What We Learned From Clemson's Demoralizing Loss at Notre Dame

From getting outplayed physically to getting outcoached by a rookie, it was a rough night of lessons for the Clemson Tigers at Notre Dame Stadium.

There are losses like the one Alabama suffered Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La., and then there are ones like the one Clemson took at Notre Dame. 

Sure, both really hurt both teams' chances of making the College Football Playoff, and the Crimson Tide's puts them behind the eight-ball in their own division. 

But at least Alabama took the game to overtime and lost because LSU made just one more big play on a two-point conversion roll of the dice. 

No. 4 Clemson (8-1) lost because it got manhandled for 60 minutes in a 35-14 defeat at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish (6-3) were the more physical team. They beat the Tigers up on both sides of the ball and made a huge special teams play on a blocked punt that went for six points to snag early momentum. 

It left Dabo Swinney with a feeling he hadn't had in the 14 years he's been running this program. 

It was demoralizing. Realizing you got beat because the other team was just bigger and stronger than you can be tough to accept, but that's exactly what the Tigers have to do, and now they also have to decide if they're going to let it happen again. 

"We flat out got our tails handed to us," Swinney said. "Tonight, we were the bug. We got the bad end of that deal. We deserved everything we got."

They won't have to wait long to find out because there are three more regular season games and an ACC title contest waiting on them. This is, however, a bad place to be in and requires an incredible response. 

Clemson hasn't gotten pushed around like this very often in the College Football Playoff era. The last time it probably happened was in 2020, when Ohio State manhandled the Tigers. 

And if it can happen to this team the way it did at Notre Dame, it can happen again...if they let it. The Tigers didn't arise to the physical challenge and how they respond against Louisville next week will say a lot about this squad. 

Here's what else we learned about Clemson coming off the end of its 14-game winning streak: 

Clemson can get outcoached

It's hard to believe, but rookie head coach Marcus Freeman had the more prepared team. Notre Dame was aggressive. It seemed to know exactly what was coming from Clemson's offense and it defended it too well. The home team played smarter football. But Notre Dame was the side that played last week on the road at Syracuse. Clemson, meanwhile, was coming off an open date after its win over the Orange. 

The Tigers had an entire extra week to self-evaluate and get in plenty of prep on Notre Dame. But it didn't pay off. They were penalized seven times. They didn't block a guy on a punt, knowing that the Irish had blocked five of those already this season. They couldn't stop the freight train known as ND's run game even though they heard the whistle from miles away. Maybe there are issues with this staff to monitor. Maybe it was just one really bad night (or two weeks). Time will tell. 

Defensive front gave in

Where was the defensive line that was trumpeted as the best in college football all offseason? What happened to the fastest, most talented linebacking corps of the Swinney era? In the game that they knew called for physicality, they wilted. Notre Dame's offensive line pushed them around almost all night, clearing running lanes and keeping QB Drew Pyne relatively clean. Giving up 263 rushing yards (5.6 per carry) when you know that ND is going to run it on almost every play is most concerning. Both Audric Estime and Logan Diggs went over 100 rushing yards each. 

This wasn't a difficult game mentally. It was a physical challenge that Clemson failed. This unit has now allowed two teams (FSU and ND) to go over 200 rushing yards this season. This program didn't give up that mark but three times from 2017-21. The coaches can only do so much. They aren't the ones getting pushed around. Players have to make plays. There will be some soul-searching on that side of the ball this week.

Quarterbacks are struggling

Despite getting benched against Syracuse, DJ Uiagalelei started the game at QB for the Tigers. He didn't make it all the way through, though. The junior got benched in favor of freshman backup Cade Klubnik in the third quarter because the offense wasn't doing anything. Klubnik didn't provide a spark as his first pass was intercepted deep in Irish territory and turned into six points. It was a freshman mistake, throwing back across his body with a defender in his face to a receiver who was running the other direction with a defender draped all over him. 

Uiagalelei came back in the game immediately and promptly threw his own interception that was picked off by Benjamin Morris, his second of the day, and returned 96 yards for a touchdown. Uiagalelei had a fumble against Syracuse that was picked up and returned 90 yards for a score. The quarterbacks are struggling to make plays, no matter who is in there, and they're hurting their team. Swinney said they're going to continue to evaluate the position, but right now, there aren't any answers. At least Uiagalelei didn't quit as he led two second-half TD drives and finished with 191 passing yards, but it was too little too late. The players around them surely didn't do much to help the quarterbacks out in this game, but the signal-callers can't keep giving away points. 

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