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Clemson vs. BC Film Review: Fourth Quarter

The Rumbalaya show

By Dbbm
Kent State v Clemson Photo by Todd Bennett/Getty Images

Clemson Ball, Clemson 42, Clemson 7 BC 7

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
2nd and 1 11 vs. 4-2 Zone read, slow played by Landry and Bryant makes the wrong read to keep it, dragged down behind the line of scrimmage Coaches love using the option to read a guy they struggle to block, but modern defensive ends have gotten great at slow playing the zone read and Landry is athletic enough to cause a big loss.

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
3rd and 3 10 vs. 4-1 Nickel blitz from the field side, cover three fire zone, out route to the flats complete before the seam defender can get there. Renfrow makes an incredible piroutting catch on the sideline to keep the play alive.
1st and 10 11 trips vs. 4-2 Fake inside zone, Bryant follows Fuller who does a good job blocking the OLB. Quick gain on first down. This zone counter is interesting a few times a game but it's a really slow developing play to lean on to consistently move the ball.
2nd and 5 10 vs. 4-1 Cover one, slants outside, Cain beats his man inside, makes the catch and falls forward. Hyatt got put on skates and nearly disrupted the play by being thrown into the balls path.
1st and 10 11 vs. 4-2 Inside zone read, handoff, massive hole opens between Falcinelli and Hearn, Fuller runs for an easy first down before fumbling, ball picked up by a rolling Richard. Boston College brought pressure and the linebackers were swallowed up by the offensive line, once Fuller got to the second level it was between him and the safeties.
1st and 10 10 trips vs. 4-1 QB counter to the trips side, brought down by the backside tackle after Falcinelli fell off his block. Shoestring tackle but that much penetration will still almost always kill a run.
2nd and 9 empty vs. 4-1 Ol cut block, quick pass to Richards knocked out, incomplete Richard nearly gave the fumble he recovered right back.
3rd and 9 10 vs. 4-2 Both LB's showing pressure, six man rush, C0, fade route to Overton who makes an incredible catch on the sideline for a gain of 23 Cover zero is all about who can make plays in man to man defense. Overton is 6'5" and manages to get both feet in bounds after turning 180 degrees in midair. Generally that guy beats three star cornerbacks.

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 11 vs. 4-3 over Inside zone handoff, good second level blocking, Choice one on one with the free safety and dragged down as he crosses the goal line BC's safeties, Denis Lukas in particular, were forced to make tackles in the run game repeatedly because Clemson was blocking the linebackers and defensive line. Not blowing them off the ball, neccesarily, but hat on a hat. Your safeties routinely having to make one on one tackles in open space will almost inevitably lead to big plays, especially once the defense is tired and a running back with the speed/fresh legs Etienne comes off the bench.

Touchdown! Clemson 14 BC 7

Boston College Ball, BC 25, 11:52

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 21 vs. 4-3 under Iso weakside, Robinson does a good job fighting through blocks and forcing the play outside, Terrell blitzes and bounces off the running back who stumbles before being taken down by Joseph Venables has been sending the corner from the boundary when the ball is on the opposite hash. Usually corner blitzes take too long to arrive but by taking advantage of where the ball is set the defense can create quick pressure.
2nd and 6 21 vs. 4-3 over Cover four, play action to a quick out to the near sideline, throw out of bounds, immediate pressure from the right side of the line Terrell is aligned off the receiver who can, if he executes right, make the catch. Renfrow made the same exact play last drive. Ultimately BC just wasn't able to take advantage of the oppurtunity consistently.
3rd and 6 10 vs. 4-2 Bullets blitz, cover zero, bubble screen and the tackle is missed by Muse, a sprinting Wilkins makes the tackle on the sideline after a gain of 12. A lot is made, rightfully, of Clemson's talent on defense. Not enough credit is given for how hard they play. Pursuit isn't a talent, pursuit is just being willing to run and able to judge angles but it plays a huge part in the defense's big play prevention.
Rumble, big man, rumble

