Snap judgments as Clemson pulls away from Georgia Tech

ATLANTA — Clemson’s season opener against Georgia Tech on Monday was far from pretty for much of the night, but when the game got close and the Tigers needed to make plays, they did.

Clemson pulled away for a 41-10 victory over the Yellow Jackets, scoring the final 27 points of the game.

Clemson took advantage of two blocked punts and the defense was dominant as Clemson improved to 1-0 (1-0) on the year.

“Fun night. Proud of our guys. Knew that it was going to be a little bit of a feeling-out process with them. They had a lot of new people. A lot of new personnel. A lot of new coaches,” Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said.

“Defense really set the tone for us and allowed us to settle in. Honestly, it was probably kind of best case scenario. We had a couple of patches where we struggled a little bit.”

Freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik even got some action late in the game, tossing a touchdown pass on Clemson’s final drive.

Junior QB DJ Uiagalelei played most of the game and had a solid night as well, particularly in the second half.

The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, hosting Furman at 3:30 p.m.

Here are some snap judgments from Monday’s victory:

DJ Uiagalelei looks improved

Junior quarterback DJ Uiagalelei had his share of struggles, for sure. But he looked much better overall than he did for most of last season.

Uiagalelei was 19-for-32 passing for 210 yards with a touchdown, despite his receivers struggling with drops at times.

He held onto the ball too long at times as well and still missed some easy throws, but overall it was progress.

“Throwing the ball, I felt like I was just out there playing having fun. I felt confident out there,” Uiagalelei said. “The game kind of slowed down. … So when the game starts to slow down, it’s a lot of fun. It makes the game a lot easier.”

Clemson offense needs to help Uiagalelei

A big problem for Clemson last season was the offense not helping Uiagalelei out. That was once again an issue at times on Monday.

As we said, there were too many drops, and in addition to that, the offensive line also had its share of struggles.

Clemson will need to be better around Uiagalelei to have the type of season it wants to.

“Not midseason form,” Swinney said of the offense. “We had some communication things that got to be cleaned up. … We missed a couple of plays. We had a couple of drops.”

Tigers defense is still elite

Even with Brent Venables gone, this defense is still dominant. Georgia Tech finished with 238 yards of offense, and Clemson’s defensive front lived in the back field.

KJ Henry and Bryan Bresee were particularly disruptive, combining for 4.5 of Clemson’s 9 tackles for loss.

Clemson’s young linebackers also played great.

Wes Goodwin’s unit played well in his first game as DC in the Cheez-It Bowl. His unit proved that the performance was not a fluke in his regular season debut as the Tigers DC Monday night.

“I thought we were active up front. We played a ton of people. We had a couple of sacks, stop on downs,” Swinney said. “I’m just really proud of our D and how they stood up.”