Grind & Dazzle: Tigers will need both as they play their way through October

Focus, focus, focus.

It’s what the Tigers heard all week from their coaches.

And in the back of the minds of every long-time Tiger fan, there was a nagging worry: it would be SO Clemson for the Tigers to lay an egg against Boston College.

Dabo Swinney is trying to change Orange Nation’s culture, instilling a positive ‘why not Clemson?” attitude.

Clemson’s performance on Saturday was another step in that direction.

As important as anything that happened in the game itself was that it took place in the context of a team going about its business, with no lapse, no letdown.

The giddiness of a 5-0 start, including the unprecedented three-week run over ranked opponents, was history. It was time for No. 6, and the Tigers were up to the task.

Again, they weren’t perfect.

The idea is beginning to dawn that they really don’t need to be.

Good, and getting better, has been good enough so far.

The next test comes on the road against a Maryland team struggling to find its way under a new head coach. It will be homecoming at College Park, against a team that through the years Clemson has managed to muddle its way to some particularly damaging setbacks.

Tajh Boyd’s injury may well turn out to be just a scare, but with at least the possibility remaining that first-year freshman Cole Stoudt will be leading a scaled-back attack against the Terps, the defensive improvement shown by Kevin Steele’s unit over the past two weeks may be Clemson’s strongest card going into another critical stretch of the season.

Steele wasn’t happy with what he saw as a glaring letdown midway through the Boston College game; but to the Tigers’ credit, they regained control and finished by slamming the door – just as they did against Auburn, Florida State and Virginia Tech.

It’s beginning to look like a trend – the kind of trend that turns good teams into championship teams.

After the game on Saturday, Dabo Swinney again broke down, point by point, what he sees as the Tigers’ winning formula:

“We continue to execute our plan to win, and that’s really the key to us winning,” Swinney said. “It starts with effort, and our guys are playing hard. Turnover margin, we won that again by creating two turnovers, and one of them set up a score for us. I think we’re plus-five for the year, and that’s critical.

“We continue to have more big plays than the opponent. We were the least penalized team, again. We continue to do a good job from an assignment standpoint, for the most part. And we won special teams.

“That’s our plan to win from a big-picture standpoint, looking at the critical factors. We’ve done a good job every week in that area. It’s no accident that we’re 6-0 because we’ve got good players.”

An open date would be really nice about right now.

But the Tigers, banged up as they are at a wide array of positions, don’t have that luxury.

Successive games against North Carolina and still-unbeaten Georgia Tech follow before the Tigers get an extra week to prepare for Wake Forest – suddenly and unexpectedly Clemson’s front-running rival for driver’s seat position in the Atlantic Division.

It seems that the Tigers’ one-at-a-time mentality is getting to be well ingrained.

That’s a good thing; because they’ll need a lot of grind and all the dazzle they can muster before October is done.