Swinney Says Georgia Game was "There for the Taking"
The Clemson Tigers made their fair share of critical mistakes in their 10-3 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Head coach Dabo Swinney offered a detailed list of these errors Tuesday in his weekly meeting with the media.
According to Swinney, it was those errors that cost the Tigers and had nothing to do with anything the Bulldogs did to win the game.
Below is a full transcript of Swinney's recounting of the issues that cost the Tigers:
"The biggest thing is the guys have a great understanding and just played with the type of precision in details that you got to have. And that was the exact opposite offensively in the first play of the game. It should have been a 15-yard run. Easy play. Everybody's blocked and I got my true freshmen left guard...He comes off and they blow up the double team and he's got his eyes. He just forgets. He's got a block that he's got to come off on that backer. I mean that guy's not a number, he's blocked and if we just do our job and he's fundamentally better and his eye, he just he's so amped up because, details and boom, come off on and we're off and running for probably 15-plus yards on the first play of the game. First play of the game. That's not, that's just a detail.
"That's a very simple, fundamental second play of the game. We got to Shipley touchdown. He's wide open, 84 is wide open. Like nobody around him, nobody and the guy stops rushing and just so happens, gets his hand on it, tips it down.
"Now, 2-yard line, take a shot, PI. We get out third-and-4, we got the perfect play. Just run the hitch, but we get a miss signal by the receiver and he runs straight down the field and the quarterbacks throwing the hitch on time wide open for the first down, but he keeps running because he read the wrong signal. And so now, guess what? He gets sacked because he's having to hold the ball. They ain't on the offensive line. That's the only receiver, that's a sack on the receiver. And so that's a detail, and so the precision in what you do is so important and that's what costs us offensively, and again, you're going against a great defense.
"They won some battles too, but it's all the things that we control. We got a third down and we got Ajou Ajou wide open and we dropped the snap. Just drop snap. There's so many things in the course of the game where it's just there for the taking, but we made mistakes and we didn't play with the precision and the details that it takes to beat a team like that.
"This is as good a defense as there is now. And you got to take advantage of your opportunities and they, weren't great either—neither offense was great, and that's the tough challenge for both offenses coming out of the gate. You haven't played all that type of stuff, but they were more consistent than we were. And didn't make the critical mistake in the, when they did, we didn't capitalize, we, we come right out there and first play, we run the ball and tidy and unblocked the right guy. We got two guys blocking the same guy and this guy, we got him, we got that guy blocked, but we just make we bust.
So we get 2 yards instead of 6. We take a sack...held the ball for five seconds and you can't do that. We're in scoring range, we're in field goal range, and these are things. And again, you're young quarterback first, first start in an environment like that with people."
