Post Troy Sunday Thoughts
by FIGUREFOUR on Sep 4, 2011 2:39 PM EDT
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PrintI originally typed a fairly scathing article yesterday evening regarding some of the crap we saw yesterday. It got toned back after a night's rest only because we strive to be fair here. I want to give the staff the benefit of multiple games before going batshit crazy due to what appears to be a toughness issue. I still expect Munson to single us out but we probably won't get a press conference lecture, at least not this week.
I am definitely not pleased with lots of things out of the Tigers yesterday, particularly the toughness of this football team. This type of attitude resonates from the head coach all the way down. For that reason, I'll maintain that our team is SOFT because Swinney facilitates this. You wouldn't expect such out of a man who played his college ball for a head coach who's tough as nails. Stallings learned from one tough SOB and the Sweatshirt should have learned from Bebes.
We looked soft up front on both sides of the ball. As we've said in the past, this is a product of strength & conditioning combined with a top-down commitment to being tougher than the other guy, then going out and whipping ass. There was none of this by our either the offensive or defensive line. Troy looked like they wanted it more up front and, had we not been more overall athletically gifted, the whole Clemson nation would be in complete meltdown mode this morning demanding heads roll. We are certainly not to that point yet, but fans should be concerned. Certainly the less experienced players (including Tajh Boyd) will mature. And, certainly, the big question will again be Clemson's play up front.
We will definitely let you know if we ever toughen up, start playing with fire in the belly, and dominate our opponent (especially up front). Else, Clemson will be viewed as a "finesse" squad that may or may not be able to respond to adversity but won't bring the war to its opponents in the trenches.
I thought the freshmen played well on offense and special teams yesterday. Watkins had a big day, leading the team with seven catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. Bellamy had a big day on just three carries (81 yards including an impressive 75 yard touchdown scamper) and a nice opening kickoff return. I am always leery of putting too much pressure on players who are not ready but understand that in order to be successful this year we absolutely have to rely on players who weren't even at Clemson this time last year. I will be interested to sit down and tally the number of snaps taken by Tony Steward and Stephone Anthony in addition to other young defensive players.
Our tackling was abysmal in this first game. This has to improve for this team to be successful. As you know, nothing pisses us off quite like a missed tackle-well, nothing outside of a missed PAT.
I was disappointed with several aspects of secondary play, particularly in the first half. We know this group is relatively young but the mistakes were not limited to just them. Rashard Hall took a bad angle in the first quarter, which is something we don't expect from the veteran.
Chandler Catanzaro had a nice day kicking field goals, converting all three of his attempts. Each of these three-pointers was from approximately 45 yards out. This is extremely encouraging after the inconsistencies we saw last season. He did miss a PAT, which drives us absolutely nuts and is unacceptable.
I'll say that, after a very poor first half, Clemson did a nice job adjusting at half and executed much better on both sides of the ball in the 3rd and 4th quarters. We got into more of an offensive groove and tightened up on defense. Clemson was able to pull away in the game. This was a recurring theme for Auburn last season. I won't go further with this comparison, though, as we did not come close to approaching Morris' goal of 80+ plays per game (we had approximately 70 yesterday).
Scheme-wise, there were few surprises out of the Tigers. We were forced into a lot of nickel due to Troy's spread attack. Offensively, Morris seemed to "shorten up" his offense after half...probably because our offensive line wasn't playing particularly well.
I'll rewatch the film this week in preparation for Wofford on Saturday. I am sure more thoughts will emerge here...some good and some not so good. We'll probably reference the Troy game for a couple weeks because items from this contest are more relevant than feedback from Wofford. Additionally, we aren't necessarily ignoring Wofford but are more focused on things we anticipate seeing out of the Tigers against Auburn, FSU, and VTech.
Animated Drive Chart brought to you by Gameday Depot.
Anthony and Goodman Combine for a QB Sack
Dwayne Allen 54 Yard Touchdown Catch
Martavis Bryant 54 Yard Grab
Overall Game Highlights
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Game ability
I think a few of the borderline practice guys showed more game ability. Our blessed practice line show crap for game ability.
by Boilingspringstiger on Sep 4, 2011 1:10 PM EDT reply actions
Clemson looked better in the 2nd half but...
