Syracuse had 138 rushing yards in the first half. The Orange had just 53 rushing yards in the second half of the game, and the Clemson defense once again came up clutch in the closing moments of the game in the 17-14 win at Syracuse Friday night. The defense held an Orange rushing attack that put up over 350 rushing yards against Wake Forest last week to 165 this week, and most of those yards came on two big chunk runs by Syracuse running back Sean Tucker.
Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables thinks his defense was rusty coming out of the gates from the bye week, but some halftime adjustments helped set the tone for his defense in the second half.