CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the first time since 2014, Clemson lost its season opener, 10-3, to Georgia on Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium.
Georgia teams seem to be the Tigers' kryptonite in season openers. The Bulldogs are responsible for Clemson's last season-opening loss in 2014 and the Tigers' last shutout, a 30-0 rout at the hands of Georgia on Aug. 30, 2003 in Clemson.
The last time Clemson's offense didn't score was a 13-3 loss to Georgia Tech on the road on Sept. 29, 2007.
Tigers coach Dabo Swinney called the loss disappointing, but believes his team will bounce back after this.
"When you're in a game like that, the margin for error is incredibly small and it's the same for Georgia," he said. "They're going to have the same stuff on tape, but that one play (interception) was the difference. There were a lot of bad plays, but it comes down to just three or four and we didn't make the three or four critical, critical plays when we had the opportunity and they capitalized. We've got to get better."
Here are more takeaways from Swinney:
Swinney on Christopher Smith's pick-six: "The pick-six is on the receiver. He really is supposed to sit down, turn out. It's an option route, and he has an option there and he chose to run a slant. If you don't run the slant, you have to run it off the defender and you have to be flat. You can't- anytime a defender beats a receiver across the face on a slant route, that's all on the receiver, so just didn't make the right decision. It was a critical play. D.J. gave it all he had, incredible effort. He tried to go make the tackle, but great by them and a bad play by us."
Swinney on going for it on fourth-and-five: "We felt like we were in a good rhythm. We had just missed the, we had the third-down play and we dropped the ball there and we felt like we were in a good rhythm, just trying to stay aggressive and go win the game. We thought we had a good call but certainly something you can second guess right there and punt the ball and maybe get it back with a little bit of time to go score. It didn't work out, so that's on me. If we hit it, then it's a great decision. Those are in-game tough moments, tough decisions and again, with the rhythm we had, right there and play call, we felt like we had them a little bit on their heels right there, so it didn't work out. So,that's it."
Swinney on sophomore D.J. Uiagalelei's performance: "With DJ, I thought didn't really settle in until 2 1/2 quarters in the game. He's a young player. He's a great player. I promise you, that guy right there will respond. He's disappointed in how he played the first couple of quarters, but I'll tell you the last quarter-and-a-half there, he was awesome. He did some really good things. He took a couple sacks you can't take, so there's a lot of things that he'll see on tape and he's going to improve from, and all of those guys."
Swinney on Joseph Ngata's six catches for 110 yards: "Super proud of him. It's great to see him healthy. It's great to see him have a night. That's going to be huge for him. That's what we've seen in practice. We obviously didn't have him hardly at all last year where he really completed a game, so just awesome to see. I think that's going to be big for his confidence."
Swinney on Justyn Ross's first game back: "I'm really happy for him. I'm grateful that we all got a chance to see him. I know he's really disappointed in that one critical play (interception), but man, I'm just grateful he was able to go play and make that critical play. He's a special player."
Swinney on how he'll process the loss: "All of our goals are still in front of us. This hurts because this is not the outcome we want, but you step in the ring with games like this, these are hard ones to win. You've got to make the critical plays in critical moments. We didn't do it. They did, so congratulate them, but we'll show back up Monday and we'll get back to work. This is going to be a heckuva football team coming together. ... This one game's not going to define us, it's going to develop us into what I know we're capable of being."
Swinney on Lyn-J Dixon's first-half absence: "He was out for team reasons."