In both halves, the OL looked weak and the DL gave Troy’s QB all day. I think the O & D will get a lot of jitters out and corrections made in the backfields so I’m not ready to hit the panic button on that yet, but I’m VERY, VERY concerned about the OL & DL. If they get whupped like that against Troy, then what chance do they have against FSU, UNC, VT, et al?
Why is it that our O & D sucked in the first half but Troy’s didn’t?
Especially when they were young as well
Their O-Line brought back what one starter from last year but we couldn’t put any pressure on him? Our O-line got NO push whatsoever and that will not cut it against our coming opponents. Tajh showed that he can actually control the game and make good throws, when he has time to do it! Hope Caldwell lives up to his hype and knocks some heads together, soon.
How did Price play?
I knoe that generally speaking the entire line sucked but Price was a big story in how he would hold up against their best DE as well as how he would hol dup in general at the critical LT spot?
I thought Price did fine
and massaquoi was a little overrated.
by DrB on Sep 4, 2011 1:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Good to hear
I was wondering how he would hold up against a good DE. If Caldwell can get the entire line on the same page then I feel confident that Price really is the man for the job, at least for now. Do oyu know how many backups we played at O-Line? I remember reading the live forum yesterday and even when Troy but in backups it was said that we were keepign our starts in. Did we try to develop some depth with the second team?
They only called Massaquoi's name once,
on a tackle for loss. Not sure who he was lined up against on that play, though. Price did have one false start. But I thought that side of the line played pretty well. Most of our big runs seemed to come from that side, and pressure on pass plays seemed to come from the middle and right (Freeman, Maclain, and Walker). Price seemed to be a bright spot on the otherwise shotty OL….
On another note, are you guys going to put out a participation chart as far as who had x number of snaps?
Anyone else...
..extremely happy to see us scoring some points through the air? We couldn’t do that even against teams of Troy’s caliber last year. Hard to deny the huge injection of new talent that came in this year. Good to see some guys contributing immediately.
And 30 points in 21 minutes of clock time even with some very glaring issues…says a lot about what this offense is capable of if they get their act together.
I agree.
We only scored this many points once last year and that was against PC. Both lines sucked and must improve. However, I think we lose this game for sure last year.
My thing is this
We have to improve of course..but the fact that we played poorly by most REALISTIC accounts and opinions, and still we still beat a team we should beat, and by a solid margin makes me feel okay.
I mean realistically speaking when you roll out a new offense and 100 freshmen, it’s going to look damn near like a high school allstar game (which it pretty much did). I was disappointed by our veteran DB’s though, the poor play by that unit surprised me.
We’ll get better. By the time FSU comes to town, we will be more comfortable and clicking. I’m an optimist I know. There were a ton of dynamics within this offseason, its not going to just ‘happen’, unless you pay a 6’6 250 QB to just come in and overwrite all of your weaknesses.
"Well Mr. Accountant, everytime you move that pencil does someone hit you in the mouth?" - Robbie Caldwell
I agree
That due to the youth and new system there were going to be some jitters and ups and downs. However what I saw wasn’t related to this, for the most part the new guys on offense were just fine other than a play or two. Tajh had some growing pains and bad decisions but most of his problems were due to lack of protection. The biggest problem was the complete domination of our O-line, this is a very experienced group and while I never had huge expectations there performance against a small front from Troy was scary.
Please tell me Breeland starts next week
Sensabaugh was abused badly on several occasions.
Shouldve had
a ton of interceptions. I constantly saw their quarterback staring down his intended receiver without even checking other options.
Toughness
hasn’t been a quality of a Clemson team since 1990
Boyd
is the ACC player of the week. That was a bit suprising to me. Do you think this is deserved? And if so, is that a small bright spot to this game?
They didn't watch the game
couldn’t have
by PenthouseTiger on Sep 5, 2011 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions
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