Clemson has a great D. Will somebody offer Venables 4 mil to take over an SEC school?
Watson, who I doubted as a frosh, has turned into a possible first draft pick. Besides Williams, they had above average skill players. Watson makes that offense go, without him they're just another screen team.
They shut us down for most of the game. I think if Clemson can get past Louisville, they will be tough to stop. I'll be watching that game to see how Louisville fares against their D.
Our team:
Hard to tell in person but it looked like they played us with the safeties in the alley until it was 3rd and long. We didn't get separation anywhere passing despite the lack of safety help. Pass pro was poor, but Clemson will make a lot of teams look bad this year. Running it looks like we just got punched in the mouth early and woke up in the 3rd. At least we fought off the goose egg, but I had flashes of last year's offense and didn't like it one bit. When everything you try gets stuffed, you're in trouble. I expect Clemson to be a lot more talented than us...this has been the case most of my life. What I don't expect is to put single digits in offensive yards against them in a half. Usually option teams go back to the triple if they are getting their stuff pushed in. We didn't, which tells me we aren't proficient at the triple yet. We better get that way.
Defense played well second half. Still missed some big plays, but Watson will do that to a lot of teams. They had bad field position most of the night but kept fighting. Tough luck on the safety, but it was that sort of night. Other than the opening drive, I thought they played well.
Bottom line, it sucks to get whipped but it happens. Our OL and skill players got to see what type of monsters we will need to block . It won't always be 30 yard plays. Sometimes you have a great play and get 7 yards because of defensive talent. We just have to string them together, ala Miami in 14. It can be done, we just arent there yet. I hope we get there soon.
Miami brings a lot less disciplined and talented D this week, but bring just as potent of an offense. If we don't want to get embarrassed again, we better find our mojo.