Clemson Survives College Park with Sammy
by DrB on Oct 16, 2011 12:39 AM EDT
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PrintThat was not the kind of game that anyone expected. Shootouts are not what I consider "good games". Clemson got down and thanks to The Chad, Sammy Watkins, Boyd, and Andre Ellington we avoided what would certainly have been a trap loss.
Sammy Watkins, damn. 345 all-purpose yards, 4th in ACC history, which broke Spiller's Clemson record. Another 105 receiving, setting the Clemson freshman record with 728. He made up for the muffed punt and first kickoff return bigtime, but I don't think we'll see him fielding punts for a while longer. Maryland even tried to double and triple cover him and couldn't do anything more than contain him, then the dummies kicked him the ball. You're better off kicking it out of bounds Edsall.
Clemson came out and Tajh looked absolutely lost in the first couple of drives. He threw at least 3 balls where I had to wonder "WTF are you looking at?" and then he flipped a switch and made the plays to bring his team back from a horrid start. We were able to run the ball effectively inside for the first time all season, and Andre Ellington ripped the Maryland defense to shreds. So much so that I would've run the ball another 15 times today, particularly early because of the success with the inside zone. I knew when I saw we could run the ball, that we'd score 50 points on them. Andre finished with 212 yards rushing, his best game of the year.
Basically, other than the playcalling early and Boyd's horrid start, theres nothing whatsoever to say about this offense that isn't overwhelmingly positive. If we can run the ball inside, we cannot be stopped.
But then theres the defense....and I'd dock Kevin Steele's pay for that performance tonight. They looked like they had prepared for a completely different team. There is no excuse for a defense at Clemson playing as bad as that one did tonight. It was like watching Reggie Herring's defenses again. Nobody took good angles. We cannot tackle in space. No one was mentally prepared for this ballgame; it was not the scheme but the coaching. This was not a scheme problem, because the Robber coverage we were playing does put a free man over the middle that is effectively a spy on the QB. It just didnt work because our Robber didnt feel like taking the right angle or making the damn tackle. Then, when it was apparent that it wasn't working, Steele kept at it. 99% of the time he'd make the adjustment to zone underneath at halftime, and he didnt make it until later in the 3rd.
We can't defend the zone read because guys jump out of their position and take the wrong man, or just stop using their eyes period as if they were asleep. Theres only two real schemes against the zone read, straight up or cross reading, and Maryland wasn't doing anything other than a basic zone read to confuse them. We just have the wrong approach to practicing against it. That shit has to be fixed right now. This tackling has to be fixed Monday and Tuesday, because if you don't tackle worth a damn on Saturday then you aren't doing it in practice. Theres no answer other than that. Whatever practice strategy we have for drilling tackling and angles needs to be changed immediately. Those guys need to come out and hit all afternoon this week.
Our Safety play is the #1 reason why we can't defend the pass. Its not Martin Jenkins or Coty Sensabaugh (who is admittedly bad in single coverage) or Darius Robinson, its Rashard Hall and Jonathan Meeks. Hall's play has been subpar this year, his angles are bad. You should not see corners always alone on pass plays. The safety is there to help and they are never around to help.
The defense will be fine against a more conventional UNC offense, so I'm more worried about Georgia Tech than them. There is no team on the schedule that can shut this offense down though, barring injury. Believe in The Chad. They kept chopping wood when they were down, and never got down on themselves. Tajh was pumping guys up several times, so he showed he can handle a bad start without imploding. Thats a sign of maturity and coaching.
7-0, just keep winning.
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Do you think Hall’s problems are partly due to his lingering injury. Something about him doesn’t look right
Partly, yes.
But Meeks’ passing instincts are terrible. Does he even have arms? He has to pick up the slack if Hall is hobbling, and hasnt.
One of these young guys at FS needs to pick it up and get some minutes.
I was wondering about the D
So we were in the right scheme but weren’t executing it correctly? Who was the robber? I know Corico was it once and couldn’t bring Brown down. Who normally is allowed that position? Couldn’t it have be Willard who is probably our most stable and reliable LB? I guess I’m a bit confused as to who the Robber is and how he is determiend to play that position.
1 Robber is a fine defense to call vs a zone read team
Because the Robber is the spy. He had that called, and Hawkins never made the play. Anthony bit on the play-action too, so don’t jump to conclusions there and say it should only be Anthony in the game.
Normally it is the MLB that becomes the Robber, but it depends on the release of the RB. If the RB goes weak, the WLB has to pick him up, and cannot be the Robber. The Robber is the LB who has no one to cover man/man.
