ATLANTA — For those who raised an eyebrow at Clemson's top-15 preseason ranking — and why wouldn't you given that they gave up 70 points to West Virginia in its last televised performance — the Tigers answered with a solid 26-19 win over Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
And for those who wondered if Auburn deserved to be considered in the top 25, well, that question was answered, too.
It was an exciting game, tied at 16 in the fourth quarter with each side stepping up with a smattering of big plays, but also relying heavily on their field-goal kickers.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a particularly well-played one. Both teams showed spurts of brilliance, but they both had mountains of mistakes, including (but not limited to): blown coverages, missed routes, dropped passes, critical penalties, stalls in the red zone and the occasional tripping over one's own feet.
The brilliant parts included stellar play by Clemson's redshirt junior quarterback Tajh Boyd, who took over late in the game. Scrambling, dodging, breaking tackles and firing completions nobody thought possible, Boyd led the Tigers on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to give Clemson the lead for good.
That drive included the catch of the night, a 4-yard fade route in the corner of the end zone by DeAndre Hopkins with an Auburn defender playing almost perfect coverage.
The other bright spot for Clemson was Andre Ellington, who had a personal-best 231 yards rushing, at least half of those coming after contact.
"Yeah, we had 528 yards of total offense, but goodness gracious, think about what we left out there," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "We have a lot of work to do. Our toughest opponent is always Clemson, and we probably lost to Clemson tonight to be honest with you. We made enough mistakes to lose the ballgame — just critical mistakes — but we overcame that."
He might have lost to Clemson, but he beat Auburn, which leaves the 2010 national champions in the unenviable position of entering SEC play 0-1 with a lot more questions than answers about how they can turn things around.
The rap on Auburn coming into the opener was that its defense gave up too many yards, its quarterback position seemed in inexorable flux and its offensive line was young from end to end.
All those concerns proved to be founded.
Sophomore quarterback Kiehl Frazier completed only 11-of-27 passes, took two sacks and looked at turns befuddled and lost.
On the other side of the ball, the Auburn defense gave up 528 yards to a Clemson team that had suspended its best player — receiver and last year's ACC Freshman of the Year Sammy Watkins.
And the offensive line couldn't create the surges necessary for Auburn to score more than one touchdown.
As Auburn coach Gene Chizik pointed out when asked what positives he could take away from this loss, "Our special teams were exactly what we envisioned. ... We feel that's the strength of our team."
And that is going to be a big problem. Auburn has Mississippi State, Louisiana-Monroe and LSU left in September. And then things get really tough.
"Defensively, we couldn't get off the field," Chizik said when asked to analyze the loss. "At critical times in the game, they made plays defensively and we didn't. ... Nobody wants to have 528 yards put on them, so we'll go back and look at everything carefully and find out why we are displeased with those numbers. We went through peaks and valleys during the game, but we'll learn a lot."
They had better learn fast. Things could get out of hand quickly. Auburn has four top-10 opponents left on the schedule, any one of whom would have likely beaten this Clemson squad.
As for whether his team is ready for SEC play, Chizik snarled and said, "We have one week to find out."
They have a lot to find out in those seven short days.
