Clemson made things a lot more interesting than they needed to be, but the Tigers held on late to edge Notre Dame 24-22 in Death Valley.
The No. 12 Tigers held a 21-3 lead after three quarters, and were up 24-9 following a field goal with under 11 minutes to go, but the No. 6 Irish worked their way back. After a DeShone Kizer interception in Notre Dame territory seemingly iced the game, Clemson missed a field goal to keep the Irish alive.
Notre Dame would then drive down the field, but receiver Chris Brown would fumble the ball at the Clemson 2-yard line while trying to score, and Clemson would recover. It should have been the final nail in Notre Dame's coffin, but both the Tigers and Irish had other plans.
Notre Dame was able to force a quick three-and-out to get the ball back. The Irish drove 32 yards in the final minute before DeShone Kizer found Torii Hunter Jr. for a 2-yard touchdown to cut Clemson's lead to 24-22 with seven seconds left.
Notre Dame's two-point conversion attempt would fail, however, as Clemson's defense came up big and stuffed Kizer on a quarterback sweep to finally ice the game.
Here are some thoughts about the game, and what it means for both teams.
1. This is an important win for Clemson, and the ACC: Coming into Saturday's action the ACC hadn't been very successful against Power Five teams in non-conference play. ACC teams were 2-11 in such situations, with the lone wins coming against Illinois and Purdue.
Now Clemson has what is easily considered the biggest non-conference win for the conference, and a win that would look good on Clemson's resume should the Tigers find themselves in contention for a playoff spot at the end of the year.
Of course, to be in contention, the Tigers will likely have to win the ACC first.
2. At the very least, Clemson should be in the top 10 of the polls on Sunday: It wasn't the best week for the top 10. After losing to Clemson, Notre Dame was only one of four top 10 teams to fall on Saturday, joining No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 7 UCLA and No. 8 Georgia. Furthermore, No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Michigan State, and No. 9 LSU all struggled more than they should have in victories against lesser teams.
In other words, if Clemson isn't in the top 10 on Sunday, it's because all the voters passed out early on Saturday night.
3. Notre Dame has only itself to blame for this loss: Notre Dame actually out-gained Clemson 437 yards to 296 yards on Saturday night. Clemson jumped out to an early 14-0 lead on its first two possessions, but from that point on the Tigers had only 201 yards and 10 points on its final 14 possessions.
Compare that to Notre Dame, which had 387 yards of offense from the beginning of the second quarter on.
The problem was that Notre Dame also turned the ball over four times, and at the most inopportune times -- not that there's ever really a good time to turn the ball over.
Making matters worse, after the Irish scored a touchdown to cut Clemson's lead to 21-9 early in the fourth quarter, Brian Kelly decided to go for two. It did not work, and had the Irish just kicked an extra point, they would have only needed an extra point at the end of the game to force overtime. Instead they had to go for two yet again.
4. The Irish aren't out of the playoff hunt: There's no doubt Notre Dame's playoff hopes took a hit on Saturday night, as they don't have a conference to help their bid. That being said, the Irish are still very much alive for one of those four spots.
Just look around the country right now. Who is the elite team? We're looking at a season in which it looks more likely than not that nobody is going to get through the season unscathed.
If the Irish can win out, they'll finish the regular season with a record of 11-1 with wins over USC, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Texas, as well as a two-point loss to Clemson on the road. It's hard to imagine there will be four teams with more impressive resumes than that.
Of course, all that being said, there's a long way between here and 11-1 for Notre Dame.
