Clemson's Swinney Proud Of Team After Sloppy Win

Dabo Swinney conceded that his team had some mistakes on both offense and defense Saturday against Syracuse, but praised their effort and response in beating the Orange 47-21.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had to do a double take in the middle of his post-game interview Saturday.

"I just want to make sure, I'm at the right press conference here," Swinney asked after being questioned about his teams energy in a 47-21 victory over Syracuse Saturday. "We did win the game, I think. Just want to make sure I'm in the right spot. You don't usually score 47 points if you don't have the right energy."

Swinney did concede that his team made some mistakes against Syracuse, but it had nothing to do with its energy.

"It's not energy when you don't make a certain play or snap the ball over the head, it's just didn't execute," Swinney said. "It's not easy to win, there's a lot of teams out there that would have lost this game with the amount of mistakes we made but we won the game by almost four touchdowns."

With Clemson leading 27-21, Mike Jones Jr. and Bryan Breese converged on Syracuse quarterback Rex Culpepper. They knocked the ball away allowing Andrew Booth Jr. to scoop it up and run 21 yards for a touchdown.

"Sometimes you get into some tight games and somebody steps up and makes a smart play to kind of get you going a little bit," Swinney said. "That was definitely a great play for us and good energy. The guys were excited about and excited to go right back after that."

Despite the win, Swinney said there was bad stuff on both sides of the ball, but was happy with the way both sides responded.

"A lot of good things, that will be good teachable things. We put ourselves in harm's way with some of the things that we have not done," Swinney said. "But to be a little sloppy and still win a game by 26 points says a lot about the character of your team."