Some here are overstating the implications of this loss based on the margin of victory. To use an engineering analogy, offense in football can be like a threshold function. If your team's offense can outmatch the defense by enough in any way, meeting a threshold, you can score on almost every possession. It doesn't necessarily mean your offense is way better or your coaches way better--you might be just enough better to be unstoppable.
Think of the Louisville game in Paul Johnson's last year. We scored 66 points, and scored on ALL 9 POSSESSIONS of the game except the last that ended the game. (If Clemson had scored with the same efficiency Saturday, they would've put up *111* points on us, a Half Cumberland!) Were we that much better in 2018 than Louisville, that we scored on every possession and put up 66? I think if they'd had a couple stud DLs, the complexion of that game would've been different.
The best measure of your team is wins and losses against decent teams. We'll know where we stand not from this game but from our record at the end of the season.