When it wasn't working you said Steele should have gone to
zone underneath. What would that have accomplished?
About our Safities
Do you think that Breeland could make the move to SS or FS? I know he practiced a bit with them and he is a solid DB. Who would you try and use to make up for Hall and Meeks underachieving this year?
Breeland is too good in single coverage to move
and I think he’s got more potential than Robinson, but I would consider it.
Well we just guaranteed we will be better than last year's record after only 7 games.
Has there ever been a bigger jump in offensive productivity in one offseason?
Thank you Chad, Sammy, Boyd, AE, etc. for not letting Clemson trip on its own Clemson and pull a Clemson.
Great line!
And very true. THE CHAD and our freshman won’t let us pull a Clemson, even when we really really try to.
Lets cut out the "pulling a Clemson" comments....
It’s bad enough listening to the ESPN commentators say it. Not trying to call you out, but I just don’t think our own fans should propagate this, accurate or not….
Come on now, it's not intended to be derogatory to the team
it just captures the feelings of the long-suffereing fanbase for the past decade. It means losing (usually badly) to a poor team that they should beat handily that ruins their own success. It means losing to Duke after beating Miami, losing to Wake Forest after beating FSU, losing 4 of 5 after starting 7-1, losing to Maryland with CJ Spiller and Jacoby Ford, and would have been losing to unranked Maryland as the 8th team in the nation after starting 6-0. That WOULD have been “pulling a Clemson”. I’m not saying it to mimic BSPN (which should give you an idea of how “highly” I rate them), I’m saying it out of personal experience and heartaches for a decade.
Our defense, however, needs a swift kick in the rear for being most at fault for almost losing that game, and being down by 18 points. Twice. Yes Tajh and Sammy coughed it up for an easy 14 points, but that still leaves 31 points and 150+ rushing yards and 3 TDs to some skinny guy making his first start, not to mention their total of over 400 yards of offense.
I hope this game will be the start of a new trend redefining "pull a Clemson" -
now it can mean winning a game that it looked absolutely certain you were going to lose, instead of losing game it looked absolutely certain you should win
D
This d is gonna cost us a game sometime. I like Stele, but this yr hasn’t been his finest wrk for sure
by TigerFan74 on Oct 16, 2011 1:06 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
To be fair
we did lose a ton of talent last year
We dont have the players on d as usual. But Steele has my faith. Hopefully we.can get it fixed
by TigerFan74 on Oct 16, 2011 1:31 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Talent aside...
if we would just make half of the tackles that we’ve been missing, we would probably give up half as many points. This is one of the worst tackling teams I’ve ever seen. Save for maybe one or two games this year, our tackling has been atrocious.
UMD Unis
Is it just me or did it seem like the terps were a little more slippery than anyone else we’ve seen? Is it possible that those spiffy uniforms of theirs are made of something to make them a little harder to hold on to than others? Its a silly excuse, but I’ve never seen so many ballcarriers just “slip” out of the defenders’ grasp like that.
On Sammy Watkins first KO return
the announcers said that he was just trying to make a play, but I don’t believe that. He did know the rules and thought that since the ball hit his hands and went into the end zone, if he didn’t run it out it would be a safety. I just hope the coaches pick up on this and teach our kick returns the rules so that they don’t make this mistake again.
Martin Jenkins
I thought Jenkins played well, especially late. And his energy and enthusiasm was a welcome addition to our defense.
I agree and noticed that too.
Was this the first game that he got a significant # of snaps? I just don’t recall seeing him very much at all out there prior to this game.
Has he just overtaken Brewer, or is he hurt?
Jenkins did play solid.. What’s the deal with Brewer though? Tackling? I always thought his coverage was solid.. Maybe can move him back to the outside, keep Jenkins at Nickle and drop Breeland back.. Something has to happen with those safeties though..Hall looks bad.
"Just because you've had 2 or 3 good games doesn't mean anything right now. It's not the first 3 games you're going to be remembered by." - The Chad
by scgreatest803 on Oct 16, 2011 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions
great Video.... I gotta say I love reading your post game analysis
but your humorous videos make me cry every week. Sammy the rock star leaving all the little kids bewildered….priceless
Keep up the great work!
QB containment was our biggest problem.
When we are in single coverage who is the Robber and when does he line up?
Containment over all was the biggest problem.
Our d-ends would squeeze the line to much on the zone read and then were out of position to make the play on the qb, rb, or pitch man. The robber can be either one of the inside backers based on the call. I can be a safety too but not last night. If we play like this on D versus any other spread/option teams (GA Tech-USuCk) we will be in for long games.
