Gameplans on O & D- What do you expect?

[Garnet girl]

Originally Posted by jch81

Clemsons defense will be the key. Last week NC ST was just throwing the ball over the top of the secondary. Although Glennon is probably a better qb than Shaw, he will have no problem doing the same thing if the secondary doesnt get in better position. Add to the fact that 4 Clemson db's are out for this game means I wouldnt be surprised to see Spurrier take some chances downfield tom. night.

Shaw may have to throw only since he has a bad foot. We do have lots of guys that catch the ball. Of course we would like Shaw to run.

[Blackland]

I expect a lot of three and outs on offense. I expect our D to give up a lot of yards but hold in the red zone. The game will come down to special teams play and who makes the least number of mistakes.

[MWard]

I think we end up netting around 200 yards of rushing, trying to eat clock and score points. Also Celmshun will go with quick passes as they know you can only keep our front 4 at bay for so long. cu's D will probably put 8 in the box and try and make us throw. We'll play some zone with 1 deep safety.

[Acockolypse Now]

Good post.

On offense we HAVE to play ball control and eat up some clock. If our offense doesn't have sustained drives, we'll be in trouble. Clemson does a nice job of running up tempo, and if we leave the defense on the field all night they'll wear down and give up big plays.

So that's 1, keep the ball, and drive the ball.

To do that we'll need to run the ball effectively, and get the TE's involved early. There's no way Clemson's D can match up with our TE's, and hitting those guys early and often will open up the run game.

While we can go vertical on them (lord knows everyone else has) I'm hoping we don't try it too often. Ace, Byrd and Ellington can all get behind Clemson's defense, but Connor struggles to make that throw (frankly). If Dylan's in I say go for it, but if it's Connor I'd like us to do it enough to keep them honest and pull the safety back. Spurrier has a habit of going for the kill if it's open, and he'll continue to call the play if Connor just misses it because it's wide open. Still, if he can't hit it, it won't matter.

I'm not that worried about Kenny running the ball. He's much more patient now, and has found a knack for getting that extra seam instead of just running into the back of the linemen if the hole isn't there. Davis provides a nice change of pace, but we need to try to get him to the edge more. I'd also like to see us run some motion sweeps to Ace and Bruce. Clemson's defense will give up the big play, so getting the ball into the hands of those two will be important. If we're able to stretch the field, we'll be able to dink and dunk down the field all day.

Key, as always with us, is the offensive line. I don't know which one will show up tomorrow, and neither do you.

As for our defense, we have a huge task ahead of us.

Go ahead and tell yourself that Clemson has a gimmick offense, and that it's easy to stop. I hate to break it to you, but it's simply not true. Bryant, Nuke, and Watkins are the best WR trio we've faced all year. If we don't get disruption on the line early, it's going to be a long night for us. Tahj is doing a much better job of running the ball this year, so we'll need to keep someone spying him, and my guess is we'll try to stay disciplined on the d-line and stay in our lanes. Because of this I wouldn't be surprised to see more blitzing this week than usual. If you don't get to Tahj before 3 seconds it won't matter anyway. Our secondary has struggled at times this year, but the changes Whammy made against Arkansas paid real dividends, so I'd expect more of the same. DJ will be moved all over the field, and my guess is that we'll disguise our coverages a lot more than we have in the past.

The way I see it, if we can start off strong on offense, sustain some drives and get an early lead, we can beat them the same way we beat them last year. If we get down by two scores, it's probably over, because we're just not built to erase large leads against a team that can score as quickly as Clemson can. We're faster and stronger than any team they've faced this year (including FSU), but don't fool yourself, Clemson has seen what our team has to offer last year, so they're not going to be shocked by it.

Hopefully Spurrier will have enough motivation going into this game to really get after it and game plan up a winner.

I'm a little reserved about this one, because Clemson is firing on all cylinders right now, and we've regressed a little due to injuries. We've also played very poorly on the road, and Tater Town will be jacked-up for this one.

This would be a really fun game to watch if you weren't a fan of either team. As it is, I expect a gut-wrenching night tomorrow.

[MillerTime843]

Kenny Miles will have a new career rushing total after this game! Expect our O-line to be hyped up and play very well. And on defense, expect DJ, Taylor, Shaq, Damario, Devonte and Byron to play extremely hard! I promise this Defense will not LET UP!

[eatlighting]

Originally Posted by MillerTime843

Kenny Miles will have a new career rushing total after this game! Expect our O-line to be hyped up and play very well. And on defense, expect DJ, Taylor, Shaq, Damario, Devonte and Byron to play extremely hard! I promise this Defense will not LET UP!

