The narrative of what is wrong with Clemson has gotten stale.

What is wrong with Clemson? What is wrong with Clemson? That’s all we’ve heard from national media types since Clemson’s 52-14 win over Georgia Tech during the opening week.

It’s gotten stale, it is lazy journalism, and could directly affect where Clemson gets ranked when the playoff rankings come out in  a couple of weeks.

I will grant you, that Clemson played one pretty bad game this year. Against North Carolina, Clemson played poorly and barely won 21-20. UNC to their credit had a great game plan, fought hard and almost shocked the college football world. Unlike Georgia and Wisconsin in their recent losses, Clemson persevered.

In Clemson’s other six games, the Tigers have defeated their opponents by an average of 32.5 points a game. They’ve done this while largely sitting their starters as early as late in the 2nd quarter.

Clemson boasts a top 5 defense that is also in the top 10 in scoring defense. The supposed struggling offense in averaging 40 points a game while being also ranked in the top 10.

Let’s take a look at some of other playoff contenders  after 1 quarter this past weekend against unranked opponents.

Ohio State 7 Northwestern 3

LSU 3 Mississippi State 0

Florida 3 South Carolina 7

Alabama 14 Tennessee 7

Why is Clemson being held to a different standard?

That’s 4 bad teams there by any measure. South Carolina did beat UGA you say? Well North Carolina, the team that Clemson is paying for playing close defeated South Carolina. That doesn’t fit the narrative though.

Here are the facts…

1. Clemson has completely dominated everyone they’ve played save the UNC game.
2. The ACC lacks depth. Even followers of the ACC like myself realize this. Wake Forest is the only other ranked team, and if Clemson loses, there just won’t be many if any opportunities to impress the committee. Georgia with 1 loss, can still likely play their way into playoff if they win out. Clemson likely cannot without lots of help.
3. Clemson tried to schedule to up, but Texas A&M is final FSU years under Jimbo Fisher. Traditional rival South Carolina will be at best trying to get bowl eligible.
4. Clemson has multiple high NFL drafts across their roster

Clemson is currently being held to the standard of their own excellence. When you finish the the 2018 season playing at a level few college football teams have ever reached, people want to see that every single time out.

The Tigers of 2018 were one of the greatest teams in college football history, they wiped out arguably Nick Saban’s best Alabama team by 4 TDs and gave him the worst loss of his career.

Clemson returned most of their offense in-tact, and so there were high expectations. That’s fair, but it’s clouded how Clemson is evaluated in 2019.

When all is said and done Clemson will be in the playoff.  They’ll be capable of winning it all no matter how much critics try to suggest otherwise.

Dabo Swinney has all the motivational tools he’ll need for the rest of the season.

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