Both teams struggled to put away mediocre opponents while smacking a a couple of good teams around (2012 Stanford, Oklahoma....2018 Michigan, Syracuse). The 2012 team got exposed in the postseason.
The belief is the 2018 team is better overall. Throw out the Ball State and Vanderbilt games, where Wimbush struggled, and ND looks a lot better. But the tough contest against Pitt and poor halves against Northwestern, Navy, Virginia Tech and USC are cause for worry. Then again, when I looked at Clemson's games, they struggled against teams for a whole half, too.
My head still says Clemson wins this game by double-digits as their D-line will kill our O-line. That will be the difference. But if somehow our O-line figures something out...