Clemson Wins ACC Championship After Controversial Penalty

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says he didn’t see the play. If you sit down and watch our 13 games, he’s the best player in the country.

Swinney oringinally told fans they would have the “biggest pizza party ever” when the first college playoff rankings came out. “I’m really proud of our team and happy for our fans”.

North Carolina lost any momentum it had on its first drive of the third quarter. UNC’s run defense, which had struggled all season allowed the Tiger running back to romp for 170 yards after halftime. The Hurricanes raced to a 40-10 lead after 16 minutes. The previous mark of four touchdowns was set by two former Tigers: running back C.J. Spiller against Georgia Tech in 2009, and quarterback Tajh Boyd versus Virginia Tech in 2011. The pass attempt ultimately failed and UNC went ahead 9-7. If I get invited to the dinner, I’ll go and have fun with it. He had 68 yards receiving and a receiving touchdown. Earlier in the contest, he also caught a 16-yard touchdown from QB Deshaun Watson. Our guys fought all the way till the end and it felt like we were in it all the way to the end.

Watson ended the half going 19-of-32 passing for 191 yards and two scores.

Carolina’s defense, meanwhile, couldn’t stop the Tigers. With a whopping 57 plays in the first half (and an ACC championship game-record 98 in the game), the Tigers didn’t have a ton of points on the board – leading 21-16 at the half – but they managed to take some wind from Carolina’s defense. Clemson picked an odd time to have a blown punt play to cap a disastrous drive.

Wayne Gallman then broke through for a 20-yard run on the second play of another long drive, this one for 97 yards, capped by his 3-yard touchdown run. The Tar Heels entered the game 66-for-137 (48 percent) on third downs this season. Watson was able to hook up with Artavis Scott on the 35-yard pass and the Tigers would take a 35-16 lead. In the second half that containment disappeared. The Tar Heels turned the pick into six points to trail 35-23.

But Clemson wasn’t going to fold.

The Heisman hopeful assisted the Tigers in putting together an 11-play, 80-yard drive which ended with Watson scoring on a 2-yard rush.

The Tigers’ average starting field position was inside their own 25.

Clemson added a field goal late in the fourth to cap their scoring for the evening. Nope, just that one offsides play.

Hood scored on a 2-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to pulled the Tar Heels within 42-30. Eight minutes later, the Tar Heels scored again.

However, Watson would put the Tigers back in front with two seconds left in the first half on a 1-yard jump pass to tight end Jordan Leggett.

They had a chance to build on it before the break, but Williams’ inaccuracy led to yet another three-and-out, one where they held the ball for just 24 seconds. There’s always going to be grit in this team. We fought. Nobody was down on the sideline.

That was ambitious, but the Tar Heels at least proved against the nation’s No. 1 team that they were a team deserving of a spot in the top 10, despite their meager resume. We don’t. A player has to be across the 30 when the ball is contacted by the kicker for offsides to be legit.

“They missed it”, said Coach Larry Fedora after the game. For the second time this season, Williams came to his hometown and much like last time he struggled to perform as a high enough level to lift the Tar Heels to a win. Clemson moves on to 13-0 on the season and will await their College Football Playoff destination and opponent tomorrow.