Clemson vs. Pitt 2nd Quarter

Folks, it’s good to be back. And I think our Clemson Tigers gave us exactly what we expected to see from them after a brutal close loss to Notre Dame and subsequent cancellation from FSU: an utter annihilation of our opponent in the first half, followed by rotating a second half that was mostly focused on rotating in guys to help solidify depth. So pretty much what we’ve come to expect from a conference game against not-Syracuse for the past few years. My thought going into this season was that Dabo’s heavy dose of rotational football would help consistency in a chaotic season, in which some teams are a batch of tests away from half-a-postion-group being ineligible to play, and I think this was further proven to be the case after watching a defense with 3 starters left almost hang on to beat a good Notre Dame team.

Speaking of which, I want to give props to a guy who started out as a non-starter but who I’ve been impressed with the last two games: Joseph Charleston. I’ve gotten some pushback on it, but I think he’s performed well in place of Lannden Zanders, and honestly think he’s an improvement in a sense. He’s got very good range in coverage and I think his instincts and awareness have improved as he’s gotten more playing time over the course of the season. That ability to swarm the ball with pace while also taking good angles is something I think we’ve sorely missed this season, and I’m looking forward to watching him grow. Between his and Trenton Simpson’s emergence on defense, not to mention the two freshmen phenoms on the line, we’re going to get to see a young, exciting defense try to put it all together in December.

Also, before we get into the film review, I was reminded in the replies last game (err, last film review) that I have been throwing in funny words into my film review drive charts without offering any sort of glossary for defining them. Because I was hired to help with film reviews during the season, I wasn’t able to type up a reference article for all of the different names of fronts/stunts/blitzes/coverages that I’d like to do. So below, I’ll break down some of the defensive calls, what they mean, and explain why I think they can be good to know.

Essentially, I’d like to start referring to Venables’ front calls on each play instead of just settling for 4-3/3-4, if I’m able to identify them from the broadcast angle.

The reason for this is two-fold: for one, it’s usually hard to identify the coverage we’re playing because the broadcast angle zooms in on a more condensed view of the field, which might leave out safeties or corners. Because I don’t have access to the All-22 (or “Coaches Film”) which shows all 22 players on offense/defense the field in a clear manner (unless you’re playing Wake), I’m relying on the fronts because they’re usually attached to the coverages and being able to identify them will help both me and the reader to identify what all is going on from our end (hopefully) even with the limitations the broadcast angle imposes.

I’ll be doing a deep-dive on this in the offseason most likely, but for now here are the most common fronts that Venables uses and what they entail as far as alignment goes:

Bench = 4-3 alignment, nose (1-tech) is aligned toward the boundary, 3-tech is aligned to the field

Field = 4-3 alignment, nose (1-tech) is aligned toward the field, 3-tech is aligned to the boundary

Over = 4-3 alignment, 3-tech aligned to the TE side

Okie = 3-4 alignment, Nose is in 0, DTs are in 4i alignment with a Boundary “Jack” player walked up on the boundary side near the line of scrimmage. You’ll also see my refer to “Okie Dime” or “Okie 6-pack” which just means that we’re playing with 7 guys in coverage.

Those are by far the most common in Venables’ calls. An important thing to note is that unlike a lot of DCs, the Nose is ALWAYS aligned to the call. Therefore Nose to the boundary (Bench) is call-side, and Nose to the field (Field) is call-side

Carman absolutely whiffs on the DE’s stunt, who uses a nice inside swim move to get inside pressure. Etienne also gets blown up, but he’s a running back, and at least he made the rusher go through a body.

Hey, good for Pitt :)

You have to give it up for Cornell Powell. This is just deep route running 101. Watch the way Powell stacks the corner at the end to put his body in the way of the ball. This is also an excellent job by Powell of “tracking” the football, which Trevor did a good job leading him with, but I thought should have been a little more outside. And I’ve yet to mention hauling it in one-handed with a DB hanging on you. Dabo probably doesn’t get enough credit as being the best WR coach in college football and consistently developing his receivers, with Powell being another success story, but it’s clear that Powell came in and worked hard this off-season, and he deserves immense credit for his reliably excellent play this season.

Clemson proceeded to go 3 and out on the next possession, thanks in large part to a 1st down sack that set them way off schedule. This game was another in the long line examples of Clemson dominating our conference opponents in the 1st half and then rotating heavily into the 2nd half (and honestly 2nd quarter in the instance of this game), so I didn’t glean much from the 2nd half. On to the Hokies!