Dabo Swinney on win over Florida Atlantic: 'That's Clemson Football'

The Clemson Tigers picked up their second win of the season at home in Week 3, dominating Florida Atlantic. Clemson rolled to a 48-14 victory Saturday night, scoring early and often.

On the topic of scoring, the Tigers’ first touchdown of the game wasn’t scored by their offense. In the first quarter, Clemson picked off Florida Atlantic quarterback Casey Thompson for a 38-yard Pick-Six. After the game, Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney revealed just how significant that interception returned for a touchdown was for setting the tone.

“Big time. I mean, that’s back-to-back weeks we’ve scored on defense,” said Swinney. “The biggest thing is it set the tone for the turnover margin. The number one thing coming in this game tonight was if we could just, please God, not lose the turnover margin. Even if we’re even, it was gonna be a win. So, just set the tone for what we needed to get done, taking care of the ball tonight.”

In the first two games of the season, the Clemson offense has had some issues hanging on to the football. In both their Week 1 defeat and Week 2 victory, the Tigers lost the turnover battle: Against Duke 3-2 and against Charleston Southern 2-1. Against Florida Atlantic, Clemson won the turnover battle, forcing the Owls into four turnovers to the Tigers one fumble on the night.

With those four forced turnovers, Swinney tipped his hat to his defense for not only forcing Florida Atlantic into several turnovers but also limiting them on the scoreboard as well. While Clemson had their starting defensive unit in, the Owls did not score a single point. It wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that Florida Atlantic was able to get on the board twice. And for that performance, Swinney couldn’t be more pleased with his defense.

“Defensively, I was really proud of them because I felt like one area we need to get better defensively was redzone defense as far as no touchdown. And we held them to a kick, and they missed the kick. So, I thought our defense was awesome all night. They were flying around, dominated the line of scrimmage. That’s Clemson football. That was 3 phases of playing complementary football, and it’s a beautiful thing when it happens.”

It appears as if the Tigers have found their team rhythm just in time, as next week, they are set to take on the No. 3 ranked team in the country, the Florida State Seminoles. If Sweeney and Clemson are back to playing Clemson football, the rest of the ACC better watch out. That means the Tigers will be locked in on defending their conference crown in 2023 while competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff at the end of the season.