Thursday September 09, 2010

PC Goals

PC Goals
The coaches can't say it and the players would never admit it but Saturday is another inferior opponent. In fact, I can't remember a game where the talent gap between two teams have been any greater.

Still there are a few things the Tigers could work on in an attempt to improve before the meat of the schedule hits starting next week.

Last week I wrote two blogs about what I wanted to see from the Tigers on each side of the ball in the season opener. Several of the goals were accomplished by the Tigers including:
1. Pressure the Passer-The Tigers had six sacks and six quarterback pressures.
2. Field Position-The defense did not get off of the field but Zimmerman and Gilchrist bailed out the defense.
3. Depth-27 Defensive players played
4. Control the Line of Scrimmage-Clemson had 13 tackles for loss.
5. No Injuries-Miguel Chavis went down early but he should not miss significant time.
6. Discipline-The Tigers had no late hit penalties and did not bust coverages.

Here is a look at the four things the defense did not get accomplished in the opener but have another chance in the year's second game:

Linebacker Play
Clemson started a freshman and two sophomores at linebacker Saturday. Needless to say this was not their best game. In fact the staff did not play a lot of the 4-3 defense instead opting for 75 snaps of nickel and dime. Apparently Tig Willard did not have a great game and Quandon Christian only played eight plays. Look for better linebacker play in this week's contest.

Tackling
The number of missed tackles was alarming. I thought the Tigers played too high on defense and the staff said they had not seen poor tackling efforts in the fall camp but it was a huge issue in the opener. Tackling has to improve starting this week.

Aggressive Plan
Clemson did not load the box and did not utilize a lot of blitzes. I doubt we will see a lot of aggressive calls this week either but the Tigers should not need them.

Score
We have talked about an aggressive game plan where the Tigers could get up field and disrupt the PC offense and one of the benefits of this type of aggressiveness could lead to a defensive score. Kevin Steele wants to dominate the opponent and a score from the defense Saturday would definitely set the tone. Clemson forced two turnovers but did not come close to scoring on defense last week.

The offense accomplished several this we brought up before last week's game including:
1. Wide Receivers Emerge-Hopkins, McNeal and Brown had excellent first games.
2. Harper’s Confidence-Jamie Harper ran extremely hard and looked like a new back.
3. Ellington Excellence-Andre Ellington set the tone early with his 60-yard touchdown run.
4. Lack of Penalties-The Tigers limited offensive penalties in the opener.
5. Rhythm-The offense did not have the ball very long and hit on big plays but they appeared to be in rhythm.

Here is a look at the five things the offense did not get accomplished in the opener but have another chance in the year's second game:

Efficiency in the O-Line
The offensive line did not play a bad game against North Texas but they did not dominate either. David Smith was recognized for his efforts and is now listed as the starter at left guard. I am not sure any of the other starters had their best games but I would expect better play this week.

Second-team Offensive Linemen
Phillip Price played 19 plays. Mason Cloy played 16 snaps. Brandon Thomas played 14. Sanders played six, Ramsey and Simmons played three. I would look for even more time from the back ups this week.

McDowell’s Role
Rod McDowell played only six snaps and had two carries for five yards. His excellent fall camp has the staff excited and I would think we could see McDowell get his first significant playing time coming up this Saturday.

Parker Crisp
Kyle Parker got off to a rough start but he did improve as the game went on. He was victimized but a couple of drops early as well. He did settle into the game and looked sharper after the second quarter on. Dabo said Parker did not play his best or worst game Saturday. I would look for a more crisp effort in the short time we see Parker this week.

Boyd’s First Action
Tajh Boyd only played six plays in the opener as the Tigers could not blow out the Mean Green. Boyd did not look sharp in his first action but he should have a chance to settle down and get more experience this week. I think we could see Boyd the entire second half against PC.

I don't blame any Clemson fan for being upset with the fact that the Tigers start this season with two inferior opponents but I do think it is fair to point out that there is a lot of things to watch for this weekend. Had the Tigers dominated North Texas and had few issues arise then I too may have been bored with this upcoming game. However that is not the case. Clemson has a ton of room to improve and that improvement better come this weekend. So I will take interest in this game to check out the linebackers. I want to see if the Tigers tackle better and take better angles. I want to see which wide receivers progress. I want to check out Rod McDowell and Tajh Boyd in more snaps than we saw last week.

If there was one positive that came from last week's game in terms of this week it is the fact that I will be more interested to see if the Tigers can fix these issues.

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