Notre Dame head coach saw Clemson team that didn't reflect its record

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman says Clemson's "extremely talented" defense made the plays to stop his offense.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Nov 05 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Clemson’s record doesn’t reflect just how good the Tigers are.

A banged-up Clemson squad jumped out to a 24-6 lead and held on for a 31-23 victory over the Fighting Irish in Death Valley Saturday afternoon. Clemson improved to 5-4 with the win, while Notre Dame falls to 7-3.

Freeman, speaking to the media after the game, said the Tigers are better than people think.

“Obviously a disappointing outcome. As I told the team in the locker room, that’s a really good team, and we knew that all week,” Freeman said. “They had four losses, and as you watched the film, it’s a good football team. It’s a Clemson football team that their record doesn’t reflect how good of a team that is. But when you play a good team like that, there are three or four plays in the game that — if you turn the ball over, if you muff a punt. If you turn the ball over to their offense, they end up creating an outcome that’s an eight-point loss. And so, that’s the reality of it. Two good teams, and there are plays in the game that we didn’t finish the way we needed to, finish those plays that resulted in the outcome.”

Running back Phil Mafah carried the ball a Clemson-record 36 times for a career-high 186 yards and two touchdowns, and Freeman said that he was surprised at how many yards Mafah gained after contact.

“He [Phil Mafah] ran the ball extremely hard, and we did not do a good job of tackling him on first contact,” Freeman said. “And that’s something that surprised me. I thought our defense, on first contact, would be able to make those tackles, but he did a good job of breaking some tackles and running the ball extremely hard.”

Clemson was able to keep the Notre Dame offense pinned deep in its own territory for much of the second half – the Fighting Irish didn’t run a snap in Clemson territory on any of their last six drives.

“They’ve got a good defense. It’s a top-10 defense that’s extremely talented. They’re getting pressure on the quarterback. They’re covering well,” Freeman said. “They stopped the run when we were trying to commit to the run game. They made adjustments. It's a good defense. And I wish I could say it was just one or two things. But on third down, we weren’t able to convert.

“A lot of it had to do with the pressure they were getting, but also, we weren’t able to get open. We’ve got to be able to continue to improve on our throws. And we’ve got to put the ball exactly where it was supposed to be. And so there’s a whole bunch of people that are included with us not having success that we were looking for in the second half.”