Mafah on the Overtime Loss to FSU: 'The guys played their hearts out'
Quarterback, Cade Klubnik, and running back, Phil Mafah, caught up with the media after Clemson’s overtime loss to No. 4 Florida State.
Cade Klubnik:
On the third down in OT: “Yeah. I should’ve handed the ball off. That’s not the coaches, that’s my fault. We had an option… you have an option to throw the screen and you have the option to run it. There is only two guys over our three guys, so normally my base rule is, that's three over two– if we catch it, and two guys block two guys, we should probably at least get the first down if not be able to score. Just got to know its third and one, just don’t worry about that, screens can get iffy on short downs, so just hand it off and go get the first.”
On Florida State’s scoop-and-score: “Yeah, just a little bit of a protectional issue, they had a great blitz. I honestly never even saw him– my eyes were to the left, you know, working the field on that. So yeah, just a little bit of a protectional thing and they ran a great blitz and obviously got the scoop-and-score.”
On growing week by week: “I feel like we are climbing every single game. I feel like we are really, really good. Just two tough breaks and I feel like we are growing every single week and getting better. Just got to finish that game. I mean, so close.”
Phil Mafah:
On the loss to FSU: “Very tough. One thing I know is the guys played their hearts out. Gotta give credit to Florida State, they made one more play than we did and in the end they finished. So, all we can do is just come back on Monday and get ready for Syracuse and learn from our mistakes.”
On Tyler Brown: “He matured a lot. Made a lot of big plays for us– crucial plays. And he’s only a freshman and just excited to see what he does in the future. We will definitely need him.”
On takeaways from the FSU game: “Just how crucial one play can be and just continue to give it all we got. Everything is not gonna go perfectly the way we want all the time, but we just have to bounce back. Got to have tenacity in your mentality, so just have to keep going.”