Bounce-back complete: Clemson earns ACC road win over Virginia Tech

Better late than never.

With its season at an inflection point, the Clemson football team used a high-scoring second half to score a much-needed 24-14 road win at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

The No. 23 Tigers were shut out in the first half for the first time since their season opener against Georgia, but quarterback Cade Klubnik and company rallied with 24 second-half points to get past the Hokies in Blacksburg.

Klubnik had 241 total yards and three passing touchdowns, running back Phil Mafah had 128 yards and true freshman cornerback Ashton Hampton had a highlight-reel interception as the Tigers kept their slim ACC championship and College Football Playoff hopes alive at a sold-out Lane Stadium.

A week after dropping its first conference game to Louisville, Clemson moved to 7-2 and 6-1 in the ACC and avoided what would’ve back-to-back losses in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2010-11.

Unranked Virginia Tech fell to 5-5 and 3-3 in the ACC, and Hokies coach Brent Pry fell to 1-5 in games against AP Top 25 teams.

The Tigers, who entered this game with a 9% chance to make the ACC title game, play their final conference game at No. 18 Pitt next weekend and can remain in contention for one of two spots (and a chance at a CFP auto bid) if they win out.

The odds aren’t great, but coach Dabo Swinney’s Tigers got a little more life as No. 4 Miami lost at unranked Georgia Tech earlier on Saturday.

That loss leaves No. 13 Southern Methodist as the only ACC team undefeated in conference play — and gives the Tigers a fighting chance after a road rally that featured a resounding bounce-back effort from the defense.

“The biggest thing I saw today was heart,” Swinney said. “That’s what I asked them to put on display: ‘I just wanna see you play with your heart.’ And you saw that tonight. ... Honestly, we haven’t handled adversity great this year in some of these games. But I saw our team respond.”

Game recap

Even after a poor showing against Louisville, Clemson’s offense entered this game ranked top 10 nationally in points per game and scoring offense.

But the Tigers didn’t look anything like that team.

Clemson had six offensive possessions in the first half and didn’t score on any of them, marking its first first-half shutout since the season opener against Georgia.

It was a comedy of self-inflicted errors. The Tigers reached VT’s 26-yard line on their opening drive, then stalled because of an intentional grounding penalty and holding penalty before Klubnik threw an interception on third and long.

On Clemson’s next possession, a fourth and 2 attempt from Virginia Tech’s 26 came up again when Klubnik got sacked on a play action roll-out.

And the third drive, following the defense forcing a turnover, was even worse.

Facing a third and 1, Klubnik lost 2 yards on an outside run to force a 46-yard field goal attempt. Then, the Hokies blocked freshman kicker Nolan Hauser’s attempt up the middle and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown.

Improbably, it marked the sixth blocked kick — five field goals, one extra point — that Clemson has surrendered this season and the third in two games. Those six total blocked kicks are the worst among all 134 FBS teams.

Mistakes like those nullified a strong performance from Clemson’s defense, which was down starting DE Peter Woods and DT DeMonte Capehart and still pitched a first-half shutout against a strong Virginia Tech rushing offense.

“We couldn’t get out of our own way in the first half,” Swinney said, lamenting various drops by wide receivers and “critical penalties.”

VT had zero points on all six of its first-half drives, too, but racked up three sacks — the most by a Clemson opponent all year — and led 7-0 at halftime thanks to its field goal return touchdown.

Fortunes changed rapidly in the second half, though, as Klubnik and Mafah started heating and the Tigers’ offense rounded back into early-season form.

Wide receiver Cole Turner went over the top of a defender for a 31-yard touchdown on Clemson’s first drive of the third quarter (7-7), and after the defense forced another three and out Klubnik added to the lead with a highlight reel play.

Facing a third and 7 on VT’s 41, a Hokies defensive back came screaming off the edge unblocked with Klubnik dead to rights ... but Clemson’s QB spun to avoid him, stumbled, regained his balanced and chucked a deep ball to a wide-open T.J. Moore.

The freshman receiver caught it around the 10, made a move and scored a 41-yard touchdown to give the Tigers their first lead of the game, 14-7.

Meanwhile, the defense continued to excel after what Swinney described as an “embarrassing” outing vs. Louisville. Virginia Tech entered this game averaging 201.4 rushing yards per game and 5.21 yards per carry — and was held to a season-low 40 yards and 1.90 yards per carry on Saturday night.

Clemson ended up surpassing its first-half offensive yardage total (152) in the third quarter alone (172) and added a third touchdown to start the fourth quarter.

Tight end Jake Briningstool set the program career record for receptions by a tight end (113) on a 12-yard grab to make it 21-7 Clemson with 13 minutes to go.

His touchdown was set up by an eye-popping interception by Hampton, the true freshman cornerback, who ripped the ball away from a Virginia Tech receiver and corralled it one-handed inside the 10-yard line.

The Hokies made a late quarterback change, subbing in backup Collin Schlee for ineffective starter Kyron Drones, but he couldn’t muster any magic and threw an interception inside his own 20-yard line while trailing 21-7.

“A ton of credit to Clemson,” Pry said postgame. “Good football team. Thought they rebounded well. We unfortunately didn’t. ... Too many mistakes.”

The Tigers defense ended up tying a season high with three turnovers and held VT to 2 of 14 on third downs, its best clip all season.

Hauser’s 34-yard field goal following the turnover gave the Tigers a three-score lead (24-7). Schlee threw a late touchdown to cut the score to 24-14 with 1:43 remaining, but Clemson cleanly recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.

Swinney said the defense was the “story of the night.”

As for his team?

“We’ve got 21 days left in our season and there’s a lot of opportunity out there,” Swinney said. “We’ve just gotta show up and have one good day at a time.”

Clemson football: Next game

Who: No. 23 Clemson (7-2, 6-1 ACC) at No. 18 Pitt (7-2, 3-2 ACC)

Where: Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh

When: Noon Saturday, Nov. 16

TV: ESPN