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Clemson's Passing Game is Not Where Swinney Wants it to Be
Clemson's ailing passing game is dealing with a lack of confidence and details, Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney said Tuesday.
The Tigers are coming off their poorest performance of the 2022 season in a 31-30 loss to in-state rival South Carolina. Clemson's offense produced just 99 yards, and quarterback DJ Uiagalelei completed just 8 of his 29 attempts through the air.
It wasn't just the signal-caller who had a bad day. The pass-catchers had five drops, including two on third down that would've kept the Tigers on the field in the second half when they lost offensive momentum.
It was a sobering moment for a team that has been struggling to throw the ball for several weeks, similar to nearly all of last year.
"We got better, especially if you look through the first part of the season," Swinney said. "We were passing the ball a lot better. Obviously, we've had some injuries and a few things here or there. Disappointing the way we've finished. We're not executing the way we need to, or we didn't this past week. Up until Notre Dame, we were doing a pretty good job. Not where we need to be at all."
Clemson (10-2) hasn't thrown for 250 or more yards since the Wake Forest game in Week 4, and it has produced less than 200 yards a contest through the air in four of the last five games. Plagued by drops and bad throws, Swinney said getting back to making plays in the passing game falls on everyone.
"Well, catch the ball. That's No. 1," Swinney said. "We missed a couple of throws. We had a big one to Antonio (Williams), wide open and we just miss it. Then you make the perfect throw and we drop it. Those are plays that we've made.
"If you know what you're looking at it, we've got a play going to (tight end Jake Briningstool) that's probably going to go for 40-50 yards, maybe score if he breaks one tackle."
Instead, right tackle Blake Miller missed a block on a linebacker.
"It's a play that never happens," Swinney said.
That's not all he's frustrated with.
"We've got to capitalize," Swinney said. "We don't have that type of room for error now so we've got to capitalize on just the layups, the plays that are there. We don't have to do anything spectacular. We dropped two slants that were first downs that were critical. Then we missed a couple of plays and we had five drops in the game.
"We had a lot of indicators for winning in that game. We hit just about every indicator that usually says we win, but we didn't win. It's one of those outliers. It's pretty easy to see why we didn't win — turnovers, missed plays, big plays (allowed), poor red zone defense. It's pretty simple."
The reasons are myriad. The receivers have not been very involved in the second half of the season. Beaux Collins, who looked like the standout in the first half, missed two games earlier this month with a bum shoulder. He returned against South Carolina but the shoulder popped back out and now he'll have surgery, Swinney announced Tuesday.
"I really appreciate Beaxu trying to go," Swinney said. "He wanted to try to finish. It just wasn't meant to be. We'll probably do surgery on him next week. He's done. We've got to fix it because it keeps coming out."
Outside of Williams, who leads the team with 50 catches for 523 yards, the receivers have been a disappointment. Only senior Joseph Ngata has more than 20 catches from the players left in that room.
It hurt that the tight ends, a clear bright spot this season, had just one catch against the Gamecocks, and that went to Briningstool for 11 yards. Collins had two catches for 53 yards but didn't finish the game. Williams and Ngata, the only other two receivers to record a reception, combined for three catches for 18 yards.
Swinney hopes to get the three freshmen receivers more looks in hopes of turning the struggles around when the Tigers take on North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday at 8 p.m.
"I like the young guys that we've got, Adam Randall and Antonio. And then, Cole (Turner), we'll get him going on the rest of the way," Swinney said. "I think we've got a good group. Beaux is a great player and we've had a couple of other guys who have just struggled from a consistency standpoint. It's unfortunate but that's where we are."
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