Clemson vs. Georgia Tech Film Review: 1st Quarter

It’s nice to know that some things are constants in these turbulent times. At this point, especially in sports writing circles, that phrase has become Doeren-level hack in 2020, but I think it bears repeating. In an exceedingly chaotic world, I find small comforts when the sports world exhibits unbreakable sameness: Lebron appearing in the NBA Finals, the Jets being atrocious, Atlanta sports letting their various fan bases down, the Clemson Tigers going scorched earth through our conference slate.

Some will be quick to point out that the latter hasn’t been nearly as much of a historical constant as the other things I’ve included as examples. For one, it’s true that as recently as 2014, the very opponent I’m writing of beat us by a whopping triple-TD margin (the worst kind of Triple T’s IMO). But we don’t talk about that anymore because for the last half-decade we’ve been dominant against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Whether pandemic or no-pandemic, flexbone or power spread, Clemson has not allowed Georgia Tech to get closer than two scores, and this weekend’s game was the biggest, most violent blowout of them all: a 73-7 thrashing in which a PUNTER played QUARTERBACK for significant snaps (I will not be reviewing that drive, and to be fair it’s unlikely I could hold it together enough to even begin to review that moment of the game).

Another constant I’m grateful for is this Clemson Film Review section itself. I’ve been keeping up with it for the past 4 years or so, and truth be told, this series (along with the other great schematic breakdown articles from Alex Craft, DBBM, and Dr. B) was the catalyst for starting my path of studying the meta-chess-game that occurs inside every football game. In fact, I’m pretty sure I can pinpoint the moment that it all was set in motion: one of Alex’s reviews contained the word “constraint play”, which I later googled only to stumble onto Chris Brown’s great (but now defunct) Smart Football blog, which in turn led me to follow a bunch of great writers and football minds on Twitter. Five years ago I had no clue what 11 personnel signified. Now I’m in a Discord server with 50 high school coaches. What a journey it’s been!

Now, after a summer of great cultural/political/social turbulence that I feel I’ve done my due diligence grappling with in an inquisitive and thoughtful manner, I admit that it was nice when September came and I was once again able to distract myself by going through the film with my friends Alex and DBBM during the week. So, when an opportunity arose to join them in breaking down the replay of each of the individual quarters of the most recent Clemson game, I jumped at the chance.

I’ve still got plenty of work to do to attain a clear understanding of the moving parts that take place in a given play that those guys possess, especially the specifics of each opponent’s scheme, but I hope that my deep dive into the Morris and Venables playbook this off-season will afford me a decent enough understanding of what we’re doing, so as to provide an adequately faithful interpretation of what’s actually occurring during the run of a play. If anyone wants to offer their own perspective, correct a faux pas I will inevitably commit, or just talk football, I encourage you to do so in the comments.

For the first time all year Clemson starts on defense and forces the 3 and out.

A rare fumble from Etienne kills what could have been a promising drive.

The Clemson defense comes to the rescue and forces the 3 and out. Once again, Venables is a master of preventing damage when Clemson turns the ball over.

Clemson puts together a nice and efficient drive. Powell gets a chance to show off his skill and Lawrence drops in a great throw.

And, of course, Georgia Tech shows a smidge of life and strikes back immediately. A nice call here coupled with Goodrich not getting in position led to the quick touchdown.

A gorgeous deep ball to Rodgers gives Clemson the lead, and KJ Henry takes advantage of a GT mistake for an easy turnover. It doesn’t get much better for Georgia Tech after this.

Clemson’s defense continues to pound Simms when possible, and the rest of the time the secondary is doing a great job in coverage.

Stupid commentator. 100% his fault.