Tuesday November 27, 2007

South Carolina Game Worksheet

The South Carolina Game Worksheet
Offensive Goals Made
More than 225 yards passing-229
Fewer than two turnovers-1
Fewer than 3 sacks per game-2
More than 150 yards rushing- 214
More than 4 yards per carry- 4.7
More than 20 first downs- 26
Better than 60% pass completions percentage-73%

Offensive Goals Missed
Red Zone Scoring-80%- 60%
Red Zone-60% touchdowns- 20%
More than 27 points-23

Defensive Goals Made
Fewer than 18 first downs-17
Fewer than 125 yards rushing- 80
More than two turnovers-3

Defensive Goals Missed
Fewer than 3.5 yards per carry-3.8
Fewer than 18 points- 21
Fewer than 200 yards passing- 284
Less than 55% pass completion percentage- 58%
More than 3 sacks per game- 0
Red Zone-40% touchdowns- 100%
Red Zone Scoring-70%-100%

Penalty yardage fewer than 50 per game- 45

Overall Report Analysis-Grades and Comments:
Offense-Rushing
Interior running game- Thomas Austin and company controlled the line of scrimmage and James Davis had plenty of holes Saturday. Davis and C.J. Spiller hit some long ones on the Gamecocks as the running game was there all night.
Perimeter running game-I really liked the reverse and fake reverse packages. It looked like Spiller, Tyler Grisham and Nelson Faerber had plenty of room on the perimeter.
Option game- N/A.
Draws- N/A.
Short yardage running game- The Tigers were successful in converting the short-yardage runs but tried to throw the ball in short yardage as well.
Yards after contact- Davis ran through a few tackles and he and Spiller made some USC defenders look bad at times.

Offense-Passing
Pass protection-Excellent. I thought Cullen Harper had a lot of time most of the night and the offense was able to go downfield.
Underneath passing game- Good. Faerber’s touchdown pass was a cute underneath route where he faked outside and ran his route back inside.
Intermediate passing game- Good. Aaron Kelly had a huge night especially on the slants and intermediate routes across the middle.
Vertical passing game-Harper had shoulder issues and the Tigers only threw downfield a few times but Kelly had some big gains in the vertical passing game.
Screens- Kelly had a nice one and the Tigers hit a couple of others.
Drops- Clemson had a couple of dropped balls Saturday but overall I thought the backs and receivers caught the ball well.
Yards after catch- Excellent. Kelly refused to go down a few times.
QB throws on time- Very good. Harper looked confident and released the ball on time all night.

Offense-Overall
First down yardage- I felt like Clemson was able to control first down. The Tigers were able to set themselves up with very good second and third down possibilities for most of the evening.
Third down conversion- Six of 15 is pretty good but the conversion on 3rd and 18 was the biggest of the night even though it took two downs to do it.
Big Plays- The running game produced big plays and Kelly was able to turn in some big plays through the air.
Trick plays- N/A.

Defense-Overall
Tackling-For the most part I thought Clemson tackled pretty well. Boyd is a physical back but Clemson got him to the ground and held him to 3.9 yards per carry.
First down yardage- The Gamecocks were pretty good one first down but had so few opportunities.
Third down conversion- USC had only eight third downs and converted three.
Limit of Big Plays- McKinley had a couple of big pass plays but the rest of the Gamecocks were held in check.

Defense-Running game
Interior running game- Last year USC was able to run the ball on the Tigers but Clemson held the Cocks to 80 yards rushing. Boyd was held to 74 and Mike Davis had only two yards all night.
Perimeter running game- Non-existent. When Boyd headed East-West Clemson’s speed took over.
Option game- N/A.
Draws- A year ago USC killed Clemson on the draw but the Tigers shut down the draw game for South Carolina.
Short yardage running game- The Gamecocks tried to run the ball late but the biggest stop of the game came on South Carolina’s final offensive play. On the series Antonio Clay made the stops on the first two downs and I thought those were almost as big as the third down. In my opinion those should be considered short-yardage situations.
Yards after contact- Boyd broke some tackles but not as many as I expected.

Defense-Passing Game
Pressure- Even though the Tigers did not sack Mitchell they did force him to throw two picks. Rashaad Jackson’s pressure was a factor on his first interception where Chris Chancellor picked off the deep ball. Also pressure led to the Dorell Scott interception.
Underneath passing game coverage- The Gamecocks were able to turn a couple of underneath routes into big gains.
Intermediate passing game coverage-USC hit McKinley and LeCorn on some nice routes but Clemson did not allow any of the USC tight ends to become a factor.
Vertical passing game coverage- South Carolina hit the one post pattern for a touchdown but the rest was limited.
Screens-McKinley was dangerous here.
Passes broken up- Michael Hamlin had the two PBUs for the Tigers.

Open field tackling-This was a pretty good effort by the Tigers.

Special Teams
Kickoff returns- The Tigers had one 27-yard return but for the most part this was not a big game in this department.
Kick-off coverage- Excellent. Chris Culliver was not a factor.

Punt return/block- Two punt blocks in one game is unheard of. Great individual efforts by Faerber and LaDonte Harris. Without those efforts the Tigers do not win.

Punt coverage-Snap, protection, punt, coverage- Maners did not have a good night until he boomed the 55-yarder on the last punt to push the Gamecocks back to their own 12.

Field Goals/extra points-snap, hold, protection, kick- The two misses hurt but how can you complain after that game-winner.

Overall Team
Energy, Enthusiasm, Leadership- Excellent. I thought the team played with emotion all night. I will give Phillip Merling a lot of credit for his emotion. Also Courtney Vincent was another emotional player. The Tigers did not have the expected hangover after the BC game.

Coaching
Emotionally prepared-Great job by the staff and players to get this team emotionally ready.
Game plan- Excellent on both sides of the ball. Clemson had 84 plays offensively partly because of a sound plan. Defensively I thought this was a huge improvement.
Adjustments- Great adjustment to the USC injury to Carlos Thomas where Clemson picked on Addison Williams. I also thought the staff used Faerber well after Grisham’s injury.
Personnel-I still don’t understand James Davis not being in the game on short-yardage situations.
Time outs-Poor use of the timeouts in the first half hurt.

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency