Week 9 Clemson Review

Wow. What a game.

Clemson just does not want to be playing us when they are 8-0. (They lost to us in 2000 the last time they were 8-0).

So how did we do it?

Number 1 - blocking blocking blocking. Can’t emphasize enough how much better we blocked.

Hard to tell if we deserve credit or if Clemson deserves blame for not doing a better job getting off blocks. Probably some of both.

But either way, the blocking was excellent for much of the game. Particularly on the edge. Clemson’s outside linebackers and cornerbacks could not dodge a cut block. We consistently sealed the edge, allowing for big runs out there, and softening up Clemson’s defense in the middle.

Well, sort of softening it up. We never really got a handle on Clemson’s tremendous defensive tackle, Brandon Thompson. We just could not block that guy. So we ran a lot of midline option, where we leave the tackle instead of the end unblocked. Essentially, we can’t block this guy, so we’ll stop trying. Just let Tevin read him.

Which brings me to reason #2 that we won, excellent play from Tevin. At least, in the run game, he played exceptionally well almost the entire game. He ran well himself, he made the proper reads, and he seemed to be moving at full speed again, rather than thinking too much and hesitating.

Side note - the reason I say “At least in the running game” is that Tevin was not all that sharp in the passing game. I mean, he was ok. He certainly made some good throws. 2 long passes to Hill were great (one drop and one caught). But, he also missed Roddy wide open for a first down on our first drive, and then threw an interception late in the game on a play where he has Orwin open, and didnt even see Hill who he had WIIIIDE open for what would have been an easy 80 yard TD.

But anyway, Tevin played well. Made good plays in the passing game, made a few bad ones, consistently nailed the running game though.

Reason number 3, here I have to give a little blame to Clemson. They did not play their best. Part of that was forced by us. But not all of it. Boyd missed a few throws he normally would make. Their WR’s, except for Watkins, failed to make a few plays they normally would make. They almost certainly felt more pressure than usual because our defense played very well, but still I think if Clemson had played up to their potential, the game probably comes down to the wire (and if we see them again should we get to the ACCCG, I expect a very tight game).

Reason #4 we won is that we were able to control the pace of the game.

Here is a list of the number of drives for both teams on the season:

Week	GT Drives	Clemson Drives
1	14	16
2	10	12
3	11	10
4	12	12
5	11	13
6	11	11
7	9	13
8	10	15
9 (GT-Clemson)	11	11
Average	11	12.5

So, Clemson averages an extra possession and a half per game over what we average. And yet, this game went right along with our average.

I believe that controlling tempo helped us keep Clemson out of their rhythm. They are used to getting the ball back a little faster, and the success of our offense really slowed them down.

This outcome was actually pretty likely. Clemson’s run defense is much better at stopping traditional, between the tackles running games. They fare much worse against option and misdirection spread running attacks.

Against Maryland, Auburn and Wofford, the three opponents Clemson has played that I would describe as running an “option, misdirection, spread run game”, Clemson only had the ball on average 11.67 times, almost a full possession below their season average. In their other fives games, they have had the ball an average of 13.4 times.

Additionally, here is a look at what Clemson’s run defense has done so far on the season:

Traditional (mostly) rush offenses

Opponent	Rush Yards Per Game	Rush Yards Per Carry	Rush Yards Allowed by Clemson	Rush Yards Per Game Allowed By Clemson
Troy	100	3.47	165	4.58
FSU	126.5	3.79	29	1.93
Virginia Tech	200.25	4.79	133	3.33
Boston College	140.7	3.88	126	3.6
UNC	160.5	4.5	102	3.64

So, you can see, Clemson has a pretty good run defense against those offenses. They held everyone but Troy below both their per game average, and per carry average.

Now, Option and Misdirection “Spread” offenses:

Opponent	Rush Yards Per Game	Rush Yards Per Carry	Rush Yards Allowed by Clemson	Rush Yards Per Game Allowed By Clemson
Wofford	358.5	5.9	272	4.8
Auburn	191.1	4.49	237	6.24
Maryland	171.9	4.73	291	6.06
Georgia Tech	328	5.89	383	5.72

You can see, clearly not as good.

They did slow Wofford down (albeit with a slightly different caliber of athlete than what Wofford normally faces) and held us below our per rush average, but still, there is a significant difference between these numbers and the ones above.

Clemson is not as good defending unconventional rushing attacks as they are defending the more normal pro style type attacks that most teams run.

So, I guess we should have expected to have success running the ball.

And, probably to have success controlling the tempo.

We did both of those things, our defense played great (and had a great game plan from Groh) and we got a little help from Clemson not playing its best.

All of that adds up to a pretty easy win over what I still think is a very good team.

If we play like that from here on out, we will have a chance to win a lot more games.

A word of warning, it probably won’t be that easy. Clemson may be better than VT and UGA (this is not guaranteed, by they may be) but we matchup differently with those teams. Plus, those teams may play better than Clemson did (in fact, as I said above, if we play Clemson again, it probably will be closer).

However, I like our chances if we can continue playing like we did against Clemson.

What a game.

Go Jackets.