Mission Accomplished for Tigers' Offense

The Clemson Tigers came out on a mission their game Saturday. That mission was to put their best four quarters of the season on the field against Atlantic Division rival Florida State.

CLEMSON—The Clemson Tigers came out on a mission their game Saturday. That mission was to put their best four quarters of the season on the field against Atlantic Division rival  Florida State.

After the Tigers beatdown the Seminoles by a final score of 45-14, two words summed up the perfomance; Mission accomplished.

“We all were challenged over the last two weeks to come out and to get back to being who we are," co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliot said. "We wanted to have an aggressive game plan. That’s when we have been at our best. The guys put in the work. They had a really, really great week of preparation. [I’m] really excited to get in and watch the film because obviously there were a lot of good things.

“I don’t think [we had anything to prove] to the outside, but I think all of us felt like we needed to prove to ourselves. It’s not just knowing it; we have to go be it. We feel like we’re the best offense in the country.”

The offense starts and stops with the play of quarterback Trevor Lawrence—who returned to the form that had many around the country pegging him as the Heisman Trophy frontrunner heading into this season, as he threw for 170 yards and three touchdowns and added an additional 40 yards on the ground and another touchdown. 

One word could describe the play of Lawrence—awesome.

"He was awesome. Should have had a couple more touchdowns," head coach Dabo Swinney said. "I thought there were a couple more plays we could make and will make and capable of making. Man, he played well. He did a great job. He hit a check down one time. You just really know when a guy is really seeing it. It was actually kind of a down field little concept, but he saw it. He took the check down and it was a ... I don't know, we got 10, 12 yards off of it. He was really, really sharp."

The offensive explosion and execution may be attributed to having a bye week to get rested and healthy or a desire to show the pollsters—who dropped the Tigers to No. 2 after their one-point win at North Carolina two weeks ago. But, according to Lawrence, thing that motivated the Tigers Saturday was simply a desire to show the world that the Tigers that played two weeks ago were the exception, not the norm.

“[It wasn’t] necessarily just that [but] the way we played two weeks ago," Lawrence said. "We wanted to prove that we’re a better team than that and can do a lot more than we did. We have high expectations for ourselves just like a lot of people do. We just want to play well, and I think we played really, really well.”