I'm thinking Kenny will be EXTREMELY motivated in this game. He's going to leave it all out on the field, and I just don't see anyone from clemscum being man enough to stop him, with or without the O-line. He's going to run all over them, win or lose.

Originally Posted by Acockolypse Now

Tahj is doing a much better job of running the ball this year, so we'll need to keep someone spying him, and my guess is we'll try to stay disciplined on the d-line and stay in our lanes. Because of this I wouldn't be surprised to see more blitzing this week than usual.

I say we take the gamble and let him try to beat us with his legs. It chews more clock, it would wear him out and beat him up, and it allows us to focus more on defending what they really want to do--pass.

I think we see a lot of blitzing, too, However, we MUST create pressure with just the four man rush as much as possible. Really, this kind of O feeds on an overly aggressive D because it counts on the D to be sucked into the wrong place. That's why you see Tajh "under pressure" from time to time, and yet, he's able to still make the play work. It's not because he's good under pressure. He's actually not. It's because the play was designed to draw the defense away from a certain area of the field. This is their bread and butter. The better option is to just create as much pressure as you can up front and just stay disciplined in coverage. Then that "fake pressure" becomes real and Tajh can't handle it when he runs out of room with no one to throw to. This is where it helps us to have big, fast, strong d-linemen. Tajh can shake those little guys from Wake if they happen to get their hands on him. If Clowney grabs him, he's on his way down.

[GamecockInHell]

I hate the games when it looks like we can take advantage of some "weakness" of the other team. It seems like we always end up screwing up. We just need to play our game. Of course every now and then Spurrier comes up with a game plan that just plain rocks like the Missouri and uga games.

[ThisMr X]

Originally Posted by jch81

You havent played against receivers and tes like you will face sat. either though. Clemson does this regardless so you will get your wish. I just wouldnt be so confident about that.

What good are receivers when the qb is on his back?

[mick66]

Originally Posted by eatlighting

I'm thinking Kenny will be EXTREMELY motivated in this game. He's going to leave it all out on the field, and I just don't see anyone from clemscum being man enough to stop him, with or without the O-line. He's going to run all over them, win or lose.



I say we take the gamble and let him try to beat us with his legs. It chews more clock, it would wear him out and beat him up, and it allows us to focus more on defending what they really want to do--pass.

I think we see a lot of blitzing, too, However, we MUST create pressure with just the four man rush as much as possible. Really, this kind of O feeds on an overly aggressive D because it counts on the D to be sucked into the wrong place. That's why you see Tajh "under pressure" from time to time, and yet, he's able to still make the play work. It's not because he's good under pressure. He's actually not. It's because the play was designed to draw the defense away from a certain area of the field. This is their bread and butter. The better option is to just create as much pressure as you can up front and just stay disciplined in coverage. Then that "fake pressure" becomes real and Tajh can't handle it when he runs out of room with no one to throw to. This is where it helps us to have big, fast, strong d-linemen. Tajh can shake those little guys from Wake if they happen to get their hands on him. If Clowney grabs him, he's on his way down.

Good points. Our D played really disciplined last year and if there is any advantage to coming off playing an option team (Wofford) its that the guys had the importance of playing their assignment drilled into their heads.

[mick66]

Originally Posted by mick66

Just wondering what everyone is expecting to see from SC and Clemson. In particular, should we expect to see more I formation? Unless Shaw's much healthier than anyone is letting on, I doubt we'll run much zone read unless we have a lead late, as A. he won't be as effective and B. they won't want to risk aggravating his injury. Really hoping we run, run, and run some more. Both Miles and Davis could really be effective against these guys. On Clemson's D, Shaw torched them last year when they went man coverage both running and passing, so I'd guess they'd run a lot of zone if we do go zone read.
For Clemson, you'd have to think they'll do whatever they can to prevent Boyd from getting his world rocked, particularly early in the game. I'll bet they'll have 2 guys assigned to Clowney all game, and as a result I'll bet Ward will move him around a lot like he did early in the year. Expecting to see a lot of jet sweeps and their typical razzle-dazzle, as well as some bombs when they go max protect. I hope our DBs get very physical with their WRs both to establish the tone and to give our DL more time to get to Boyd.
Don't be surprised if Clowney completely goes off in this game. Between it being a rivalry game, him being in the final three for Bednarik award and getting called out by Dalton Freeman, we might see something special.

I didn't have to be a genius to see that one coming. (Haha, probably bad form to go back and quote my own prediction.) Any Dalton Freeman sightings after the game? Ward did end up moving Clowney around, particularly in the first half. I wonder if Morris planned on double-teaming him and couldn't find him, or if he just thought he could be handled one on one?

[2000grad]

Like I said, no adjustments by Morris

[Acockolypse Now]

WAY easier than I thought it would be.