After Clemson suffered the worst upset in the first week of this college football season, Dabo Swinney didn't have much urgency in relation to the Tigers' passing attack failures. Additionally, he said in his weekly press conference that he didn't watch a game this week "where there [weren't] some drops"
The main reason that the Tigers lost was because the wide receivers really struggled in this game. The coach didn't really go after his playmakers to the press. To be fair, he did say that he does say that the Tigers did miss out on some plays due to their playmakers dropping the ball. As a whole, Swinney said that there weren't was "anything alarming" for the Clemson wide receivers in this game.
Another big reason that the Tigers ended up losing this game was due to the fact that they could not finish multiple times in the red zone. In the final yards stretch, the Tigers could not get their air attack going and along with poor ball security, were unable to score double digts.
With Dabo Swinney not looking cautious after the upset, how can Clemson improve after their loss against Duke?
Clemson has a lot of work to do in their next two tune-up games before they face off against Florida State in two weeks. The Tigers run game was humming behind Will Shipley but the passing game was not. Due to the fact that not much improvement can come from Antonio Williams, Beaux Collins, and company in the next two weeks.
With that in mind, the Tigers could try a lot fewer 50/50 deep balls and more short plays in space. If the running game is working like it was in week one, the Tigers could try to use their playmakers' speed to get them open on slants, curls, drags, and in/out routes. While the offense would operate at a slower pace, this is one of the few changes that Clemson could make with a top-ten opponent coming up so quickly.
