Syracuse football loses to 'special' Clemson team with dominant front seven

Clemson, S.C. — If a tombstone were to be planted over the body of this 16-6 defeat down here where better clubs than this Syracuse one have lost, the words on its face would best be chiseled by Sean Hickey, the Orange lineman who offered this summary late Saturday night:

"I told you before the game their front seven is very good."

It didn't rival the classic "I told you I was sick" that's out there on a grave-marker somewhere, no. But it'll do. And after the Clemson defenders pitched a second-half shutout and allowed a mere 52 yards of SU offense over the contest's final 30 minutes, who'd dare to argue?

"They didn't care what we did because they weren't interested in that," said AJ Long, the Orange's 18-year-old whiz-bang who'd gotten battered during his 82-yard passing performance that included four sacks, two interceptions, a lost fumble and various bouts of confusion. "They were man-up and they were going to blitz the young quarterback until he made a mistake. Tonight I made mistakes."

Of course, he did. But where was the surprise in that? Long, the true freshman making his second college start, is just a kid. Throwing him in, then, against those Tigers was like flipping a salmon into the mouth of a bear.

"That was the best defensive seven I've ever played against," AJ gushed. "And probably it'll be the best defensive seven that we'll play against. Having that many NFL-caliber prospects across the entire board? It doesn't get much better than that, and in a venue like this."

Oh, yes. The venue was the properly celebrated Death Valley, where nearly all of the 80,031 fans, in a fashion unknown up north in the Carrier Dome, were in their seats prior to the kickoff to watch the 21st-ranked Tigers stampede down their famous hill beneath thousands of released balloons and dozens of exploding fireworks and into Memorial Stadium to a communal roar that would have otherwise startled the town.

But as there are only 14,000 or so residents in Clemson, virtually all of them had to have been in the old joint, where they, in order, (a) sang "God Bless America," (b) listened in silence to a prayer, (c) recited the "Pledge of Allegiance," (d) belted out the national anthem and (e) crooned the school's alma mater before going about their sacred business of screaming deep into the southern evening.

And scream they did. This, as Dabo Swinney's Tigers — who've now yielded 36 total points in their last four scrums — growled.

Let's see. Syracuse got a 43-yard field goal from Cole Murphy in the first quarter. And it got a 50-yard field goal from him right before the opening half ended. And that was that. The red zone? Nope. The Orange, which mustered just 10 first downs and held the ball for 10 fewer minutes than did their hosts, never cracked that egg. Not once all night.

"That team was special," admitted Scott Shafer, the SU ramrod whose voice nearly cracked as he engaged the jackals from the media after seeing his side, 3-5 overall, lose for the fifth time in six tries. "They've been doing it to everybody."

The truth of the matter is that the Syracuse defense was nearly as formidable as that of Clemson, which unleashed an odd attack in which its quarterback, Cole Stoudt, completed 24 of 35 passes, only a handful of which actually crossed the line of scrimmage. The rest of his tosses? They went sideways — this one to the east, that one to the west … this one to the east, that one to the west.

Somehow, that approach netted Stoudt 209 yards through the air. Or at least that's what the statistics declared. But results are results, and the Tigers are 6-2 with a chance — considering its at-Wake-Forest/at-Georgia-Tech/vs.-Georgia-State/vs.-South-Carolina finish — to go to a nice bowl affair at 10-2.

The Orange? Well, it is in full-blown scurrying mode and will need to work and produce (and get healthy) in order to win its way into college football's staggeringly bloated 76-team postseason.

Whether it succeeds or not, though, it'll always have its memories of this visit to Death Valley where the public streets leading into it are painted with orange paw prints and where one moonshiner, complete with banner fluttering overhead, was seen — hand to God — on Saturday afternoon selling his hooch at a road-side stand.

And there was this, too: With SU leading by a baseball score of 6-3 at the half, tens of thousands of aggrieved Tigers fans, with frowns on their pusses, filed out of Memorial Stadium in an apparent collective huff.

"Where," a northern visitor asked a local who was watching the grumpy parade, "are they all going?"

"They're headed out to their tail-gates to drink some more alcohol," the guy answered. "But they'll be back."

They were. And soon their frowns were gone.

Bud Poliquin's columns/commentaries appear regularly in The Post-Standard. His work can also be found virtually every weekday on syracuse.com. Additionally, Poliquin can be heard weekday mornings from 10-12 on the "Bud & The Manchild" sports-talk radio show on The Score 1260-AM. Poliquin can be reached at bpoliquin@syracuse.com.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.