Clemson's defense struggled both early and late in their 46-45 loss to Duke at Death Valley, Saturday. It marks the 1st win at Clemson for the Duke program in 45 years.
The Duke passing game carved up Clemson's secondary. The Blue Devils put together three TD drives in the 1st quarter. All three were capped with TD passes from Duke QB Dorian Mensah and all of them went for 19 or more yards.
Clemson answered while down 7-0 when Antonio Williams scored on a 5 yard TD run. That capped a 6 play, 75 yard drive and Clemson trailed 21-7 after the 1st. The Tigers woke up in the 2nd quarter scoring 21 unanswered points to take a 28-21 lead. In that stretch, Clemson got two TD runs from Adam Randall and a TD catch from Williams.
Duke scored on another Mensah TD pass with 11 seconds left in the half to tie it at 28 at the half. Clemson broke the tie scoring after a 7 play 50 yard drive to lead 35-28. Sahmir Hagans then took the ensuing kickoff back 100 yards to the house to make it 35 all.
Clemson put together a 15 play, 71 yard drive that took nearly 8 minutes off the clock. The drive stalled deep in Duke territory and ended with a 22 yard Field Goal. Clemson took a 38-35 going into the 4th.
In the final frame, Duke answered with a Field Goal of their own to tie the game at 38. The Tigers got a 75 yard TD pass from Cade Klubnik to TJ Moore with 10:28 left to play to take a 45-38 lead.
The two teams then traded punts and Duke got the ball back at their own 6 yard line with 5:14 left to play. The Blue Devils then drove the field. A controversial pass interference call against Clemson with 49 seconds left, set Duke up 1st and goal.
The Devils scored on a Nate Sheppard TD run with 40 seconds left to make it 45-44, Clemson. Duke then made a gutsy call to go for two and they got the two points on a pass from Mensah to Hagans to make it 46-45.
Clemson then had one last chance. They had a penalty and two incomplete passes to bring up 3rd down. The Tigers then got a 17 yard pass on 3rd down, setting up a 4th and 5 play. Klubnik then scrambled for a 1st down and got out of bounds with 2 seconds left.
Clemson then tried a hook and lateral as time expired which resulted in a fumble which Duke recovered to seal their 46-45 win. Clemson allowed over 350 passing yards, despite gaining over 550 yards of total offense.
Clemson is now 3-5 overall and 2-4 in ACC play. They would have to run the table in the final 4 games to finish with a winning regular season. The Tigers will host FSU this Saturday night. They still have a road trip to Louisville, a home tilt with Furman and a trip to Columbia to take on South Carolina in the Palmetto Bowl to close the regular season.