Clemson defense focused on finishing

Clemson had just beaten North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff. While star linebacker Ben Boulware was excited about the win, he was also clearly frustrated.

Why? The Tigers had the game in control in the fourth quarter, leading 42-23 with 11 minutes remaining. But the Tar Heels used big plays to score touchdowns on two drives that took less than 3 minutes to get back in the game.

UNC would’ve had a chance to tie the game in the closing minutes if not for a questionable offsides penalty on an onside kick.

“The fourth quarter, we kind of let it get away with big plays… We keep giving up these stupid big plays, and they’re all easily correctable,” Boulware said. “It’s been that way all year. We keep giving up stupid stuff. It’s annoying, and that’s why I’m not as happy as I should be.”

The week before in the game against South Carolina, the Tigers had a similar outing. Clemson’s lead was 28-10 late in the third quarter before the Gamecocks scored 15 points in five minutes to cut the lead to three.

Clemson held on for a 37-32 victory. For the season, Clemson has given up 56 points in the first quarter, 50 in the second and 58 in the third, but opponents have scored 99 points in the final period.

“Sometimes we do get a little, I wouldn’t say complacent, but we do slack off a little bit,” junior cornerback Cordrea Tankersley said. “We do need to learn how to finish. That’s our mentality around here is to finish. Our coaches do a great job of establishing it. We need to go out there and just do it.”

The defensive lapses have been most notable in the second half of the season. Clemson’s opponents did not score more than 24 points the first seven games of the year, but scored 27 or more four times in the final six games.

Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables is hopeful that the three-and-a-half weeks between the ACC Championship game and College Football Playoff semifinal game will give his unit a chance to rest and get back to the basics that allowed for so much early-season success.

“I think a little bit of time off helped our guys. It came at a great time. We needed it,” he said. “(We’re) getting back to some fundamentals as well and pointing out some things we haven’t done so well in the past few weeks because that will be all over the scouting report. We’ll see if we can get a little better at it.”

Being tired certainly could have contributed to some of Clemson’s struggles the second half of the season. The Tigers played games 10 straight weeks to finish out the season.

Still, Boulware said Clemson’s defense should have played better.

“I hate when people use that as an excuse, because we obviously are tired, but the mistakes are a lot more mental than they are physical,” he said. “It’s definitely good to get the mistakes out now so we can correct them for the next few weeks.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Clemson defense focused on finishing."