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 12 vs. 4-3 over Power, Ferrell gets sealed inside by the kick out, running back bounces outside and beats Williams to the hole, brought down by Joseph backside If all 5'9" and 180 lbs of Carter doesn't show up and stonewall a 250 lb tight end this run might have gone for twenty more yards. Ryan Carter does not appear to be afraid to die.
2nd and 7 21 vs. 4-3 under Olb over the tight end blitz, iso weakside, Mullen makes a break for the running back at the snap and tackles him in the backfield. Alex Gibbs, a legendary OL coach, said he blocked safeties instead of corners because corners are, "as shitty as tacklers in our league as they are in yours". Clemson's corners physicality is an anomaly and one Reed and Venables deserve credit for.
3rd and 6 11 vs. DOD Offsides
3rd and 11 11 bunch vs. DOD Both ILB's rush, man cover one, Brown flushed out of the pocket but able to escape outside, throw to the flats broken up by Williams Jeff Smith is one of the Eagle's best weapons and they moved him around quite a bit to get good matchups. Your best WR on the opponents LB should be a win. BC wasn't wrong systemically, they just weren't good enough.

Punt

Clemson Ball, Clemson 10, 9:56

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 10 vs. 4-1 Inside zone handoff, five on five, Choice has five yards before he gets tackled by the nickel Five yards on first down sets up Clemson to do whatever it wants on second.
2nd and 5 11 vs. 4-2 Choice motions out of the backfield, QB power RPO, RB screen covered, Bryant follows Smith and falls forward for a first down. BC's defense is gassed, these dudes can barely get into their stances. Meanwhile Clemson's been rolling a basketball rotations worth of linemen out there to keep their offensive line fresh. BC can't bring extra bodies into the box without leaving screens open.
1st and 10 10 vs. 4-1 Inside zone handoff, five on five but Landry beats Anchrum to drag Choice down as he runs by, Choice falls forward for a solid gain I'm really glad Landry is a senior. That dude is a constant headache, let the NFL figure out how to deal with him.
2nd and 4 11 vs. 4-2 Nickel showing blitz, inside zone handoff and Clemson is outnumbered in the box, Choice still manages to fall forward behind a great block from Hyatt. BC is in cover one so the likeliest options were to try to throw it deep down the sideline, throw a slant or run and try to make the best of it.
3rd and 2 12 vs. 5-3 Both safeties walked down to the line of scrimmage, cover zero, inside zone read handoff and Feaster is met immediately by a mob of bodies, churns forward for a first down. Neither of the Tiger's TE's should scare anyone versus cover zero. If Clemson is only going to have two WR's on the field it's a good time to gamble, especially since they have to make a rare substitution to get into this package.
Clemson needs to show it can throw the ball out of 12 personnel as a tendency breaker or else we may only see this formation against overmatched teams

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 10 vs. 4-1 QB counter/draw, force defender doesn't take on his block that aggressively, good kickout block by the RB, Bryant falls forward. Pollard struggles with finishing off second level blocks but you love to see that he's already getting there. Hand placement can and will be taught.
2nd and 1 11 trips vs. 4-2 Inside zone, Feaster is tripped up in the backfield but falls forward behind Falcinelli and Simpson Clemson's overwhelming the Eagles with waves of linemen and bringing depth to bear.
1st and 10 10 vs. 3-3 Four man rush, inside zone read handoff, Simpson picks up the blitzing linebacker but he slides off to make the tackle. BC shifted its front in an attempt to get more speed on the field/confuse Clemson's OL.
2nd and 7 11 vs. 4-3 under OLB's blitz off the edges, slants to TE side, inside zone handoff and Etienne shakes the MLB, follows a block by Cain 20 yards downfield and cuts past the safety for a fifty yard touchdown. Tired guys making tackles in space make mistakes if you make them do it over and over again. Blitzing left the Eagles with six men behind the line of scrimmage as Etienne hit the second level.

Touchdown! Clemson 21, BC 7

Boston College Ball, BC 24, 5:34

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 11 trips vs. 4-2 Three man rush, DE to trips side drops, TE bracket covered by DE/LB, throw to the WR in the flats incomplete Ferrell and Williams take away Brown's first read. Brown has had massive problems throwing outside the hash marks for the entire quarter.
2nd and 10 11 trips vs. 3-3, Register at LB Three man rush, quarters, Register spying Brown, out route to the sideline caught but out of bounds Clemson keeps sitting in cover four and Brown makes the right read but until the passes are completed Clemson has no reason to get out of base defense.
3rd and 10 11 trips vs.4-2 Both linebackers show blitz, C4, snag route complete but tackled eaten alive by Carter Ryan Carter tackles well. Not neccesarily highlight reel tackles but he has great form.

