Clemson 37, Charleston Southern 0: Tigers defense holds visitors to 76 yards

Clemson beat Charleston Southern 37-0 at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The defense decided it. The visitors finished with 76 total yards, six first downs and no conversions on 11 third downs. The Tigers scored 34 points before halftime, which made the rest of the afternoon a formality.

The win moves Clemson to 4-2 and follows a 41-13 loss to No. 4 Miami. Charleston Southern drops to 3-4.

How it was won

N. Hauser opened the scoring with a 41-yard field goal at 12:51 of the first quarter. Chr. Johnson Jr. added a 6-yard touchdown run at 5:17, and Clemson led 10-0 after one.

The second quarter put it away. Gideon Davidson ran in from 7 yards at 13:30. Johnson Jr. scored again from 2 yards at 5:30. Nine seconds later, on the ensuing kickoff, C.J. Kubah-Taylor forced a fumble from returner Q. Kindell and K. Griffin recovered it for a touchdown. That made it 31-0. Hauser then hit a 59-yard field goal with 47 seconds left in the half for a 34-0 lead.

The second half produced one score, a 44-yard Hauser field goal at 14:43 of the fourth quarter. Hauser finished 3 for 3 on field goals and kicked every extra point.

The box score is lopsided. Clemson outgained Charleston Southern 438 to 76 and had 28 first downs to six. The Tigers ran for 231 yards and threw for 207. Tait Reynolds completed 17 of 26 passes for 127 yards without a touchdown. Davidson led the ground game with 59 yards on 13 carries, and Max Wilson added 52 on seven. Christian Bentancur caught four passes for 74 yards, and Logan Brooking had two for 26.

Clemson was not clean. It turned the ball over twice and converted 6 of 14 third downs. Charleston Southern could not take advantage. It held the ball for 28:04, close to an even split, but did little with it.

Jared Echols went 7 of 12 for 50 yards. Hakeem Watters carried 13 times for 46 yards, and Dwayne Wright had 12 yards on six carries. Maxwell Warren caught five passes for 38 yards and Mekhi Campfield had one for 9. The visitors' 26 rushing yards and 50 passing yards are about as little as a team can produce over four quarters.

Against the number

The market closed with Clemson as a 42.5-point favorite, and that was too many. The Tigers won by 37, so Charleston Southern covered. The cover came down to the second half. Clemson scored 34 points in 30 minutes and then three in the next 30.

The closing total was 53.5. With 37 points scored, all by one side, the game went under comfortably. A shutout makes an under far easier, and Charleston Southern never threatened to score.

Full pricing and closing numbers are on the game page.

What's next

Clemson hosts Virginia Tech on Saturday, October 24. The Tigers are 4-2. They lost by 41 at No. 11 LSU and by 28 to No. 4 Miami. They have won their other four games, including a 28-20 win over North Carolina and a 24-10 win at California. The Virginia Tech game is a better test of where this team stands in conference play than Saturday's result.

Charleston Southern's next game was not included in the material available for this recap. The visitors are 3-4.