Tigers' hopes continue to evaporate with loss

  • Larry Williams
  • Posted: Sunday, November 9, 2008 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Thursday, March 22, 2012 6:02 p.m.
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Clemson's Chris Chancellor tackles FSU's Preston Parker.
/Phil Coale/APClemson's Chris Chancellor tackles FSU's Preston Parker.

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — It felt a lot like the good old days for Florida State on Saturday night.

The No. 24 Seminoles looked dominant in dusting an ACC rival, and thereafter good vibes were all around as they sang happy birthday to their coach, 79-year-old Bobby Bowden.

Clemson, meanwhile, returned to the bad old days of a season gone bad. All the hope and promise generated in a victory at Boston College a week earlier seemed to wash away in a 41-27 defeat at Doak Campbell Stadium.

"They were the better team today," said interim coach Dabo Swinney. "Simple as that."

The ramifications of this defeat were just as simple for the Tigers,

who dropped to 4-5 and 2-4 in the ACC. Their outside shot at winning the Atlantic Division is now no shot at all. And their hopes of becoming bowl eligible now reside in the prospect of closing out the regular season on a three-game winning streak.

Now's when 38-year-old Swinney, who took over after Tommy Bowden's resignation on Oct. 13, surely faces his toughest test in his bid to secure the job for good. The Tigers battled back to make this game close at the end, but this team walked away knowing it was thoroughly outclassed on both sides of the ball.

Having lost to Clemson three straight years and four of the last five, the Seminoles (7-2, 4-2) moved the ball at will (419 yards) and dominated the Tigers' injury-addled offensive line.

Down 10-0 early, FSU recovered and took a 20-17 lead into halftime. The Seminoles moved the ball whenever they needed to in the second half while building a 34-20 cushion.

Clemson put together a 97-yard drive and trimmed the margin to seven points with a touchdown at the two-minute mark, but FSU recovered the onside kick and scored on the first play when tailback Antone Smith bounced off left tackle and scooted 41 yards for a touchdown.

The Seminoles also had touchdown drives of 70, 68 and 63 yards. In their previous three meetings with FSU, the Tigers hadn't given up more than 256 yards. The Seminoles offense scored four touchdowns Saturday after totaling three in the three losses to Clemson.

"If the defense would've played as well as we are capable of tonight, we would have won that game," said fourth-year defensive coordinator Vic Koenning.

That assessment was debatable in view of FSU's dominance of Clemson's offensive line. The Seminoles pummeled quarterback Cullen Harper, sacking him six times. Three of the sacks came from end Everette Brown, who abused anyone who stood in his way.

The Tigers finished with 316 yards but had just 212 with less than five minutes remaining.

"I looked at them all week on film, and I knew they were kind of top-heavy," Brown said of the Tigers' line, which played most the game without left tackle Chris Hairston after he suffered a first-quarter concussion.

"They don't really move their feet really well, so I knew our speed could kill those guys. We were very successful."

It wasn't that way at the beginning. Crisp execution and creative playcalling allowed Clemson to churn out 132 yards on its first two possessions in taking a 10-0 lead.

But from that point until halftime, the Tigers totaled 25 yards as FSU swiped the momentum. The game turned when end Neefy Moffett picked off a pressured throw from Harper and took it 18 yards for a touchdown to make it a 10-10 score with 4:16 left in the first quarter.

The Seminoles moved ahead for good on a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive late in the first half.

"Anytime you come from behind and win, it's a good sign," said Bowden, who'd coached the previous nine meetings with Clemson against his son Tommy. "And if you never get behind, you never find out what you're made out of."

Swinney, who's auditioning to remove the interim tag from his title, will find out what his message is made of in the next three weeks. The Tigers return home to face Duke before visiting Virginia and returning home for their regular-season finale against South Carolina.

After losing at home to Georgia Tech in his first game, Swinney took his team to Boston College and left with an exhilarating 27-21 win.

Now, with the Tigers one loss from the end of their nine-year streak of bowl eligibility, Swinney seems to recognize that things could go either way.

"It's a bump in the road," he said. "You can use the bump to climb, or you can use it to trip yourself up. I'm going to use it to climb even higher."

Said senior tailback James Davis: "We've got to win the rest of these games, and it's going to be hard. "We've got to get a lot of guys motivated to do that."