We did a much better job keeping contain late
but I agree, it was our biggest problem, especially with Brown taking off as soon as the d-line got any penetration at all.
by PenthouseTiger on Oct 16, 2011 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Really disappointed in our D from last night...
This post really just speaks to Dr. B’s really good analysis, but I am surprised Steele didn’t switch defenses until the 3rd. His defenses typically make the right adjustment at half. I honestly had no idea why the middle of the field was so wide open when UMD would only send 3-4 receivers out and we were playing man to man. That would free up one of the lb’s to stay at home in the middle. I noticed that Anthony wasn’t any better than Hawkins at this coverage too, but he is younger and actually seems to want to make a play so I probably would’ve stuck with him.
I think the Safety analysis is spot on. Our CB’s never have help, even when the safeties aren’t locked into man to man. It’s incredible. I agree that Sensabaugh isn’t as good as Jenkins or Breeland in coverage, but I wonder how many of his chunk plays are from him releasing his man to “safety” help. Where is Robert Smith as a safety? Didn’t he play well at the beginning of the year?
Finally, and I brought this up and it was discussed in the game thread last night, why wasn’t Branch shifted to a LB and we not go into a 3-4 defense where Branch is essentially still an end, but could spy the QB? The only thing I could think of was the new defensive personnel not knowing this scheme…
Oh and Corey Crawford is starting to make plays..If he improves, he is going to be a monster
Better than normal but not great
Clearly, if we had last year’s defense and this year’s offense, I would put us in the elite category. The reality is our defense is average, our offense is outstanding and our ST are slightly above average. I’m not sure what Pearman brings to the table but our KO coverage absolutely sucks. Can’t let teams get to the 40 with regularity and expect to win against quality teams. I hope we can outscore everyone as I just don’t trust the defense to win games, nor to I have a lot of confidence in our kicking game. This is truly a great year, team has some grit and fight, which is worthly of our total support. However, based upon the body of work to date, I just hope our defense and ST don’t cost us a few games down toward the finish line.
Sammy Watkins is the best freshman I have ever seen.
He plays like an upperclassman. He catches almost everything. He blocks. He runs superfast. He does it all in a businesslike manner.
Go ahead and flame away and call me a cheerleader too!
Not so fast my friend
Herschel Walker might disagree
by clembullcocks on Oct 16, 2011 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions
And another thing - - -ANDRE ELLINGTON LIVES!!
Finally the guy we have been waiting for all year showed up, running through and past people.
If that is not just a fluke against a horrible Maryland D (which is certainly possible,) then the added dimension of an actual run threat makes the offense a very tough nut to crack for out opponents. Particularly a run game up the middle.
AE
Yeah, Andre looks healthy for first time this yr. Been waiting for that myself. Love watching him hit holes when hes 100%. Now lets just keep him that way!
Sammy Watkins is freaking awesome!!
That defense last night was attrocious. As you all know here, I’m no fan of his at all. I was upset when we hired him, and have been nothing but more uspet since. I’d be so glad if Steele would just leave. Our defenses since he’s been here have been poor tacklers. I remember back in 2009 we couldnt stop the zone read option the entire year. Andy Dalton reamed us on that one play. But he kept only getting 5 yards, guy last night was getting 8-10 at a time. UVA game at the end of the year Mikell Simpson torched us. They had 260 yds in the first half, only thing that saved us was he got hurt and couldnt go the second half. Certainly was nothing Steele did. Steele couldnt figure out how to stop Paul Johnsons offense in two whole games.
Last year the defense was better, but when you step back and look at all the talent on that team, it should have been better, much better. Now this year the defense has been bad all year. They have had two solid games vs BC and VT. So I guess Steele can outscheme those two guys but this is college, where you see a huge variety of offenses and he just cant hack it. Gotta go buddy.
I read an interview with him a couple weeks ago on T-Net and one of the things that jumped out at me was he basically admitted he has no clue on how to stop option offenses. They asked him about Wofford and Auburn and he was like “well we play FSU and they run a prostyle offense so we’ll get back to my base defense now.” So he basically told every OC out there to run a non-typical offense and steele is clueless. Another comment he made was about the BC game last year. He said that he studies film 70-80 hours a week and he charts everything. And then that game BC had self scouted themselves and they went completely against their own tendencies so he didnt have much of an answer for them because they wouldnt abide by their own tendencies. I’m like WTF, and this idiot makes three quarters of a million dollars? Clemson’s getting ripped off. So if you’re an opposing OC just dont follow your own tendencies vs Steele and you’ll kick his butt every time. The guy is not a good DC.
