Clemson Fails to Impress, Doesn't Yet Have Look of Serious Playoff Contender

A win is a win is a win.

You only have to score one more point than the other team.

That's something you'll hear every head coach, star player or diehard fan say after a narrow victory, and that's exactly the kind of thing that will be coming out of Clemson following the Tigers' narrow 20-17 win over Louisville on Thursday night.

There were some positives to take away from the performance, on the road, with a short week of preparation. But it still seems obvious that through three weeks of the season, Clemson does not yet have the look of the serious College Football Playoff contender that it was made out to be before the season started.

"We really haven't had any adversity the first couple of games. We really made it harder than it needed to be," Dabo Swinney told ESPN after the game. "We hung in there and had a lot of perseverance."

Perseverance is spot on. Louisville had a chance to tie the game in the fourth but missed a field goal. The Cardinals had another shot in the final minute to tie or win the game after Clemson went too conservative in a three-and-out against an aggressive defense. Swinney's squad pulled through in the end, but it won't be a performance they'll enjoy breaking down over the coming days.

The Tigers are indeed 3-0, and that's something to hang your hat on when a lot of teams around the country are not. Nevertheless, we're still waiting to see the team ranked No. 11 in the country. The Clemson of Thursday night is not anywhere close to the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world, much less the Oregons or Oklahomas.

Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

There were many who thought the departure of offensive coordinator Chad Morris to become the head coach at SMU would have an adverse effect on the offense this year, and through three games there may be something to that. Sure, the Tigers blew out a pair of overmatched opponents to open the year, but there were still signs of a few flaws.

Against the first team with a pulse on its schedule, Clemson didn't exactly show it's ready to raise its level of play.

A lot of the issues can be traced to quarterback Deshaun Watson. He made several wow throws Thursday but also had two pointless interceptions. He threw for only 199 yards on 30 attempts and didn't appear crisp and on the same page with some of his young receivers.

With a chance to put the Cardinals away late in the fourth with the clock ticking down, it was Watson who failed to hit a wide-open receiver despite a clean pocket and a clear throwing lane. Those are the types of throws where the signal-caller has seemingly been just a tad off.

Clemson will go only as far as Watson can take it. The early returns indicate he's still shaking off some rust after last year's ACL injury. He is a better player, but the sophomore needs to start showing as much.

Simply put, Thursday night's Deshaun Watson won't cut it against the Florida States and Georgia Techs of the ACC slate.

Even more concerning for the team may be the play of the offensive line. At one point in the first half, Clemson trotted out two freshman offensive tackles…and then promptly lost one of them to an injury. There's a lot of youth and inexperience up front, and their growth against even better defensive lines than Louisville's will remain key to a successful season.

Not everything was dire for the Tigers. Tailback Wayne Gallman looked like an All-ACC-caliber player on some of his runs en route to a game-high 139 yards on 24 carries. If he can stand up to the pounding a lead back is likely to take in conference play, the Clemson backfield has a chance to be special.

Then there's the defense. Despite losing what seemed like the entire two-deep on that side of the ball to graduation or the NFL, defensive coordinator Brent Venables has his unit playing well. It seemed like defensive end Shaq Lawson was in the backfield on nearly every play, and the team forced two interceptions. The Cardinals only managed 4.3 yards a play to boot.

That said, squeaking out a win in which a fairly mediocre (and now 0-3) team was able to hang around despite not having much of an offense is not much of a confidence booster. It's actually a bit of a concern when you are staring down a season-defining stretch of games with Notre Dame and Georgia Tech coming to Death Valley in consecutive weeks next month.

There's still time for the Tigers to round into form. There's still time for Watson to look like the Heisman contender he's been billed as. There's still time for those young playmakers to keep growing into stars.

At the moment, though, there's still plenty left to be seen with Clemson, and any playoff talk needs to be put on the back burner until late October.

You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.