Clemson Ball, BC 25, 4:26 left after a great McCloud return. Generally you never want your punt returner spinning 270 degrees then running backwards but McCloud made it work.

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 11 trips vs. 4-2 Inside zone read, Feaster carries the ball behind a Crowder/Anchrum double team for solid yardage If anyone on the roster was made for this game plan it's Crowder.
2nd and 4 10 bunch vs. 4-2 Inside zone read, DL stunt throws off the reads and the read key winds up slanting into the backfield, Feaster still able to fall forward Bryant made the right read to handoff, if he'd kept it the defensive tackle was stunting around the edge.
3rd and 3 11 trips vs. 4-3 Eight men in the box, cover zero blitz, Bryant rolls out and finds Cornell Powell open in the flats on a pivot route. Powell follows some blocks for thirteen yards. Rolling out nuetralizes the tired pass rush and Powell's man, a safety aligned ten yards off the ball, was beaten by alignment once Powell broke outside. This is the first pass Clemson has thrown since the fade route to Overton nearly eight minutes ago.
1st and goal 11 trips vs. 4-3 under Three linebackers blitz, cover zero, play action, fade route to Higgins falls incomplete Throwing at the 6'4" guy isn't a bad use of a down, DB just covered it perfectly.
2nd and goal 11 trips (unbalanced) vs. 4-3 under Jet sweep motion, fake option pitch opposite, QB counter and Bryant falls forward behind lead blockers for a touchdown We don't run the sweep or the pitch often but the counter keeps working on the goal line.

Touchdown! Clemson 27, BC 7

Boston College Ball, BC 25 2:45

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 12 trips vs. 4-3 over Play action to the trips side, roll out to the single tight end side and instant throw in the flats to Tommy Sweeney coming out of the backfield. With only one receiver aligned to the boundary there wasn't a third defender for the flats after someone accounted for the other tight end deep and the threat of a Brown keeper.
2nd and 2 12 vs. 4-3 over Two tight ends and a running back run snag, quarters coverage, Joseph blitzes off the edge and Xavier Kelly drops back into pass coverage, still four man rush, Brown makes the right read but the pass gets away from him and Terrell makes the heads up play. One of the major benefits of zone coverage is keeping defenders eyes on the quarterback, Terrell watched that pass into his hands. Brown cannot throw outside of the hashes from the pocket to save his life.

Clemson Ball, BC 42, 2:22

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 11 vs. 4-2 Power, bounced outside, Etienne follows his blocks and falls forward. Clemson has second stringers in at a lot of the OL positions.
2nd and 4 11 vs. 4-2 Inside zone, tight end seal backside, Etienne cuts it back, bounces off a tackler before being wrestled down by a BC safety, 18 yard gain. Etienne's acceleration is special
1st and 10 11 vs. 4-2 Buck sweep, solid blocks by Amari Rodgers and Cade Stewart, Etienne slips a tackle, hits the second level and gets an easy gain of six. BC's DL is coming out of their snaps high and getting blown off the ball.
2nd and 4 11 vs. 4-2 Power, bounced outside which is becoming a tendency of Etienne's, spins off a tackler and walks into the end zone. The OL+TE handled the DL+LB's. RB vs. Safety over and over again eventually leads to the safety screwing up.

Touchdown! Clemson 34, BC 7

Boston College Ball, BC 25, 0:45

Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
Down & Distance Formation Play Anaylsis
1st and 10 12 trips vs. 4-3 under Pin-pull zone, cut back behind an overpursuing Skalski, fortunately Xavier Kelly is in position to track down the running back. Simmons was in position to clean up the play as well.
1st and 10 12 trips vs. 4-3 under Pin-pull zone, Justin Foster takes on multiple blockers and frees up Shaq Smith to make the tackle at the line of scrimmage Depth won the game for Clemson and it's nice to see the defense get high upside backups on the field.

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