Another thing about him is his defenses are so “complex” but this is college not the NFL. You only get 20 hrs a week for practice, you have to be able to teach them everything in that limited time. Guys have to be in his scheme for years to learn it all. Thats unacceptable. This is big time college football, good players dont redshirt and they leave early. You’re never going to have a defensive roster full of Srs and RS Srs that are overly experienced in the scheme. We got the wrong Alabama Co-DC, we shouldve hired Kirby Smart rather than Steele. I’m still convinced that Saban was relieved when we hired Steele. Alabama’s defense got worlds better that offseason.
I know a lot of people on here have tons of faith in Steele, but I ask why? What has he done here to earn that blind faith in him that he’ll get things fixed? I read comments such as “I have faith steele will get it fixed” WHY? We havent tackled well all year. We still cant stop read option or triple option teams. You gotta know spurrier will see that footage of last night and him and shaw are licking their chops wanting a piece of this sorry ass defense. Shaw is a helluva runner with 4.5 speed. He’s going to shred them.
We play UNC next week and they run a more conventional offense, so the defensive stats will be better and it’l appear that the defense is getting better, but watch out for GT. Guys have to make tackles. Thats what jumps out at me with respect the the GT game yesterday, their guys made every tackle it seemed. They played their assignments and made tackles.
I don't think it is blind faith
He has consistently produced top 25 defenses since he’s been here. He does have games that frustrate me, but you are acting like he hasn’t put a good defense on the field since he’s been here, which isn’t true at all.
Defense
I think some credit needs to be given to the D for the number of possessions that the new O is giving the opposing O. Last night I think the O and S gave the Terps 14 points, That leaves 31, I am not sure how good the Terp QB will wind up being they go to FSU next week and their LBs and D-Line have good speed, but based on last night, he appeared to be in the class of Vick and Dantzler for the ability to make DLs and LBs look stupid.
As for Steele’s ability to stop the Zone read and Dalton, TCU scored 14 points on us. They averaged 30 or 40 points a game, We stopped GaTech’s O last year, GT scored 13.
I was diappointed with the D last night as well, the next time we play that QB, I expect that Steele will have the fastes DB on the team as Spy marking him. None of our LBs seemed to be able to do more than lay a hand on him…..
I do not know of its available or how to do it, but I would like to see the scoring stats against our D per opposing possession. I know I am much happier with Steele’s D than Koenig, Koenig never seemed to be able to get a stop at the end of the game to secure a Victory, Steele’s D does!
I know you're frustrated. We all are, but I disagree with a couple things.
First, didn’t we hold TCU to two TD’s? I don’t think the defense performed bad at all that game. I’ll take that any day of the week.
The main thing I disagree with is your criticism of Steele’s interview. I don’t know how all the different DC’s out there work to prepare, but Steele isn’t the only guy who uses this method of recofnizing tendencies. In an interview on Fox Sports South over the summer, Nick Saban was talking about how he prepares his defense, and he said that he has assistants watch each team a on their schedule a few weeks in advance and learn their offensive tendencies. If it works for Saban, I would be willing to be that there are other guys doing the exact same thing.
by Adam Ferguson on Oct 17, 2011 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Just saw on ESPN - greatest comebacks in school history
This was second, but the third was in 2000 at UNC, 17 pt comeback. I remember that game vividly. They had to bench Dantzler and Simmons came in and lit it up. But that game took us to 8-0 then we lost the next week vs GT. We had an almost record comeback last night on the road to go to 7-0, and play UNC next week. I hope this year doesnt follow 2000. Where we beat UNC to get to 8-0 and then lose to GT the following week.
But if the defense doesnt learn how to take proper angles and tackle better, GT is going to run wild on us. Crowton helped us out last night by going away from running at times. Paul Johnson wont call a single pass against us. He’ll run it everytime if we arent stopping it.
This has a chance to be a special year, I just hope Steele doesn’t mess it up for us. Chad Morris just needs to plan on outscoring every team down the stretch. You know he has to be wondering, how many points is enough to win with this defense.
Come on...
Even if we win the damn ACC and go to/win a BCS bowl, you will still hate on our defense and Steele… you said about 5 times last night that the game was over because Steele sucked, defense sucked, etc. We won, the defense came through when they needed to, just like the did at the end of FSU when they needed to. All teams are going to have games where they give up a lot of points or have off games, it happens. We have a ton of young talent on the D that will only get better. You remind me of Lee Corso… The Tigers will never do enough to satisfy you.
