NCAA Football

Clemson Fails to "Finish the Job"

Posted Nov 17, 2007 11:59PM By Charles Rich (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Boston College Football, Clemson Football, ACC

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Cue the Bowden, hands over the face photo.

That motto for Clemson this season, rings quite hollow for Tiger fans. Once more, a Tommy Bowden Clemson squad comes out tighter than Nancy Pelosi speaking at a Southern Baptist Convention. From the coach down to the players, they were feeling the pressure of being a favorite and expected to get to the ACC Championship.

Clemson had it all set up for them to go to the ACC Championship. They just had to beat Boston College at home. The Tigers had been hot. Four straight wins. Scoring at least 30 points and not letting any team score more than 17 in that stretch. Running the ball really, really well. The passing game opened up.

Boston College was reeling after two straight losses, no running game and a very beat-up defense.

Hindsight says, you could just hear the "Ka-Boom" of an implosion coming. That it just couldn't end any other way. Boston College pulled out a late, gut-wrenching 20-17 victory that almost defied belief if it hadn't been so familiar.

Clemson spent much of the game forgetting to run the ball. Not that they were particularly effective when they did. C.J. Spiller and James Davis combined for 62 yards on 23 carries. Spiller got 24 of his yards during the second last possession for the Tigers.

The Clemson defense played well, but spent way too long on the field as BC had a +13:30 time of possession advantage. The Clemson special teams helped with field position -- the Tigers started 5 drives past their own 40-yard line. Clemson's offense just couldn't move the ball and couldn't even eat much clock.

Boston College, as usual, was the Matt Ryan show. Ryan kept BC in the game and was -- pardon the cliche -- magical in the fourth quarter. The Eagles took a 13-10 lead midway through the 4th for the first time.

Clemson answered with their first solid drive since the start of the 3d quarter to retake the lead, when they remembered that running the ball makes it a lot easier to pass.

Then Ryan took over. He was 6-7 for 68 yards on the final drive. The killer was a perfectly thrown, hit the receiver in stride 43-yard pass for the score. At that moment, Clemson Memorial Stadium went dead silent.

Clemson tried to answer, and QB Cullen Harper deserves a lot of credit. The problem is his receivers went tight. Really, really tight. Aaron Kelly and Tyler Grisham both dropped big passes as Clemson tried to drive. Kelly, especially, dropped what would have been a TD that was thrown perfectly. Instead, he let it clang off of his arms as he was running free.

Even then, Clemson was at the BC 30 on 3d down. At least get a field goal attempt. Instead, Harper makes his own big mistake. He takes a sack to lose 7 yards. The 54-yard FG attempt wasn't close.

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