Dabo Swinney's post-game thoughts following Clemson's win over Wake Forest

Dabo Swinney walked to the podium after the game Saturday with all the attitude of someone who wanted to project calmness without actually being calm. After the rough start Clemson has had in this first half of the season any win shouldn't be taken for granted. However, the 2-time national championship-winning coach knows that better performances will be needed in the road ahead.

Swinney's frustration mainly stemmed from the lack of offensive consistency and continued turnovers and he shared some insights when asked about the early fumble from his quarterback, "Just poor ball handling. We'll see it on tape... That's on your quarterback. I mean that's what we do every day. That was a critical error. Got to be cleaner."

On what he thought of the slow start by the offense as a whole, "We just didn't do the little things well. 3rd and 2, we don't get the double team done. Just basic stuff. We turn the ball over, we had a drop. So just some of the basic things we didn't get done and then again just behind the chains and poor field position, we didn't stay on schedule."

A positive takeaway from the offense was the running attack led by Will Shipley and Phil Mafah. Swinney was clearly pleased with that aspect of the game, "You rush for 167 yards in two quarters you probably did some good stuff...200 plus yards rushing and 167 in two quarters and when we had to have it we got it done. Got the big 4th down down there as well. I was proud of that one, a big gritty yard."

Defensively, even with a banged-up secondary, this team held the Demon Deacons offense in check all night. Swinney shared his praise for that side of the ball, "We've gotten better each week. Those guys have really developed. One of the areas that we definitely need to improve on from game one to now is points off turnovers...That was a huge part of the day today. I mean the stop was massive at the start of the game. To get no points right there, it's huge. So I'm really proud of them for that."

Looking forward to the bye week now Swinney knows that this is a big week for his team to prepare for the rest of a tough schedule, "It's a big week. I look at it like we need to beat "open" this week. So there's a lot that goes into it. A lot of self-scout, obviously you want to get a head start for the next opponent and do a lot of crossover work... And then we want to get healthy. Obviously, there's a huge opportunity for us to get some guys healthy."