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Clemson defensive numbers thus far

OrangeBowlMagic

OrangeBowlMagic

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Not a huge sample size, obviously. And you know they'll be more than jacked up to play us on Saturday night. But the more I look at their roster and their numbers, I really continue to maintain that this is not one of Clemson's better teams of the past 5 years. Here's where they stack up defensively so far:

I threw out the game against The Citadel. So this is only vs Wake and UVA. Not exactly murderer's row.

15th in YPP against (3rd, 2nd, and 2nd the last 3 years)
12th in points against (2nd, 1st, and 3rd the last 3 years)
11th in rushing defense (16th, 2nd, and 11th the last 3 years)
51st in passing defense (5th, 29th, and 5th the last 3 years) More on this: 281.5 YPG against those 2 teams mentioned above. Some garbage time in there, for sure.
Especially against Wake. But still, not very impressive. 7.0 YPA through 2 games....that would be the worst mark for a season since 2013. Also the 122 rating they've given up would be the most since 2013 as well.
6th in sacks (8th, 1st, and 2nd the last 3 years)
26th in TFLs (8th, 2nd, and 10th the last 3 years)
18th in 3rd down conversions allowed (13th, 5th, and 6th the last 3 years)
Only forced 2 turnovers in those 2 games. They forced 28 in 14 FBS games last year.

You get the point.

We know Venables is good. We know they are gonna be jumping out of their skin to play us, at home, in a top 7 matchup. These are the types of games they've owned in the past 5 years. But I really don't see the knockout, top end talent on this defense. They're young and inexperienced. I really think we can have success on offense against these dudes.
 
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if those stats include the Citadel then throw it out. what i saw out there was a lack of pass rush, susceptible pass defense, and a running QB that gashed them over and over again despite looking quite slow.

We win this game mostly on offense not on defense. Our offense has score 3 points in last 2 games against them. That's what has been missing.
 
they have been missing 2-3 key guys on their DL this far (Thomas, Davis and another). Those are dudes. I believe Davis is back for our game and there's a chance that Thomas may be as well.

I think losing guys like Muse and Simmons is huge for them
 
JD08 said:
In a strange turn of events, it doesn't seem like the posters here are very worried about putting up points, they're more worried about stopping the TL/ETN combo.
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As I’ve mentioned, in the recent past we haven’t been able to rely on the O to score a lot of points. We’ve had to rely on the D to keep the score to a minimum.
 
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AUcane said:
they have been missing 2-3 key guys on their DL this far (Thomas, Davis and another). Those are dudes. I believe Davis is back for our game and there's a chance that Thomas may be as well.

I think losing guys like Muse and Simmons is huge for them
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Xavier Thomas? He isn't playing this year at all unless something has changed
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Not a huge sample size, obviously. And you know they'll be more than jacked up to play us on Saturday night. But the more I look at their roster and their numbers, I really continue to maintain that this is not one of Clemson's better teams of the past 5 years. Here's where they stack up defensively so far:

I threw out the game against The Citadel. So this is only vs Wake and UVA. Not exactly murderer's row.

15th in YPP against (3rd, 2nd, and 2nd the last 3 years)
12th in points against (2nd, 1st, and 3rd the last 3 years)
11th in rushing defense (16th, 2nd, and 11th the last 3 years)
51st in passing defense (5th, 29th, and 5th the last 3 years) More on this: 281.5 YPG against those 2 teams mentioned above. Some garbage time in there, for sure.
Especially against Wake. But still, not very impressive. 7.0 YPA through 2 games....that would be the worst mark for a season since 2013. Also the 122 rating they've given up would be the most since 2013 as well.
6th in sacks (8th, 1st, and 2nd the last 3 years)
26th in TFLs (8th, 2nd, and 10th the last 3 years)
18th in 3rd down conversions allowed (13th, 5th, and 6th the last 3 years)
Only forced 2 turnovers in those 2 games. They forced 28 in 14 FBS games last year.

You get the point.

We know Venables is good. We know they are gonna be jumping out of their skin to play us, at home, in a top 7 matchup. These are the types of games they've owned in the past 5 years. But I really don't see the knockout, top end talent on this defense. They're young and inexperienced. I really think we can have success on offense against these dudes.
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Not sure why you would throw out The Citadel game for this season and then run the stats to compare to previous years when they played Charlotte and Wofford in 2019, Furman and Ga Southern in 2018, and Kent State and Citadel in 2017. Did you throw out those two games each year and then rank before the comparison with 2020.

To your point, Clemson has not been tested yet. I havent seen their rotation of players to know if and when their 2nd teams have come in and for now long each game to skew stats. Lots of uncertainty on D, but they recruited some ballers at DE and CB the last few years. Tyler Davis preseason All ACC DT sat the 2nd half last week, and preseason All ACC CB Derion Kendrick had some disciplinary issues and missed the first game.
 
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i think that's fair.

with our offense and special teams, we can generate points.

the problem is, our defense is really overmatched by their offense. which is why i think we lose in a relatively high scoring game
 
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thisu said:
Not sure why you would throw out The Citadel game for this season and then run the stats to compare to previous years when they played Charlotte and Wofford in 2019, Furman and Ga Southern in 2018, and Kent State and Citadel in 2017. Did you throw out those two games each year and then rank before the comparison with 2020.

To your point, Clemson has not been tested yet. I havent seen their rotation of players to know if and when their 2nd teams have come in and for now long each game to skew stats. Lots of uncertainty on D, but they recruited some ballers at DE and CB the last few years. Tyler Davis preseason All ACC DT sat the 2nd half last week, and preseason All ACC CB Derion Kendrick had some disciplinary issues and missed the first game.
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Yes. I never take FBS vs FCS numbers into account. Those are scrimmages against High School teams. You learn nothing with those games.

