Tigers headed to North Carolina for Halloween game

Clemson (8-0, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) stayed in the race for a spot in the College Football Playoff and withstood an upset bid before its showdown next week with a one-loss Florida State team.

ESPN really, really likes the Tigers with four games left in the regular season.

Speaking of Florida State, the Seminoles saw their 28-game conference winning streak snapped on a weird blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown with no time on the clock.

The video clip below is from Clemson’s 58-0 beatdown of the Miami Hurricanes in Week 8. After that, Clemson just has to get through Syracuse, Wake Forest, and the interim-coached South Carolina Gamecocks. If Clemson doesn’t get through these four games undefeated, I’d be beyond shocked.

The Orange lost to Pitt, but move up slightly as they were they were competitive. These remaining games are all essentially playoff games for Dabo and the boys, and the general attitude at this point is “playoff or bust”.

It very clearly is now as it heads into what has become the de facto Atlantic Division title game next week against Florida State (7-1, 5-1). At the moment, it looked as if it’d be a broken leg after an offensive lineman came crashing down on it. Thankfully, the results of his medicals are in, and according to coach Dave Doeren, all test on Fernandez’s leg came back negative.

Fortunately, when you have a quarterback like Deshaun Watson, you know the offense is always capable of bailing the defense out.

Jacoby Brissett threw for three touchdowns and ran for one, while Jaylen Samuels ran for a score for the Wolfpack. Gallman is the team’s leading rusher, blasting through defenses for a whopping total of 874 yards and seven touchdowns, including five games rushing for over 100 yards.

The bar has certainly been set high by this Clemson defense, and they’ve impressed me week in and week out. But they just weren’t themselves on Saturday, letting an inferior football team put up a fight. N.C. State hadn’t allowed more than 358 total yards in a game this season – it also didn’t play any good offenses – and Clemson out-gained the Wolfpack 623 to 389. Brissett scored on a 13-yard option keep.

“We’re just executing”, Watson said. Their game film could be converted into an instructional video on how to get the ball into the end zone, the fluidity of it is a thing of beauty. The Tigers have won 10 straight games for the first time in roughly three decades.

The Tigers have carried a top-10 ranking the last two times they visited Raleigh.

Watson finished the game completing 23-30 passes for 383 yards and five touchdowns, and he also had 14 carries for 54 yards and a score. Every single one of Deshaun Watson’s passing touchdowns were caught by different receivers, while eight different receivers recorded receptions.

After Ole Miss’ Tony Bridges intercepted an Auburn pass, he and one of the Tiger coaches celebrated with the “Whip and Nae Nae” dance.

But who’s No. 1 isn’t about what you’ll be going forward; it’s about what you’ve accomplished already. But Clemson would have an absolute field day against a Big 12 defense.

Oklahoma State: The Cowboys’ November schedule is imposing (Baylor, Oklahoma and TCU, though all three go to Stillwater), but they almost tripped up at Texas Tech.