DURHAM, N.C. — Clemson football’s 2023 season got off to an unpropitious beginning. The No. 9 Tigers tumbled to Duke 28-7 out and about, finishing their five-game dominate streak over the Blue Villains. It was Clemson’s most memorable misfortune to Duke beginning around 2004.
Clemson appeared another offense under facilitator Garrett Riley and quarterback Cade Klubnik, and the entire gathering looked lopsided from its absolute first drive. That five-play, 11-yard opening drive finished on what was close to a third-down interference by Duke wellbeing Jeremiah Lewis, however Lewis dropped it.
From that point on, Clemson looked upset on offense. Klubnik tossed into twofold inclusion on different occasions early, mixed out of his security and into a sack in the subsequent quarter and was nearly taken out two times more in the primary half. Clemson’s wide collectors experienced difficulty getting open, and the Tigers spent a significant part of the primary half running short screens. They drop-kicked on four of their six drives in the principal half.
However, its most horrendously terrible disappointments came in the red zone.
In any event, when Clemson figured out how to assemble drives in the final part, it went to pieces when it verged on scoring. The Tigers bobbled on consecutive drives inside the Duke 5-yard-line. The first, wherein Klubnik and running back Will Shipley bungled a handoff and Duke recuperated, brought about a Blue Demons three-and-out. In any case, the second, a bobble by running back Phil Mafah close to the objective line, was gotten back to the Clemson 33 and set up a Duke score that made it 21-7.
Clemson protection battles with Riley Leonard
Clemson’s protection kept the Tigers in the game, however it didn’t look predominant. It had its hands full with a double danger quarterback in Riley Leonard, who ran for 98 yards and tossed for 175. He had He severed a 44-yard score show in the wake of getting away from a close to sack to linebacker Barrett Carter, putting Duke ahead in the second from last quarter.
The guard restricted harm for a large portion of the game, yet the exhibition was generally unsatisfying. Every one of the three of Duke’s scores came on the ground. Clemson oversaw two handles for misfortune, one from linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. also, one more from corner Sheridan Jones. Trotter constrained a bobble that Mukuba recuperated in the second from last quarter, yet the offense couldn’t underwrite.
Unique groups goofs on the two sides
Clemson’s offense was experiencing difficulty getting it to the red zone, so its exceptional groups stepped in. Linebacker Swim Woodaz recuperated a blundered dropkick by Duke’s Jalon Calhoun, a Greenville local. That let Klubnik and the offense take over at the Duke 18.
Five plays later, Clemson had its most memorable score of the time on a 2-yard swing pass to junior running back Will Shipley, the first getting score of Shipley’s vocation.
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That was the unique groups brilliant spot for Clemson. It committed its very own few mistakes. In the subsequent quarter, sophomore collector Antonio Williams decided to handle a dropkick that seemed as though it planned to wind up in the end zone for a touchback. The return went just a single yard to the Clemson 8.
Be that as it may, the most horrendously awful by a wide margin were the two messed up field objectives. Green bean kicker Robert Firearm III endeavored his most memorable in the main quarter, and Duke protective end Wesley Williams impeded the 41-yard endeavor that would’ve tied the game at 3. In the second from last quarter, whenever Clemson at last got an opportunity in the red zone, attempting another field goal was constrained. Williams got a hand on the 23-yard endeavor, which cruised low and wide left for a miss.