Sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence passed for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth as No. 1 Clemson extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 18 games with a 41-6 victory against Syracuse Saturday night at the Carrier Dome.
Despite being intercepted twice, Lawrence completed 22 of 39 passes for a career-high 395 yards.
Clemson (3-0, 2-0 ACC) has not lost an ACC game since a 27-24 setback against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Oct. 13, 2017. The Tigers' 18-game winning streak in ACC play is the longest in school history and the second-longest in league history.
Syracuse, which was coming off a 43-point loss at Maryland, kept the game close for a while in front of a crowd of 50,248 -- the first sellout at the Dome since 1998 and the third-largest football crowd in the facility's history -- and trailed by 17-6 at halftime.
But Clemson pulled away in the second half thanks to Lawrence and a stingy defense to drop the Orange to 1-2, 0-1.
Lawrence's favorite target was junior receiver Tee Higgins, who had seven receptions for 150 yards, but the star of the night for Clemson was fellow junior Amari Rodgers. Rodgers, who was playing in just his second game since returning from ACL surgery, had four catches for 121 yards, including touchdown catches of 16 and 87 yards.
Lawrence also had a touchdown pass of 7 yards to Frank Ladson Jr. and ran 1 yard for a fourth score. Freshman running back Chez Mellusi added a 57-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring with 48 seconds left as the Tigers racked up 612 total yards.
Clemson's defense kept Syracuse sophomore quarterback Tommy DeVito under pressure all night, sacking him eight times and totaling 13 tackles for loss. DeVito finished 15 of 27 for 172 yards and Syracuse was held to 187 total yards.
Syracuse got a pair of field goals from Andre Szmyt covering 29 and 23 yards while Clemson's B.T. Potter converted from 40 and 37 yards.
--Field Level Media
