That's not what I saw. Now, I have not done a play by play breakdown and watched players individually to grade them, so I admit to the possibility of being wrong. I did watch the game twice. I did not see Curry as a/the weakspot. DL seemed like the glaring weakspot, which can make very good LB group look bad (and a very good DL can make a mediocre LB group look good). It's the same thing we had going on in '99. We had pretty good LB's in 99 with a young Wimbush leading the way, but the DL was weak at the point. When I paid attention (which was on replays of Clemson's biggest gash running plays), it looked like our DL was at best not penetrating or even fitting in their gaps and at worst getting pushed back into the LB level. A perfect example is on one of Etienne's early scores (maybe a 15'ish yard TD run, untouched). Curry fit in the B-gap, which is where an ILB should fit, and J.Henderson, playing DE should have had the C-gap (or been the force/leverage guy setting the edge), but Henderson got totally handled, like really badly handled and pushed back to the LB level creating a huge gap for the RB to go through untouched. And, so the LB looks bad because it looks like he should have flowed to the outside to make the tackle, but in reality, he's fitting where he's supposed to fit, and if everybody is just doing a decent (not great) job, then he's able to make the play. Instead, it's a gash for 6-pts, and the LB is shaking his head, and the DE is clapping his hands in disgust at himself.
That was my interpretation of the most plausible explanation of that play. I could be wrong. It could be that Henderson was coached (or thought the call was) to to try to shoot inside and then he got washed down by the OT, in which case Curry should've flowed outside to clean up the RB spilling it out. The point is, it seems like it would be impossible to know who isn't doing their job if you don't know the call.
Overall, I liked the look and feel of our defense and have a good feeling about its POTENTIAL to be better than we've had with the last three schemes (though I still don't think our last DC was given a chance and should not be judged on his one year, I truly though his scheme had potential as well). One thing I was most disappointed in was our inability to get to the QB, especially when sending a lot of people, but not being able to win any one-on-ones in pass rush. To be great, that HAS to change. Our secondary and nicely designed coverages kept them from scoring 100.