We get it already
While the defense obviously played pretty terribly in this game, I think our D’s overall performance is about where everyone expected it to be during the offseason. We lost a bunch of playmakers and everyone knew it would be sort of a rebuilding year. Hell, Steele’s defense REAMED VT in Blacksburg, an offense which has since put up two straight 38 point games.
I agree that he needs to be criticized to a degree for the latest performance, but calling for his head while we are 7-0 is pretty drastic. When we lose 4 of the last 5 50-45, then you’ll have more of a leg to stand on.
4
Against Va Tech, we needed 4 points.
We got em, so far, we have done what we have needed to win.
I don’t think these coaches think in terms of what they need to do to get by.
Did we win our WTF game??
This may be our year (whatever that means)… 10 regular season wins and a conf chip will do it for me. Then let’s party after a win in Miami.
I think the fact that we won our Clusterfuck, makes me feel positive. Remaining schedule-
UNC- Win (Have to tackle the Giovanni Bernard guy and get pressure, their WR’s are good)
G Tech- Probable Loss (60-56 final score??)
NC State- Win
Wake- Win (7-5 or 6-6 team)
S Car- Win (These guys just aren’t that good, and Lattimore has taken a beating this year. No way he’s 100% in this game)
I’m hoping G-Tech goes down to Miami or V Tech.. We can beat V. Tech again, esp on a neutral field.
"Just because you've had 2 or 3 good games doesn't mean anything right now. It's not the first 3 games you're going to be remembered by." - The Chad
You should want every team we face/faced to win
because people will riot should Clemson go unbeaten and not get a shot at the title.
Lattimore's out for the year according to ESPN
I think we can beat everyone remaining on our schedule, especially USC now, although Georgia Tech scares me a lot after last night
Flacco's Favorite. Check it out.
If we lose to the chickens again
This year will feel like a letdown no matter what else we do
If your opponent has to score more then 45 points to beat you guys,
you’re in for a very good season…
p.s. give Morris a raise now—no need to wait till the end of the season—he’s already won you 3-4 games that most teams would have lost.
Good luck for the rest of the season—you only really have 1 gimme (NCSt)
Championship!
I'm pretty sure his contract
has some ridiculous incentives, and he’s probably already met a couple of them.
by PenthouseTiger on Oct 16, 2011 6:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Spot on Dr.B..couple thoughts
We showed up not ready to play in all three phases last night.
If the sound schematic answer on defense is not working, I do think you must change it. Steele was arrogant in his scheme for too long last night.
It was interesting that Maryland used our own HUNH strategy against us and even snapped the ball quicker than us.
Your defense is married to your offense. You can’t really compare the defensive numbers vs. other conventional offensive teams. Tackling is often the first thing to go when you’re gassed.
Maryland’s defensive alignment., uh…decided to see if we could run against basically their front four…ok, thanks. Finally got our OL to the 2nd level last night.
Tajh Boyd is tough.
We stopped them on 4th and 1 on their last TD drive. Glad we won and don’t have to “FSU” about that all week.
This offense gives us a chance to come back after a garbage first half.
We won a game where we didn’t show up ready to play!
Little concerned about Tajh's two straight slow starts on the road
Hopefully it’s just jitters that will subside as he gets more playing time, but doesn’t bode well for GT and USC games, which figure to be down to the wire
Also concerned that a lack of focus seemed to be an issue for two straight games now, 3rd Q vs BC and much of this game. Hoping that the coaches use this near-loss to get our guys to realize that we’re simply not good enough to sleepwalk through any of our remaining games
This start was beyond slow
“Horrific” might be more accurate. He hit 3 defenders right in the numbers (1 int) and overthrew our receivers. Almost as if it takes screwing up to get him going.
Once he gets in the groove, he does very well. I don’t understand it at all but I’m thankful he does get it going.
I'm concerned that our kick-off kicker landed every ball between the 5 & 15.
I’m afraid that this is going to cost us a game against a good team.
We really need to let Zimmerman do all of the kick offs
Catman doesn’t have the leg to get it in the end zone.
happy with any road win
Clemson is going to get everyone’s best shot and we got that saturday night. Maryland’s atmosphere was pretty good i thought (Fairly Loud on 3rd downs and a large student section). Winning on the road in college football isnt easy, ask GT or Michigan.
Steele has said after nearly every game, “tackling is poor and we’re gonna get it fixed”. I’d like to see that come to pass at some point.
A tommy bowden coached team would have folded at 35-17 (i nearly folded and almost left the stands)
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