Bloody Skalski says Tiger defense had to fight for win over Georgia Tech

Skalski walks off the field with bloody pants.

by Zachary Wagner - Correspondent - Tue Sep 21 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2021

James Skalski made the biggest play of the game on Saturday against Georgia Tech, stuffing the shovel pitch to the tight end on fourth-and-goal to seal the Tigers’ 14-8 victory in Death Valley. The linebacker walked back to the sidelines after the play, his pants covered in blood from a cut he suffered on the drive, and he was held up by his teammate KJ Henry after putting his body on the line to make the stop.

The sixth-year senior put the team effort into words perfectly on Monday.

“We had to fight for that one, that was a good game,” Skalski said. “I think we made it harder on ourselves than it had to be, but when we needed it the most, we got it and that’s all that matters.”

While Skalski said the defense did not prepare for that play at all during the week, the veteran has seen it so much during his long career at Clemson that he knew it was coming. The Georgia native shared what tipped him off of the play before making the game-saving tackle.

“That’s one that I’ve seen forever, it all happened so fast I just knew it was coming,” said Skalski. “When the tight end runs away from that sniffer, they’ll usually run together if they’re going to pass. When they get them apart, there’s just something going on in the back end.”

The Tigers have struggled on one side of the ball early in the season so far. The offense has not lived up to the standard that has been set in years prior, but the Clemson defense has been lights out, not allowing a touchdown in the first three games for the first time since 1950. Skalski said the team still has room for improvement to get to where he knows they can be.

“We didn’t play perfect at all, but we played hard I’ll tell you that,” Skalski said. “We still have so much growing to do and we’re not even close to being the team I know we can be. Everyone’s putting in the work, but we still have a lot of work and things to fix. It’s a long season and I’m not worried, we just have to take it one day at a time.”

The standard at Clemson has always been to develop guys so when their time comes, they are ready for the moment. That moment came for LaVonta Bentley this past weekend, starting his first game after Jake Venables and Baylon Spector missed the game due to injuries. Benftley finished the game with a team-high 13 tackles, three of those coming for a loss and recorded his first sack of the season.

The veteran captain of the defense gave some high praise to the redshirt sophomore, calling him the “best backer of the day”.

“He was graded the best backer of the day, best production and consistency and played lights out for us,” Skalski said of Bentley. “He can really rock people, you see the hit he put on Zamir White in the Georgia game. That guy can lay the wood, he’s a good football player. It’s always great to see him out there making plays”

The defense didn’t play their best game of the season, giving up over 300 total yards of offense to the Yellow Jackets. When it came down to the final drive and the goal line stand, Skalski said they played with the bend-don’t break mentality to secure the win.

“We always say ‘bend, don’t break. We will not break,’” said Skalski. “The morale, the cohesiveness, the chemistry, everyone believed they were not going to score. We’re all together. We were all fighting and clawing. It was awesome. We had young guys in there on the fourth down play, Barrett Carter was in there playing Sam (linebacker). When we made the play and you look at the excitement, it was great. I love the excitement and the chemistry levels we have on the defensive side right now.”

Skalski and the Clemson defense will have an opportunity to hold out a fourth straight opponent out of the endzone when they travel to Raleigh, North Carolina to take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday (3:30 p.m./ESPN).