Clemson defense shows its character in rise to challenges

Clemson's defense rose to the challenge in containing the Deacs.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sun Oct 08 11:56:52 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - Undoubtedly, the defense carried the Tigers to victory over the Demon Deacons.

They held Wake Forest to 12 points and prevented them from scoring when they had the ball at the Clemson nine-yard line. Senior safety RJ Mickens feels this shows how the defense stepped up to the challenge provided by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and the rest of the staff.

“That was something we really wanted to improve on going into this game was no points off of turnovers and red zone defense and Coach Swinney challenged us to do that and Coach Wes challenged us, and we really answered,” Mickens said. “I feel like we took a big step today, just (in) responding to adversity, going out there with the right mindset, no matter where the ball is.”

Going against an offensive line that had just given up eight sacks in their last game, this was an opportunity for the Tiger defense to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. They were successful in doing so, getting a total of four sacks in this game. Fifth-year defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro had one of those sacks, making this his second consecutive game with a sack.

“Our main focus was just to affect the line of scrimmage and to affect the quarterback. The quarterback is the captain of the offense, so we try to cut the head off the snake and that’s what we try to do,” Orhorhoro said. “So, we try to get back there and hit him as much as we could, and I think we did a pretty good job. Some we left out there and as a competitor, you always want that back. But, I think we did really good in containing this guy. He’s a really good quarterback, and so we just did our best to just stop him.”

Things were not easy for the defense either. In the first half, the Demon Deacons started four drives in Clemson territory. However, they were only able to come away with three points from those drives.

“It just shows a lot of character. It shows what the defense is made of. Whenever things don’t go your way, turnover over the ball and coming out of the red zone, and you got to go out there and respond,” Mickens said. “You just have to go out there and respond and have your offense’s back. I feel like we did that today. I feel like we went out there with the right mindset after a bad thing happened.”

After only having two penalties in the first half, the Tigers started to have more self-inflicting injuries in the second as they had four penalties. One of them was a controversial roughing the passer penalty against junior linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr that ultimately led to a 22-yard field goal by Wake Forest. Seeing your players be aggressive is never negative, although this is sometimes the price of that physicality.

“I still saw the ball in the quarterback’s hand, and he, really, I feel like when (I) hit him, the ball, his arm was right here, and at that point, I was like, ‘I’m already so close to him. I got to hit him,’” Trotter Jr said. “If I pull up and he pulls it down, then it could be a missed tackle. So I was just trying to make sure I got a hit on the quarterback there.”

Having such a strong defense helps the offense out a great deal, especially when they are struggling like they were against the Deacs. In the second half, the running game got going a bit more, which helped the Tigers maintain their lead. That was led by junior running back Will Shipley, who gives a lot of the credit to the defense and the coaches for keeping them in the game.

“I just love them to death. I was in the locker room hugging all of them, including (defensive coordinator) Coach Wes (Goodwin) and all the defensive coaches,” Shipley said. “They did a hell of a job for us … and really just the whole first half with how we were playing the fields. We were always backed up, giving it to them with really good field position. They played unbelievable, tremendous.”

The defense was missing a few pieces on the field, including junior cornerback Nate Wiggins and fifth-year cornerback Sheridan Jones. Thus, this bye week will allow the team to get a bit healthier for their upcoming game against Miami on Saturday, October 21.