It was almost deja vu all over again for both Clemson and Syracuse, as the Orange had the Tigers on the ropes, but Clemson came back to take a 27-23 lead late in the fourth quarter and held on to win.
Syracuse had Clemson on *upset alert* again, but the Tigers came back late to win with a 3rd-string QB
The Tigers survive a scare at home, and avoid losing to Syracuse for the second year in a row.
Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images
It wasn’t a Friday night in the Carrier Dome this time, it was in Death Valley on a Saturday, but the one thing that was constant: Clemson’s starting quarterback getting knocked out of the game.
Last year the Tigers lost Kelly Bryant to concussion symptoms. This year, they lost Bryant’s replacement, Trevor Lawrence, to an apparent head injury as well.
Lawrence took this hit late in the second quarter.
He was ruled out during halftime.
This was a big deal because, beyond the obvious reasons, Bryant left the team in the lead up to the Clemson game to preserve his redshirt after playing in four games — the limit under NCAA rules. Lawrence was named the official starter, and Bryant made the best decision for him. The confluence of timing is horrible for the Tigers. And it forced Chase Brice, the team’s third-string QB (if we include Bryant in the mix).
Babers will tell you that having an opposing starter get knocked out doesn’t guarantee the win.
First of all, Clemson’s defense is incredible, but also what Babers told SB Nation last year about the prospect of facing a Clemson backup while trying to spring the upset.
“When he left the game, I was nervous as hell,” Baber said. “I didn’t think we had enough tape on the backup to actually know what he could do and what he couldn’t do, and we know he’s a good player, because he’s playing at Clemson. So that was not a relaxing moment for me. That was a stressful, stressful moment for me.”
Clemson was obviously limited with redshirt freshman Brice in the game, and ran the ball well to their credit. Last year, Syracuse was able to take advantage of an unseasoned backup to limit the Tigers, and closed the game out with a drive that chewed the final 6:10 of the game.
This go around, Clemson came back, and Syracuse had two critical errors by its offensive line to cripple their last ditch effort to win the game.
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