I listened to a Clemson podcast during a long drive today. Apparently S Carolina had success early running up the middle against them (I didn’t see game) but abandoned the run when they went down 14-0.
Defensively, it seems like they think they get a numbers advantage because they think Wilkins will draw a double team every time. The CBs haven’t been great on the outside, but they don’t think they will need to totally stack the box to stop our run game. They mentioned the CBs being healthy now due to a bye week followed by Citidel late in the year.
Their defense has been shutting teams down all year. From what I heard, the deep ball is where they are most suspect. I don’t think we can go 4 verts and launch it deep every down like I’m playing my little cousin in madden, but we will need to hit the big plays. Nobody sustains drives against them. And with our questionable punter, they can start winning the field position battle in a hurry.
Seems like offensively this is what they have relied on this year. They are the worst top 10 team in big plays, and they don’t sustain drives well either. But when given the short field, they have had enough success to be ranked No. 1 going into this weekend. That should tell you all you need to know about their D.
They’ve also apparently been good at limiting turnovers, but these guys were nervous that Bryant tends to throw high, and that he hasn’t had to face a scheme like ours that has DBs looking into the backfield while he has to throw over the middle. They mentioned Bryant needing to make sure he accounts for all defenders - seems like we might hear a “the QB didn’t even see him” from Herbstreet Sat night.
They also mentioned a numbers advantage on offense because of Bryant’s ability to run, and mentioned our LBs tendency to hit the same gap, potentially opening lanes for QB to run through. Sounds like his legs are big part of game plan.
By the end of the podcast, I thought we had a better chance of winning than I did before it started. I think Clemson beats us 7 or 8 out of 10 times, but it’s just setting up right. Don’t forget, Malik has hit a lot of those deep balls this year. He likes throwing those more than anything else. He was awful vs Pitt, yes. But if he can connect on a few of them, if we can get a big play or 2 from our defense, if we dont then the ball over, and if we can at least get a few first downs to win field position battle and shorten the game, I think we can sneak out with a W.
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