Tigers survive in Chestnut Hill

Well a Win is a Win, but it was ugly as all hell. When you are up 45-31 on somebody, the game should be decided and not still somewhat in doubt that far in the 4th quarter. Still, we rarely play that well at BC and I'll take it. I just have a sour taste in my mouth again.

We cannot give enough praise to Nuk Hopkins for his ability to fight for yards and to get open. If not for him I don't think we win this game. He broke the Clemson record for receiving yardage set by the great Rod Gardner against UNC in 2000. The play in the end zone was said to be incomplete because he touched the pylon with his foot before the catch was made, essentially making it illegal touching because he was out of bounds. I'd like to know why then that any ball carrier who touches the pylon, without crossing the plane of the goal line, gets a TD call. We see that every week. If he'd have caught the ball and not gotten a foot in the end zone, but instead dragged his foot over the pylon, I think they'd call that a TD, so I don't see the distinction.

I'm just wondering still where Charone Peake is, and why it appears that Adam Humphries is the best receiver in that class behind Sammy Watkins.

Tajh overall had a good game, he just had a few really dumb decisions and missed some open men. The trickery from the Wildcat was a forced throw into double coverage that should never have been tossed. The play shouldn't have even been called. The intentional grounding did not even need to be thrown either because they weren't getting to him, he just felt pressure. Earlier in the game Tajh had a receiver in the back of the end zone standing wide open for 6 and never saw him.

Andre Ellington did not seem quite like himself today, but wasn't getting much help up front. He ended up with 5.2 ypc because of the 49 yard run at the end. Typical of a BC game, they beat us backwards up front on offense. Our linemen just got stood up and never any push as a result. They are still a pretty good run defense but we should have done better in any event. Perhaps the praise of the OL after Auburn was too heavy. Usually BC gets great pass rush against us and didn't today however.

BC is not a good running team, so I'm not sure what to take away from this game in regards to our DL play. I thought we did an outstanding job getting off blocks when they ran the football. We ended up with more sacks and pressures than we have all year. I can say that at least it looked like we played with more intensity up front, but we'll see how intense they really are next weekend. That will be their big test.

Our secondary is just pure garbage. CB Darius Robinson was eaten up on every pass thrown near him in the 1st half, and was benched for Garry Peters, who showed more instincts in a half than DR has shown in all year. it appeared to me on their last long TD against Peters that he had the proper coverage position on the receiver, outside leverage in C3, and that there should have been help immediately inside on the Post route. There wasn't, because both safeties were looking in the backfield and not backpedaling. Breeland had the other deep third and he was the only one close to the receiver at the goal line. Nevertheless, Garry Peters should either start or play right behind Brewer at the other CB spot next week.

Linebackers were no better in pass coverage either. They constantly got sucked up on PA and the crossers would fly right behind them...and of course we cannot pick guys up in the flats. They did get off blocks up front much better though, so that is a positive.

All in all, we did get some stops, which was nice, but I do think that many of BC's struggles in the 3rd Q were due to themselves.

Thankfully Georgia Tech's defense stinks about as bad as ours (I cant decide which was worse when I watched them today) and we should put 45 on them next week too, assuming our defense gets off the field to get us the ball.

I just cannot get excited about this team's prospects when we play such horrible defense. It could be the worst Clemson defense I have ever seen. I know it is as bad as Herring's last defense, but at least that one could get consistent QB pressure (since Reggie blitzed 75 times per game).