Well I don't know what to say that I have not said here many times before. Clemson is a Charmin Soft football team that has been whipped at the point of attack by teams with superior functional physical and mental strength. All these things are responsibilities of the Head Coach and his S&C coach, Joey Batson. We lose these types of games because we do not have the WANT TO to win them, and that is Dabo's fault if it can be put on any one person.
3 in a row. 3 in a row is utterly unacceptable at Clemson. As far as I'm concerned, Dabo can take Kevin Steele and get the fuck out of town if this is going to be the norm under his watch. Yes, for those that are about to complain, I would trade a ACCCG for a SC win, but to treat this game, for 3 years straight, like it doesn't matter? Unacceptable. Clemson does not lose to SC. That is the Alpha and the Omega. If Dabo Swinney does not get this simple fact straight, which his otherwise worthless predecessor did, he can leave town now and save us the trouble of firing him later.
Before I go any further on my diatribe, i want to point out how well Coty Sensabaugh played tonight. We jumped all over Coty's skills in man/man coverage earlier this year and pointed out that he's better suited in Zone than being on an island. Coty played very well tonight, and on the last TD he did have good coverage and forced a good throw, which is all you can ask of a CB.
Andre Ellington likewise played his ass off tonight. I'm sad he was the only individual I could praise on the offense. Even the OL, who opened up no holes against good fronts this year, played fairly well in run blocking. It would be nice if The Chad realized how well Andre was running, and just went to Wildcat so Tajh couldn't have a complete mental brainfart.
The truth is that Tajh has regressed. He gets happy feet, in part due to shit pass blocking, but walking right into a sack is on the QB, not the lineman. He locks on his primary too quickly and seems confused when he has to read the coverage. He cut back on the bonehead decisions in the big 3-game stretch but they've increased over the last month. It did not help him that receivers dropped passes, but I did not see a lot of them being physical enough to get open.
And Clemson's defense is the worst Clemson defense I can remember. Tommy West's teams sucked overall, but they could still play good fundamental defense. Reggie Herring's at least had good LB play. Honestly if it were up to me, Steele and the defensive staff would be looking for a job next Sunday, because no single position can play their assignment or do anything productive. As much as I like the scheme we play, its not worth the shit I've been watching. Even the "good" players, or those you think are good, don't do their jobs right. Do you realize we let a worthless half-injured OL, another 15th string RB, a fat WR, and a QB who can't throw that well beat us again? I do so love it when I see a QB scramble and all 5 DBs standing still watching him run at them, and LBs waiting to be blocked instead of attacking the play, and DL who just go with the flow instead of holding gaps and refusing to me moved.
In short, because I have no stomach to be thorough tonight, you should prepare yourself for a 9-5 season. The team we have been for the last month will not defeat Virginia Tech. It will be massacred, and we will lose a shit bowl game as well if it doesn't get fixed this week. I'm waiting for you to prove me wrong Dabo Swinney.