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Clemson

Dabo Swinney stresses ball security against Louisville

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•11/10/22
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Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Clemson needs to take better care of the ball if they want any chance at avoiding a second loss in a row. The Tigers were great at avoiding giveaways in the first half of the season, and keeping a clean sheet on offense was a big key to Clemson taking care of business in the early going.

However, over the last couple of weeks, the Tigers seem to have lost their focus on protecting the ball after turning it over six times in the Syracuse and Notre Dame games. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei is spiraling out of control, throwing two picks in each of the last two games. Then, the Tigers typically stout ball carriers also coughed the ball up a few times in that Syracuse game.

So, in those two matchups, a narrow win vs. Syracuse and a blowout loss vs. Notre Dame, turnovers were killers. Against a Louisville defense that has fared well forcing turnovers and has a dangerous pass rush, Clemson needs to get buttoned up before giveaways bite them in the rear for another loss.

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Here was head coach Dabo Swinney this week hammering that point home. Simply have to taker better care of the rock.

“Well it’s not as much concerned about them as it is us. So, we didn’t play them the last two games. So we’ve had six turnovers, you’re lucky to be 1-1 in those two games, you know. The other games, the other seven games, we had three turnovers, and, you know, that makes a huge difference in winning and losing. That’s one of those things you have to do to win and to just to deserve to win. You don’t have to be perfect, but you need to win the margins.

“And we’ve done a pretty good job of that. But these last two games, it’s not been good. We’ve been really sloppy with the ball, and, you know, if we do that this week, we’ll get beat again. Because this bunch is is very opportunistic. So gotta take care of them all and then we got to get some takeaways. We got to do a good job and find a way to get that ball out.”

So not only does Clemson need to take better care of the ball themselves, the Tigers defense also needs to start forcing more takeaways of their own to stay on top of the possession game, according to Dabo Swinney.