Clemson 41 Virginia 23: Position Grades

All Clemson grades out each position group from Clemons's 41-23 win over a tough Virginia Cavaliers team on Saturday night in Death Valley.

Virginia came to town on Saturday and for a little over three quarters, gave the No. 1 Clemson Tigers its most competitive game inside the ACC since the 21-20 road win over North Carolina last September.

With a top-10 showdown with Miami looming, the Clemson coaching staff will have a lot of stuff on film to use as teaching opportunities as they get set to face the Hurricanes next Saturday night in Death Valley. 

The Tigers 41-23 win over the Cavaliers was the program's 35th consecutive win in the regular season, which is the longest streak in ACC history. 

Position Grades:

Quarterback: While Trevor Lawrence may not have been quite as sharp against Virginia as he was in the team's first two games, he still had a very productive night throwing for 329 yards and 3 touchdowns while completing 65.8% of his passes. It was his second 300-yard passing game of the season and more importantly, he did not turn the ball over. Lawrence has thrown 314 passes without being intercepted which is the longest active streak in the country, and third-longest in ACC history. Week after week his continues to impress... A+

Running Back: Travis Etienne had 73 yards on the ground but did most of his damage in the passing game against the Cavaliers. Rushing yards were hard to come by, so the Tigers went to the screen game in order to get him out in space and let him take advantage of his speed. Etienne's 114 receiving yards set a school record for the most in a single game by a running back. The Tigers running backs had 94 rushing yards and averaged 4.3 yards per carry. Not quite the numbers fans are used to seeing, but overall a solid effort against a good defensive front... A

Wide Receiver: The further we get into the season, the better this group starts to look. Amari Rodgers had another solid game, reeling in a team-high six catches and added two touchdowns. Frank Ladson had five catches and Brannon Spector had four. Once Joseph Ngata returns from injury, this group will be even better. Although, there are still some issues with drops at times... B-

Tight End: Braden Galloway and Davis Allen combined to catch 3 passes for 35 yards. The Tigers are still making a concerted effort to get this group involved in the passing game and this offense is at its best when that is the case... B-

Offensive Line: This group got its biggest test of the young season against the Cavaliers and it showed early on. The Virginia defensive front seemed to confuse the offensive line at times early on but as the game wore on the Tigers settled in and got it going. They got better as the game progressed and slowly started wearing down a solid defensive front... B+

Defensive Line: The fact that the Tigers have two true freshmen starting along the defensive line showed at times last night against one of the better offensive lines in the ACC. Not having guys like Tyler Davis, Justin Foster, and Xavier Thomas seemed to cause the Tigers to wear down somewhat. There was very little pressure on Brennan Armstrong and the Tigers had issues keeping the Cavs sophomore quarterback contained. The defense gave up more than 400 yards of offense to an ACC opponent for the first time since 2017 and it all started with the play up front... C+

Linebackers: Baylon Spector had himself quite a game. He was making plays all over the field, totaling a team-high 13 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and half a sack. James Skalski had another solid night and Mike Jones Jr. looked solid on a night in which he spent a lot of time in coverage... A-

Secondary: By far this group's best game of the season. The Tigers had eight pass breakups overall, with Derion Kendrick and Andrew Booth Jr. each recording two. The group came away with two interceptions, including a spectacular one-handed grab by Booth in the end zone. It was a great game to build on going forward and should be a confidence boost for a young, inexperienced group of players... A

Special Teams: Another solid night from this group. B.T. Potter was once again perfect, hitting on both of his field-goal attempts and all of his PAT's. Will Spiers was solid punting the ball and Lyn-J Dixon opened the game with a 52-yard kickoff return... A+