Tigers put it together, dominate Blue Devils

CLEMSON — That's more like it.

C.J. Spiller had 179 yards of total offense and scored two touchdowns and the Clemson defense stuffed Duke all game as the Tigers cruised to a 31-7 victory over the Blue Devils Saturday afternoon before an announced homecoming crowd of 75,000 at Death Valley.

With the victory, the Tigers improved to 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They need to beat Virginia and South Carolina in their final two games to become bowl eligible. The Blue Devils dropped to 4-6 and 1-5.

This was the kind of performance Clemson fans and players expected when the Tigers started the season as a top 10 team and the favorite to win their first ACC title in more than a decade.

In perhaps their most complete performance of the season, the Tigers made easy work of a vastly improved Duke squad that had been competitive against the ACC most of the season.

"We've been talking the last three ball games about putting a complete game together," said interim Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. "We've been preaching every single day about trying to play a complete game. I felt like if we could put a complete game together we'd get a sense of what it's like to play together as one — one heartbeat, play after play after play. I thought we did that today."

The Tigers ran up and down the field for the better part of three quarters, finishing with 466 yards of total offense, while limiting the Blue Devils to just 168 yards.

"This probably was the best game we've played on both sides of the ball all season," said Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper. "The defense was flying around, hitting people and making plays, and this is the best we've looked on offense in a while. It felt good to finally put a game like this together."

Already with a nifty 24-yard TD run in the first half, Spiller turned in the play of the game, and perhaps of the season, when he turned a short dump-off pass into an 83-yard score to give the Tigers a 24-0 lead early in the third quarter.

"He's a special player," said Harper, who completed 20 of 26 passes for 292 yards and a TD. "He makes it easy on me sometimes. He makes some phenomenal plays and this game was no different. He makes people miss, and then when he gets to full speed, no one is going to catch him."

Spiller, who was slowed earlier in the season by hamstring and ankle injuries, said he's finally back to full speed.

"The offensive line did a great job blocking up front," said Spiller. "I had a whole lot of fun out there today doing what I love to do. I'll let the results speak for themselves. I finally feel like I'm 100 percent again. I wasn't thinking about my leg at all today."

While Spiller was running around and through the Blue Devils, the Clemson defense was finally getting to the quarterback.

The Tigers came into the game with an ACC-low nine sacks. Clemson knocked Duke starting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis out of the game in the first quarter and finished with three sacks.

"We got some pressure early and didn't let up," said Clemson defensive end Ricky Sapp. "We've been hearing about sacks all season and I think a lot of us were tired of hearing about it. We came out with a purpose."

Like the Maryland game earlier in the season, the Tigers jumped to a 17-0 lead at halftime behind TDs from Spiller and running back James Davis.

But unlike the second-half collapse against the Terrapins, this time the Tigers sustained their effort with two early touchdowns in the third quarter.

The first score came on Spiller's electrifying 83-yard TD reception, and the second followed a Michael Hamlin interception. Davis capped a 47-yard drive with a 3-yard TD run to give the Tigers a 31-0 lead 9:28 left in the third quarter.

From there, the Tigers inserted mostly second-team players into the lineup and put it into cruise control.

"We didn't want another letdown like we had against Maryland," said wide receiver Aaron Kelly. "We talked about it at halftime. We wanted to come out there in the third quarter and put them away."