It’s called Death Valley, but Clemson has been the only team fighting for its life inside Memorial Stadium lately.
Saturday’s 46-45 loss to Duke marked a fourth home loss in 5 games this season for the Tigers. It also dropped the Tigers to 3-5 on the season, continuing the worst season yet under Dabo Swinney.
Following the game, Duke’s social media team cooked the Tigers.
Cooked.
The defeat makes this year’s Clemson team the first since 1998 to lose at least 4 home games in a single season.
Those ’98 Tigers, along with Clemson teams in 1975 and 1970, are the only other teams in program history to lose 4 home games. No team in program history has lost 5 home games in a single season. Clemson has 2 games left in Death Valley to try and avoid that lowlight — against Florida State and Furman.
Duke, meanwhile, earned its first win in Clemson since 1980. Duke benefited from a defensive pass interference penalty on a fourth down in the closing minute of the game. After that, the Blue Devils scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 40 seconds left and then converted the 2-point try to steal a win.
The Blue Devils had lost 15 straight games at Clemson. They returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and converted all 5 of their fourth-down tries in the winning effort.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
