mafah ran for a yard, Klubnik lost 3 yards on a quarterback run and Klubnik threw incomplete.
A 26-yard field goal it was.
‘Something has to change’
Imagine what a Tigers touchdown in either of those instances could’ve done for the flow of the game — and Clemson’s defense, which played valiantly against a loaded UGA offense but ultimately faltered.
On top of those failed touchdown drives: No receiver besides Williams had a catch at halftime; Wesco and Moore did not receive targets until the fourth quarter; star running back Phil Mafah failed to get going with 16 carries for 59 yards; and Clemson declined to give the ball to Mafah, its power runner, on a key third and 1 in the third quarter while trailing 20-3 and in desperate need of a score.
Clemson averaged 3.6 yards per play and looked stuck in the mud all afternoon — stunning many in attendance, including former Tigers and current NFL wide receiver Deandre Hopkins.
“Clemson has all these playmakers but only 3 points,” Hopkins wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) after watching the game in person. “Something has to change.”
When asked what he’d say to fans frustrated that Riley — considered one of the best young coaches in the sport when Swinney plucked him from TCU — has not been able to produce a consistently explosive offense at Clemson, Swinney grinned.
“I’d say we’ve got a long season ahead,” Swinney said, insisting multiple times in his postgame news conference that Clemson has “the right people in the room.”
But in their first test Saturday, the Tigers didn’t just fail.
They flunked.
