No. 2 Clemson Loses on the Road to Unranked Syracuse

By Jimmy Longo on October 13, 2017 at 10:50p
USA Today Sports — Rich Barnes

After suffering a home loss in the 2016 season at the hands of the unranked Pittsburgh Panthers, Clemson repeated the performance against Syracuse, this time losing in the Carrier Dome 27-24.

Without quarterback Kelly Bryant after he was knocked unconscious near the end of the first half, the Tigers struggled to rebound from a lackluster first half, only scoring 10 points in the second half against a Syracuse team that came into the game with a 3-3 record.

Clemson's biggest mistake was trying to run a fake punt with a little more than six minutes left. Instead of pinning the Orange deep only down three points with a chance to flip the field for the tie or the win, the punter threw the ball into double coverage where it was promptly batted down by a Syracuse defender.

On the night, Clemson had a total of 317 yards on offense against a Syracuse team that came into the game ranked 46th in total defense. The loss certainly won't look good in front of CFP committee come selection time.