Duke snapped a 15-game losing streak at Clemson that dates back to 1980. David Jensen / Getty Images

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was apoplectic with both the performance of his defense and the officiating Saturday as the Tigers secured their worst season under the 17th-year head coach since 2010 with a 46-45 loss to Duke on Saturday.

The Blue Devils snapped a 15-game losing streak in Death Valley that dates back to 1980, with Darian Mensah hitting Sahmir Hagans on a go-ahead two-point conversion with 40 seconds left to send the Tigers to their fifth loss of the season.

Clemson (3-5, 2-4) looked as if it got the defensive stop it needed in the final minute to avoid its fourth ACC loss, but star cornerback Avieon Terrell was called for pass interference on a fourth-and-10 from the 18.

This pass interference call cost Clemson the game. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/gw3qvo3yxF

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2025

“I don’t even really know what to say about the last call,” Swinney said. “Y’all saw it. It shouldn’t come down to that, we had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but that’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in a game ever in my entire coaching career. Ever. A situation like that, I don’t really know what else to say. But I don’t want to make that a deal because we should’ve won the game. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game. But when you fight your butt off and you scratch and you claw and you get in a situation like that and you have a call like that, man, that’s just more salt in the wound.”

Terrell seemed to have inside position when Mensah heaved it toward Que’Sean Brown, who was cutting across the field in front of the goal line. Terrell was making his way toward the sideline when he realized a flag was thrown.

Swinney went off on the officials.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney giving the refs an earful after that game-extending defensive pass interference call on 4th and 10 pic.twitter.com/nl73bkZP4S

— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) November 1, 2025

On the next play, Nate Sheppard ran it in from 3 yards out, and Duke coach Manny Diaz went for two and the lead.

Mensah found Hagans alone on a roll to the right for the lead, and Clemson never got close enough for a field goal attempt on its final possession.

Clemson started the season ranked No. 4 in the country, with an experienced team coming off a College Football Playoff appearance. Now it’s in danger of failing to make a bowl game for the first time since 2004.

“This team, this season should be so much better,” Swinney said.

Swinney, who has won two national titles with Clemson, recalled how at the end of the 2010 season, when the Tigers went 6-7, he believed he was going to get fired in the very room he was doing his postgame news conference Saturday. He then joked about athletic director Graham Neff being in the room and that maybe he would be getting fired this time.

“We’ve had 14 great years, but this has definitely been the worst we’ve had since (2010),” Swinney said.

Early in the day, it was Clemson’s leaky defense that had Swinney seething on the sideline.

He screamed at his players for about a minute after the Blue Devils tied the score at 28 with a 43-yard touchdown pass from Mensah to Brown with 11 seconds left in the first half.

“To win, you’ve got to not lose,” Swinney said. “That’s just as simple as that. You have to not lose to Clemson in order to win. That’s where you start.”

Cade Klubnik gave Clemson a 45-38 lead early in the fourth quarter with a 75-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Moore. Klubnik led the Tigers back with 385 yards passing and two touchdown passes after Duke jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter.

Mensah passed for 361 yards and four touchdowns as the Blue Devils (5-3, 4-1) kept themselves in the ACC title race.

Nov 1, 2025

Connections: Sports Edition

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms

Find the hidden link between sports terms

Ralph Russo is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, covering college football. Before joining The Athletic, he spent 20 years as the lead national college football writer for The Associated Press. He also previously worked as the AP’s Mississippi-based sports writer and did a stint with The Denver Post. Ralph is a native New Yorker and a graduate of Fordham University.