So I threw The Citadel game out this year and the last 3 year's numbers are always FBS vs FBS for all teams.
 
JD08 said:
This is a good problem to have because our defense is actually still pretty good.
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Their good, but not great. I would feel a lot better if we had good linebackers who are ready to go. right now, they just are not getting it done. I think we're good enough up front on the d-line and surprisingly on the back end.
 
The mistake I keep seeing the board make is completely underestimating their Corners.

Derion Kendrick & Andrew Booth are 2 very good cover corners & will be a real challenge for Wiggins & Pope.

Idc how their Safeties look, their CB's are two top of the line talented players & will not be some pushovers that our WR's will swim through. They are aggressive & play press man well, our WR's are gonna have to step up big time.

This team hasn't lost a game at Death Valley in 4 years, I'm as hopeful as anyone on the board that we can upset them, but a lot of yall (not you OP) are seriously psyching yourselves into thinking Clemson will be some kinda easy game for Miami, trust me it won't be.

Doesn't mean they're impossible to beat & I'm NOT saying we don't have a chance, I'm just saying this is a really good team, they've literally only lost ONE game in 2 years, just one & 5 games in 5 years, do yall understand how good you have to be to pull that off?
 
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Can we run the ball? Can we stay ahead of the chains? If the answer is "no," it's going to be a long night straight up. We do not have guys on the outside to win contested catches right now, which has always featured prominently in Clemson losses. I still, however, believe our biggest challenge is on defense. I think Rhett and King will put enough together to score 28-31 points. I just hope it is enough
 
Of their 6 scoring drives in the ACC Championship, 4 of them started in their own territory. Feagles averaged barely 37yds a punt and Bagley was 1 of 2 in FGs. Not saying ST play dramatically changes the result, but it would have helped. Add to that Rosier's 2 INTs and JT's 2 fumbles (he recovered 1 of them), we spent most of the game shooting ourselves in the foot. Inability to sustain drives (or even begin them) gave them a 10 minute difference in TOP. This year's team is light years ahead of that squad. If we don't win it sure as heck won't be as lopsided a loss as that game was.
 
Liberty City El said:
The mistake I keep seeing the board make is completely underestimating their Corners.

Derion Kendrick & Andrew Booth are 2 very good cover corners & will be a real challenge for Wiggins & Pope.

Idc how their Safeties look, their CB's are two top of the line talented players & will not be some pushovers that our WR's will swim through. They are aggressive & play press man well, our WR's are gonna have to step up big time.

This team hasn't lost a game at Death Valley in 4 years, I'm as hopeful as anyone on the board that we can upset them, but a lot of yall (not you OP) are seriously psyching yourselves into thinking Clemson will be some kinda easy game for Miami, trust me it won't be.

Doesn't mean they're impossible to beat & I'm NOT saying we don't have a chance, I'm just saying this is a really good team, they've literally only lost ONE game in 2 years, just one & 5 games in 5 years, do yall understand how good you have to be to pull that off?
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Please point out the people who think this will be some kind of easy game so I can immediately put them on ignore.

It's a football game, and Miami has a very good football team, IMO. So could Miami win and do so by more than a point or two? Sure. It's possible. But I can't imagine anyone with a brain cell who has followed both programs is literally expecting an easy win. This is one of the 2 absolute premiere programs in the country. Period. They are the standard right now, hate them or not. It's just a fact.

I'm only making these types of posts because I've been watching them and looking at their roster and I will maintain that I believe this team, right now, is a step below some of the teams in the past. But they're still insanely good. They have the best QB prospect of the past 15 years. He is absolutely capable of putting 50 up against literally any team in the country, including us. I'm just talking about their defense specifically in this thread, and I think there is going to be an opportunity for our offense to score some points. They might make me eat those words, we'll see. It certainly wouldn't shock me to see Venables win on Saturday night. He's the best in the business IMO. He's got a lot of highly ranked kids. But I think we've got a big advantage with our backs and TEs against their backers and safeties. I do not think they're going to put 4 first round kids on the DL this year like they did a couple years ago with Ferrell, Wilkins, Lawrence, etc. I think our OL can be decent. I think our TEs and backs can win. I think we can run the ball. And I think D'Eriq King gives this offense a chance to be very successful against literally anyone, Clemson included. If he plays his A game, I will not be surprised AT ALL if this offense is successful. We can score 30+ on these dudes, I really believe that. Can we hold them to 30 or so? Maybe, maybe not. But we've scored 3 points in the last 8 quarters against this program. That **** changes on Saturday night, I know that. I don't know if we'll win, but we're not scoring 0 or 3 points.
Go out and get 17 or so points in the first half. Put the pressure on their offense. See if you can't get them to make a mistake. I just think in years past, in order to beat a team like this, the defense had to be perfect. I don't think that's the case this year. If we can get a few stops per half, we can stick around and make them sweat in the 4th quarter, and we'll see what happens.
 
jmccomber5 said:
Can we run the ball? Can we stay ahead of the chains? If the answer is "no," it's going to be a long night straight up. We do not have guys on the outside to win contested catches right now, which has always featured prominently in Clemson losses. I still, however, believe our biggest challenge is on defense. I think Rhett and King will put enough together to score 28-31 points. I just hope it is enough
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The screen game is gonna have to be an extension of our run game.
 
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