Ready for Florida State? Suddenly, Clemson football can't dare to ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Well, so much for looking ahead to Florida State.

After its season-opening debacle at Duke Monday night, resulting in a 28-7 defeat in which Clemson failed to capitalize on every opportunity with which it was presented, the Tigers must instead focus on righting their ship against two of the lesser opponents on the schedule – namely, Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic.

Charleston Southern, an FCS opponent coming off a 2-8 season, escaped North Greenville with a 13-10 victory last week. Florida Atlantic is a Conference USA member that went 5-7 last season and opened the Tom Herman era last week by drubbing Monmouth.

Those should be easy victories on a schedule that includes games against eight bowl teams from 2022, but after the strange implosion against Duke at Wallace Wade Outdoor Stadium, the perspective for the Tigers – and their fans – has been dramatically altered.

After witnessing what unfolded Monday night, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney should take nothing for granted. Despite their proximity in the USA TODAY Network Coaches Poll, the No. 9 Tigers don't appear to be anywhere close to the No. 8 Seminoles, who opened their season Sunday night with a 45-24 romp past No. 5 LSU.

“We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Swinney said. “It was routine, basic stuff that we did not do.”

Like tackling and blocking and maintaining possession of the football.

Still, somehow, some way, Clemson outgained Duke by 48 yards, had 29 first downs to the Blue Devils’ 17 and yet managed only a single touchdown. It marked the first time in 59 games under Swinney that the Tigers had 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing and lost.

This coming against a program that Clemson had outscored 122-33 in three games under Swinney.

Weird?

Strange?

Surprising?

All of the above.

The result was an early departure for the throng of Clemson fans who made the trip to Durham for the game and decidedly outnumbered the Duke fans in attendance. By game’s end, however, the field was awash in blue.

Duke, once the ACC’s perennial doormat, has won 10 of its past 14 games under Coach Mike Elko, who if this continues may replace Jon Scheyer as the most popular guy on campus.

At Clemson, there’s growing concern for a program that has lost more games in the last three seasons than it had in the previous six.

Given history, Clemson’s ACC title hopes could be in jeopardy.

PAINFUL DEFEAT:Clemson football, Dabo Swinney take it on chin at Duke. Now they must salvage a season

“We’ve not had a championship team that didn’t win the opener,” Swinney said. “So it’s an important game.”

Suddenly, they’re all important.

Swinney stopped short of categorizing his first-ever loss to Duke as the most disappointing of his career, but admitted “this is a bad way to start” the 2023 season.

Now the Tigers must kick things into save mode.

“I’m just trying to win the next game,” Swinney said. “We’ve got to go win this week. This is college football. Anything can happen.”

He’s right.

Just ask Duke.

Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @ScottKeepfer