Clemson Crushes The Jackets Behind One of Lawrence's Best Games

Forty years have passed since Georgia Tech hosted the top-ranked team at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 1980. That result (3-3) wasn't nearly as lopsided when Notre Dame managed to survive a loss by getting a field goal on the last drive against a Tech team that would finish 1-9-1. Clemson only allowed a very brief tie at 7 before unleashing an offensive onslaught led by Trevor Lawrence.

The first quarter didn't seem to0 out of hand as Tech won the turnover battle two to one. They just struggled to move the ball against a dominant defense who consistently harassed Sims in the backfield and forced Gibbs to find holes quickly before they were closed by the speed of Clemson's linebackers.

Sims did connect with Jalen Camp on a well-designed play that pulled the safety down on an underneath route so Camp could run open over the top of the secondary resulting in the lone touchdown of the first half.

Clemson put the pedal to the floor on the very next play with an 83-yard pass to Amari Rodgers. Zamari Walton was picked on early and often by the Clemson passing attack as Tech sold out to stop Etienne who only ran for 44 yards in the half but did little to stop Lawrence who amassed 391 yards and 5 touchdowns. Tech did manage an interception when Walton made the pick off a lobbed pass when Clayton brought pressure on Lawrence. It did little to swing the momentum as Clemson finished the half with 52 total points.

Sims would have several plays where he had open receivers but failed to get them the ball to make a play including missing Brown with an overthrow who had had his corner beat for what would have been a touchdown.

Down 52-7 the second half would commence with Clemson getting the ball and Georgia Tech would force a stop on what would be Trevor Lawrence's final drive. Ironically, that drive would get him to 404 passing yards.

The rest of the second half saw Georgia Tech unable to do anything offensively. Sims would finish with 6 completions for 81 yards. Yates came in to try to move the ball after the game was well out of hand but he mostly handed it off and missed his only pass attempt.

Things got comical when Clemson started rotating deep into their QB depth. So deep that they even trotted out the Punter. Yes, Will Spiers threw for two completions and twelve yards to finish out the game.

Clemson is one of the best teams consistently but it feels Tech should have looked a little better in a year that is supposed to see improvement.

Penalties were few and limited to garbage time so it seems that has been cleared up. The play calling is hard to criticize this game because it was limited by what Clemson would allow and nothing ever developed from an execution standpoint.

Gibbs and Sims are still excellent players as freshmen but the line will have to continue to develop to hang around Clemson and their counterparts late in the game.

Defensively this was a horrible showing. Lawrence and Etienne aside this was the most a team has ever scored against the Jackets since Notre Dame scored 69 in 1977.

You could pick at every single part of this defense today but tackling seems to be a glaring issue that Tech can control. A lot of the backup players for Clemson slipped several tackles for large chunks later in the game.

Boston College will be on the road next week and won't be near as bad but hopefully, this game was just Tech being unable to handle such a deep and talented team.

Fun Fact: Clemson scored 73 points on Tech in 1903. That result led to Georgia Tech hiring John Heisman away from the Tigers the following year. Don't think we could sway or afford Dabo though.