ACC Champ Clemson Shows It's College Football Playoff's Most Complete Team

It wasn't the prettiest win in the world for Clemson on Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Tigers made crucial mistakes, and sometime the play was just sloppy. An outrageous penalty call might have saved them from a scary overtime situation.

But in the end, Clemson was still able to nail down its position as college football's only undefeated FBS team, and perhaps its most complete one.

"It's been a special season, and we aren't done yet," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told ESPN's Heather Cox after the game. "We've got a little more left in us, but this was a fun one tonight."

Just look at what the Tigers did against North Carolina in their 45-37 ACC Championship Game victory. UNC, one of the hottest teams in the country, finished with its worst marks this season on both offense and defense.

The big-play Tar Heels, who entered the weekend ranked second nationally in yards per snap, hadn't been held to fewer than 400 yards of offense—until Saturday night.

Their defense, a massively improved unit under first-year coordinator and Broyles Award finalist Gene Chizik, hadn't allowed more than 600 yards of offense or 40 points—until Saturday night.

On both sides of the ball, the Tigers flexed their championship-caliber muscles thanks to some tremendous star power.

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Quarterback Deshaun Watson most likely sealed his invitation to the Heisman ceremony in New York City by putting up 420 yards of total offense and five touchdowns.

Running back Wayne Gallman added 187 yards on the ground, and Watson hit seven different players for multiple completions behind the protection of a powerful offensive line.

Defensively, Shaq Lawson led a unit that gave up some big drives but provided stops when it mattered most.

The defensive end's strip-sack of Marquise Williams set up a late field-goal drive, and teammate Cordrea Tankersley picked off a pass at his own 3-yard line to take away a potential go-ahead score in the third.

North Carolina only went 5-of-14 on third downs and went three-and-out on six occasions after entering the game as the team that had done it the fewest times this season in the FBS.

"Our team has had heart and guts all year long," Swinney said. "They have found ways to win, whether it's a big turnover or a big play. We've got the best player in this conference and the best player in this country in Deshaun Watson...and then our defense, they came up with a couple of big turnovers."

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Put those two units together, and a team can overcome a larger-than-normal number of penalties and a head-scratching decision by its punter.

With Oklahoma and Alabama preventing any true playoff chaos from happening and Michigan State snatching a dramatic Big Ten title win over Iowa, the teams in the final four appear all but locked into the field.

Of the four playoff-bound teams, Clemson arguably had the best balance of offensive and defensive talent, production and consistency heading into conference championship weekend. Saturday's action won't change the advanced and traditional metrics too much:

Team	Clemson	Alabama	Oklahoma	MSU
S&P+ Overall Ranking	2nd	1st	3rd	11th
S&P+ Offensive Ranking	11th	28th	3rd	26th
S&P+ Defensive Ranking	6th	1st	13th	18th
Offensive Yards per Play	6.46 (22nd)	5.83 (53rd)	6.95 (9th)	5.65 (62nd)
Defensive Yards per Play	4.59 (10th)	4.14 (2nd)	4.68 (11th)	5.39 (55th)

Alabama has a dominant defensive front that chokes the life out of teams, and its secondary has improved greatly this season. But the Crimson Tide don't have a consistent, can't-miss offensive weapon outside of workhorse superstar Derrick Henry.

Due to plenty of close calls this season, Michigan State is clearly behind the pack in both categories.

Oklahoma has plenty of weapons in its offense and several star defensive playmakers, especially in its secondary. The metrics seem to be split between Clemson and Oklahoma; the Tigers have the defensive advantage, while Oklahoma has one on offense.

But Clemson has an advantage in the record book with its 13-0 status. No team has been as consistent from beginning to end this season as Swinney's bunch, and it now has three wins over teams that were ranked in the Top 10 of this week's College Football Playoff rankings.

No one else can make that claim.

"Man, 13-0—you know, in 1992 when I was playing, that was good enough for the national championship," Swinney said. "But not anymore. All it does is get us a chance to go play for it...but you can't get any better than winning them all, and nobody made it easy on us."

Sure, Clemson needs to tighten up certain areas during the preparation for New Year's Eve and the playoff semifinals. The Tigers need to cut down their penalties from Saturday night's win (11), and they won't be able to afford the turnover issues that plagued them late in the regular season.

But Clemson's offense and defense combined to cool off a red-hot UNC team in a monumental game. Together, those units will make the Tigers a dangerous opponent in any conceivable playoff matchup, and that looks a lot better than any number of style points at this time of the year.

Quotes taken from ESPN broadcast. Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of CFBstats.com.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.