Opening Statement: Not much different than what I said last night, as far as just assessing the game, other than obviously being able to watch the tape. Kind of was what I thought in real time — just hard to put into words the disappointment. Very frustrating for sure from a missed opportunity standpoint.
I thought offensively, it's probably as good as we’ve played in a long time. Really, really well-played game, and you score 45 points — that should be enough to win. I didn’t know the stat of 134-0 when we’ve scored 45 points, so it shows you how hard it is to do that, to lose a game that way.
But just really very good execution — 560 yards, 7.8 a play, 14.3 per completion. So very explosive. I thought Cade was awesome — 75%, 385 yards. We needed to get the run game going, and we did — 4.9 a carry. Adam [Randall] was awesome — 5.6 a carry, really kind of had his coming-out day, 4.2, and no turnovers was a big key for us.
I thought our O-line, our tight ends, and our receivers really blocked well. They all had a lot of really critical blocks in the run game. We were 6-for-13 on third- and fourth-down conversions. Antonio Williams was awesome. Had some great plays by a lot of people — Tristan, TJ, Tyler Brown had a couple of plays.
[Christian] Bentancur and Olsen [Patt-Henry] were outstanding in the run game. The one sack was really on the defense, on the scheme — they just got us on that one. We had a couple of penalties we need to clean up, but just very little negative offensively. They played by far our best game of the year. Really proud of that.
But the flip side — again, we’ve not played complementary football all year, all the way back to the opener. You give up 17 points, you ought to win every game. Fast forward to now, you score 45, you ought to win.
So we just haven’t been able to put it together all year. Kind of been a little bit of a perfect storm in that regard. But defensively, just not much good. I thought our run defense was good, but we did have a couple sacks. Just not anywhere good enough — too many yards, too many points, too many yards per play, per catch.
I feel like it’s back-to-back games we’ve lost at Clemson with just a bunch of big play busts and poor awareness. Just really disappointing, especially in the pass game. We had some critical penalties. Five of five on fourth down conversions was a huge difference in the game.
But we overcame a lot, still had the lead in the fourth quarter. You’ve got a 95-yard field and you just need one stop to win the game — and we just don’t get it done. Had no takeaways. We had an opportunity for two, but just poor execution across the board.
And that’s coaching, recruiting, and all the above — it’s all of us. Ten plays for 294 yards — you’re not going to win many games that way.
And then talking about complementary football — we did some good stuff. We blocked a punt which led to a touchdown, but then you give up the return. Not one person got a hand on the guy. Just didn’t deserve to win, and had plenty of opportunities to win.
But I was proud of the fight and the guys competing all the way to the end. Had a chance to overcome all of it — just a shame the way it ended. Tough pill to swallow, but that’s where we are.
We’ve got to pick ourselves back up tomorrow as we get back with the guys. We’ve got to flush it and see if we can continue to grow our team and develop some of these guys and have the best possible finish we can have.
I know it’s been a tough year, but something good will come from it. As I said last night, we had a losing season in 2010 — fourteen great years sprung out of that, eleven championships. Something’s going to come from this season as well.
There’ll be something great come from it. Don’t like it right now, but we’ll grow through it. We’ll get better, we’ll reset, and find a way to get back to where we want to be and need to be.
Injury-wise, I think we came through pretty good. Cade held up, which was good to see. Unless something comes up between tonight and in the morning, I feel like we came through pretty good.
We’ve got the ingredients, but we just can’t seem to put them all together. It’s just part of our journey, part of our story. We’ve had a lot of great years — this has been a frustrating time. But as I look back on life, anytime I’ve been part of anything bad, something good has come from it.
I know that’ll be the case here as well. Tough times make tough people, and tough people make tough teams. Hopefully we’ll be better because of it when it’s all said and done.
Right now we’re in the fight, and we’ve got to regroup tomorrow and reset and find a way to play better this week — if we can put it all together.
