Middle Eight: Tigers win critical minutes in win over Boston College

DJ Uiagalelei made the plays needed to come out on top at BC.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 09 11:24:03 GMT-04:00 2022

CHESTNUT HILL, MA – Clemson won the middle eight minutes, and it all started with running the football on a late first-half drive.

Last week, Clemson surged to a 30-20 victory thanks to a 14-7 advantage in the “Middle Eight,” defined as the final four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third quarter. Clemson outscored Boston College, 14-0, in the middle eight and is now 60-2 since 2015 when outscoring opponents in that window.

Tied 3-3 with Boston College late in the first half of Saturday’s eventual 31-3 victory, Clemson forced a Boston College punt from its own 12 with 3:45 to play and Antonio Williams returned it 20 yards to the Boston College 28. For the first time all night the offense seemed determined to run the football, and six plays out of seven were on the ground as Will Shipley finished off the short drive with a one-yard touchdown run. Clemson was up 10-3 at intermission.

Boston College was forced into a 3-and-out to start the second half, and following a punt the Tigers took over at their own 27. A big third-down throw from Uiagalelei to Collins covered 21 yards, and one play later Uiagalelei threw a deep ball to Joseph Ngata in the end zone for a 38-yard touchdown and a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter.

Offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter said the middle eight was a turning point for the Clemson offense.

“Yeah, we felt like they did a good job of stopping the run early on. And we felt like if we had a little bit of tempo, which we showed in that drive, it helped get our guys going a little bit more, too,” Streeter said. “We got a little momentum there with that drive and especially in the run game, which we really needed to get done. I was just proud of how our guys finished, especially in that second half, and just responded. And they've been able to do that all year long. But, yeah, that one drive was big for us. We talk about the middle eight and we're really doing a good job in those scenarios. And obviously, the defense gave us some good field position tonight, especially on that drive.”

Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei hit on the hallmarks of the offense postgame.

“I think that shows the heart,” Uiagalelei said. “I think it shows the heart of the coaching staff we have here, Coach Streeter and all the other position coaches. I think that shows toughness of the players on our offense from the offensive line, running backs, tight ends, receivers, quarterbacks. I think it just shows the resilience that we have. I think that starts in practice each and every day, finishing our practice, finishing out each and every drill, each and every period and I feel like that's what it came down to. All the guys in the offense, we all trust each other, no one's pointing fingers on the sideline, no one's complaining. Everyone's just out there wanting to keep competing. I feel like we did a really good job competing coming into the second half, knowing what we had to do and coming out there and executing.”