Yes, the story of Clemson-Syracuse is marred by Clemson’s mistakes and poor decisions. But it is also marred with cheating by faking injury by Syracuse players and poor officiating and defensive penalties, which extended Syracuse’s drives. Now, we don’t claim that Dabo Swinney’s boys did not play rough; they did, but sometimes the penalties were a harsher punishment for something not so serious.

Over the course of the game, Clemson drew two roughing-the-passer flags and another unnecessary roughness in the first half alone. That’s 39 yards and three first downs, if you may not know. Ultimately, only two stood, but 30 yards is still a big deal. For a team already going through a rough patch (pun intended), those roughing calls just make the game all the more difficult. With these penalti

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