Clemson goes without offensive TD in back-to-back games, first time in 30 seasons
Published:
Clemson was only recently a national powerhouse, winning national championships in 2016 and 2018 and launching an era of excellence in Tigers football that seemed like it would last forever.
But sometimes success can be fleeting.
And that’s never been truer than right now for Clemson and its suddenly much-maligned head coach, Dabo Swinney, who was the mastermind behind those national titles and all that recent dominance in the ACC.
Suddenly, things have gone really stale for the 56-year-old Swinney and his orange-colored ACC machine. After struggling to a 7-6 record last season, Swinney’s program has struggled again this year, already suffering its 4th loss of the season on Saturday with a 20-6 home setback against a bad Georgia Tech team.
The Yellow Jackets were just 2-7 overall with 1 ACC win coming into Saturday, but they got healthy at Swinney’s expense, and specifically their defense did. Because that Clemson offense was downright awful for the 2nd straight week.
All the Tigers managed offensively was a field goal in the 2nd quarter and another field goal in the 3rd quarter.
No offensive touchdowns — and no touchdowns at all.
But even in last week’s 18-13 road victory over Syracuse, Clemson’s offense was nowhere to be found. The Tigers kicked 4 field goals and scored their only touchdown on a fumble return, so there were no offensive touchdowns to speak of in Week 10 in central New York.
That means, according to ESPN Insights, Clemson has gone back-to-back games with 0 offensive touchdowns for the first time over the past 30 seasons.
Three decades is a long time, and it was another unwanted milestone achieved by a team and a program that has gone stale the past few years.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