Q: You just mentioned there, it’s coaching, it’s recruiting, it’s all of us. When you say recruiting in that context, what do you mean specifically?
Swinney: Well, it’s personnel, it’s coaching, it’s everything. We’ve got to be better all across the board.
Q: You mentioned the fourth-down success that Duke had — after reviewing the tape, what was it that they were able to do to be perfect on fourth down?
Swinney: Really frustrating — poor leverage, poor eyes, poor technique, poor recognition. The one fourth-and-one was a good call, got a little outside leverage there, but a couple of the pass plays we didn’t get home, didn’t get our hands up, and we didn’t win the matchup.
The most frustrating part of all of it was the busts — the big plays given up off it. Ten plays, 294 yards — it’s just hard to win. Whether it was the corner cat and we don’t have a guy over the top, or it was two inverts and we’re not inside where we need to be on one touchdown.
We play 2-Robber and nobody carries the tight end on the third-and-seven late in the game — just some basic stuff. Poor execution across the board. That’s on us as coaches. We didn’t get it done.
Q: Going back to the recruiting and personnel — I know you liked your personnel at safety going into the season. Can you evaluate it at this point?
Swinney: Hasn’t been good enough. We haven’t played well enough. I think we’ve got talent there, but we haven’t played well enough at any position. Honestly, we had busts at every position yesterday — end, tackle, linebacker, corner, nickel, safety. Every single position at some point in the ballgame. You’re not going to be a great defense with that.
Q: There was a clip that picked up some traction yesterday when you were laying into the defense on the sideline, and at least per the ACC Network broadcast, it looked like they weren’t paying attention. Were you able to see that, or talk with Khalil about it?
Swinney: No, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I hadn’t seen that. I wasn’t yelling at Khalil [Barnes]— I was yelling at all of them, everybody. That’s the only thing I remember — the whole defense. There wasn’t any particular person. I guess I’m the only coach to yell at somebody.
Q: When you get to this point in the season and have experienced players making busts — how much do you put on the players, how much on coaching?
Swinney: It’s all on coaching. It’s all on me. It’s my responsibility. I haven’t gotten it done this year. It’s all on me.
Q: Any comment on getting fined by the ACC today for the comments on the refs last night?
Swinney: No, other than I just stand by what I said. It is what it is. I think we just have to agree to disagree. There’s a lot of accountability for coaches and players, but not much for refs. There should be some type of ability to challenge a call like that.
It was very frustrating. But as I said last night, I don’t blame that on the loss. That play could have won the game, and it would have been great for those guys to overcome so much to win. But we just have to agree to disagree. They don’t want us talking about refs — you’ll have to call them and ask. I do think there should be more accountability.
Q: From a policy perspective, do you think the conference should disclose whether they agree or messed the call up — be transparent to that extent?
Swinney: I’ll leave that up to them. They can run their shop however they want. In my first year in ’09, they suspended four refs after the Georgia Tech game that Thursday night — but that was a different era, different regime. I’m not going to tell people how to run their shop, but I can have an opinion. Again, we just have to agree to disagree.
Q: You mentioned postgame that Graham Neff could fire you today if you didn’t make it to Monday. Were you able to talk postgame after the press conference?
Swinney: Yes — that was just a joke. I talk to Graham all the time.
Reporter: What went wrong on Duke’s kick return touchdown?
Swinney: We had 11 guys covering, and nobody touched him.
Q: Looked like at some point in the first half that Mickey and Onge got a little heated. Have they mended fences?
Swinney: Just in-game stuff, man. You give up a 77-yard touchdown on a bust — it’s frustrating. That’s football. It was a highly competitive environment. Tom takes a lot of pride in what he’s trying to do, and we’re just not doing a good job of getting it done in any regard right now.
Q: As you’re evaluating Tom Allen in his first season, how do you balance inherited players, personnel issues, and being in your first year?
Swinney: I think Tom’s done a great job. He’s a winner, a really good football coach. It just hasn’t come together like we hoped. That’s nobody’s fault but mine.
