Defense for No. 15 Clemson not playing up to team's usual standards

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson All-America linebacker Barrett Carter isn't crazy about the spotty defense he's seen too much of from the 15th-ranked Tigers.

There's been missed tackles, open gaps, and failures to leverage the ball leading to big gains on the ground.

“We can't get tired of doing the little things,” Carter said. “That's what football is about.”

Lack of the little things has led to major problems at times for Clemson (3-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which will try to stay perfect Saturday night in league play at struggling Florida State (1-4, 1-3).

The Tigers have been built on strong defense for generations from the Perry brothers, William “The Refrigerator” and Michael Dean, in the 1980s, to Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins in the 1990s and defensive linemen like current NFL starters in Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence during the national championship years of 2016 and 2018.

Clemson has been among the country's best at stopping opponents, in the top 10 nationally in eight of the previous 10 seasons. But the Tigers have given up more than 400 yards a game and are way down the rankings at No. 100 nationally in yards allowed.

The defense got off on the wrong foot as then-top-ranked Georgia put up 447 yards in a 34-3 loss in the opener two month ago.

Tigers' high-powered offense skews stats

Some of the large chunk plays given up lately, coach Dabo Swinney says, have been surrendered with games well out of reach.

Chalk that up to the team's offense performing, well, too well.

The Tigers were up on Appalachian State 56-13 at the break on Sept. 7 and led N.C. State 45-7 after two quarters. That sent most of Clemson's defensive starters to the bench to give the backups some time.

And the reserves showed why they're not yet starters. The Mountaineers posted 222 of their 363 yards in the final two quarters, while the Wolfpack outscored Clemson 21-0 in the final period when the game was already out of reach.

“They don't ask you how you did when the starters were in there,” Swinney joked.

The 40-14 win over Stanford last week was a different matter. The first-year ACC members — the Cardinal arrived in South Carolina about 24 hours before kickoff due to Hurricane Helene — continually moved down the field on the Tigers and trailed just 17-7 at halftime.

Clemson needed a pair of interceptions inside its 20-yard line to keep Stanford from tying or taking the lead. “We got a butt-chewing at halftime,” said Carter, who led the Tigers with 10 tackles, 3.5 of those behind the line of scrimmage. “That really got us going.”

Clemson held the Cardinal to a touchdown the rest of the way.

Clemson's defensive strides

Is the change permanent?

Clemson heads to Florida State this week and while starting quarterback and former Tigers' starter D.J. Uiagalelei won't play due to injury, backup Brock Glenn had scholarship offers from Ohio State, Auburn and LSU before choosing the Seminoles.

Swinney has reminded his players to look past Florida State's poor showing early this season and concentrate on the playmakers they see on tape. “Florida State has a bunch of players who'll play on Sundays,” he said.

Safety R.J. Mickens, a fifth-year graduate, knows the defense has made its mistakes, but feels things are improving every time out.

Mickens, second on the team with 24 tackles, believes the team has gotten beaten too often on the outside, something it can and will clean up at practice.

“We’ve done some good things and we’ve done some bad things,” Mickens said. "We've just got to stay consistent.”

Swinney said it's important to remember that, when pushed, Clemson's defense came through against Stanford. Along with three interceptions, the Tigers had three fourth-down stops to end drives by the Cardinal, including one at the Tigers' 10 when Mickens drove the ball carrier out of bounds.

He hopes that's the start of better things to get the Tigers back to their defensive standards.

“To see our defense make those plays, that will give them a lot of confidence,” he said.

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Pete Iacobelli, The Associated Press