Just re-watched last year's Clemson game

[The Flash]

What stood out to me:
1. Connor Shaw's speed. If slowed by injury, a major loss to our offense. BIG effect on the productivity of our offense, especially on 3rd down.
2. Play calling to our TE's. This can and MUST continue for us to be successful.
3. Kenny Miles running with determination, burst and second effort. This can and MUST continue for us to be successful. OL was average, at best, and still is.
4. Dropped passes by Clemson receivers. We might not be so lucky this time.
5. Great pass rush with just the front 4. This can and must continue.
6. Several Clemson plays where their ball carriers took missteps and fell down or ran into their own guys. This won't happen again.
7. Home field advantage, this obviously flips.

All this to say, it is going to be a close, tight game. The team that punts the best and that can manage a special teams or defensive score might make the difference.

[robgusc76]

Originally Posted by The Flash

What stood out to me:
1. Connor Shaw's speed. If slowed by injury, a major loss to our offense. BIG effect on the productivity of our offense, especially on 3rd down.
2. Play calling to our TE's. This can and MUST continue for us to be successful.
3. Kenny Miles running with determination, burst and second effort. This can and MUST continue for us to be successful. OL was average, at best, and still is.
4. Dropped passes by Clemson receivers. We might not be so lucky this time.
5. Great pass rush with just the front 4. This can and must continue.
6. Several Clemson plays where their ball carriers took missteps and fell down or ran into their own guys. This won't happen again.
7. Home field advantage, this obviously flips.

All this to say, it is going to be a close, tight game. The team that punts the best and that can manage a special teams or defensive score might make the difference.

ALot of that has to do with pressure up the middle. If the D-line can penetrate, it closes off running lanes.

[cofcgamecock9]

Completely agree about Connor. I re-watched the game two nights ago and I had forgotten exactly how dangerous he was with his feet. It really is unfortunate that he has been banged up the second half of the season. He is averaging less than 2 yards a carry through the last five games where he averaged about 5 yards a carry through the first 4 or 5 (and last year).

We need Connor to be mobile. I know the kid is a warrior and he will do everything he can to beat Clemson.

[The Flash]

What would be interesting and unexpected is if this game suddenly became a battle between second string QB's. If Taj were to get nicked up and if Connor can't be effective, this game would suddenly be our #2 vs their #2. I like our odds a lot, should that occur. No, I am not wishing an injury on Taj.....I am just saying this would be an interesting and unexpected drama to the game and to history, given the significance of this game.

[robgusc76]

I just feel like Clemson hasnt dealt with any kind of adversity this year. You can say the loss to FSU but they just got beat. If the football university is right, they have to have one of those games!

[cofcgamecock9]

To add to this thread. I just re-watched the Arkansas game... Just got finished. That Wofford game is leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths, but the play calling in that game was so vanilla (I went over this play by play in another thread).

If we play like we did against Arkansas (or UT the week before), we will beat Clemson.

I am not sure what happened against Wofford, but it is amazing to watch the play calling against Arkansas and then watch the play calling against Wofford.

They were completely different. And I am not criticizing the coaches. I am sure they had their reasons. I am just saying that it was completely different. That is not just my perception either. If you watch the Ark game and the Wofford game back to back, you will see that it looks like two completely different offensive schemes.

[robgusc76]

Originally Posted by cofcgamecock9

To add to this thread. I just re-watched the Arkansas game... Just got finished. That Wofford game is leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths, but the play calling in that game was so vanilla (I went over this play by play in another thread).

If we play like we did against Arkansas (or UT the week before), we will beat Clemson.

I am not sure what happened against Wofford, but it is amazing to watch the play calling against Arkansas and then watch the play calling against Wofford.

They were completely different. And I am not criticizing the coaches. I am sure they had their reasons. I am just saying that it was completely different. That is not just my perception either. If you watch the Ark game and the Wofford game back to back, you will see that it looks like two completely different offensive schemes.

I feel like playcalling is like that everytime we have a "Should be an easy win" game right before a big game. It you go back and watch the citadel game b4 clemson last season, it was probly alot of the same, Wofford had a pretty solid defense though. Still could have been way worse.

And there is no way you can convice me that this team wasnt looking ahead to Clemson.

[cofcgamecock9]

Originally Posted by robgusc76

I feel like playcalling is like that everytime we have a "Should be an easy win" game right before a big game. It you go back and watch the citadel game b4 clemson last season, it was probly alot of the same, Wofford had a pretty solid defense though. Still could have been way worse.

And there is no way you can convice me that this team wasnt looking ahead to Clemson.

Probably right and it makes me feel better to watch the Arkansas game. It really is amazing the difference in the play calling. Couple of quick examples.

Against Arkansas, SC had a good number of plays where Connor actually dropped back and looked down field. The first TD to Jerrell Adams is one example, but there are plenty more.

We also had a few play action passes out of I where Connor threw it downfield. Connor had good protection on these even though they didn't connect.

We did none of this against Wofford. This is what we did against Wofford the ENTIRE game...

Shotgun Zone Read with Connor not keeping it once on a true zone read. He handed it off every time if it was a running play. Every pass play was a short WR screen or a quick dump off to a RB. We didn't go downfield at all.

[cofcgamecock9]

The only thing I saw in the Arkansas game that we really need to improve on is tackling. Our secondary took too many bad angles and missed tackles. That needs to be improved.

I still feel comfortable that we beat Clemson if we play just like we did against Arkansas, but I am just saying that the poor angles and bad tackling was about the only problem I saw in that game.

[talon]

last year CU played Man to Man D when we threw. This let Connor run behind them. I think they will play Zone and make Connor beat them underneath. If they do we must abuse their LB with the TE when they spy against Connor.