All-TigerNet [12547]
TigerPulse: 86%
Posts: 12248
Joined: 11/21/11
|
Thoughts at 2-2
Sep 25, 2021, 9:03 PM
|
|
1. It doesn't matter how elite your defense is, if your offense can't score more than 14 points in four quarters, you are going to have a hard time winning games.
2. We may very well lose 6 games this year.
3.It is hard to believe that recruits we garnered in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, during a two natty run, are now unable to score against the likes of Georgia Tech and NC State, and maybe anybody not named South Carolina State.
4. Our defense keeps us in games this year, but when that defense starts to get worn down on the season, we will be out of games early and often. May be out by halftime.
5. When we get injuries, we go big. Not just a nick here and there, we're talking Breese, Davis, Skalski, Ross, Shipley, etc.
6. Not being a contender this season is really not the big deal. Six straight playoffs, 4 national finals, 2 natioinal championships do not just continue without having an off year from time to time. The disaster that is this year is that its not like anyone in our league jumped up and started playing at a high level and caught us. Rather, we have an offense that is looking up at everyone in the league. I really don't know of a single offense that is worse than ours. And my main concern is not this season, but the program for the future. The QB from Texas seems to be a good one, but he will be a true freshman next year. We could be looking at a two or three year period of offensive struggles. And we will likely not have a defense as good as this one.
7. DJ is trying, but honestly, I just don't know if the light is ever gong to come on there. He is playing behind a bad offensive line, and in an offense with no identity or scheme. Having said that, it seems like DJ's game has a long ways to go. He's just too tight in there.
8. What is our offensive identity? We never have people open. If we make a catch, it's a miracle catch and he is draped with defenders. I see other teams all day long get people in space.
9. Dabo is the greatest coach in Clemson history with 7 ACC titles, 6 playoffs, 4 national title game appearances, and 2 national championships. I hope he will be at Clemson until he retires. And if he never has another ACC title, I still hope that he stays until he retires as an old man, but Dabo needs to make some changes on our staff. How you do that when most of the staff is made up of former players and in-house promotions is beyond me.
10. Dabo needs to take a serious look at our offense as a whole regarding scheme and in-game play calling. He needs to look into why offensvive line is always a liability for us, why we are so predictable, why our pplays rarely result in open receivers.
11. A season like this can still be fun. You can pull without a lot of the pressure that goes with a title run. You can look for improvement each week, and watch players come of age. But the worry is that we will not have a better defense than this in the next two years, and I'm not sure Dabo will make big moves and changes on the offense and they are greatly needed.
12. This offense has scored 31 points in three regulation games against FBS competition. That is 10 points per game. No defense can make up for that. In fact, it can lead to the defense's attrition. And those games were not against FBS powers other than Georgia. But let this sink in, with 11 minutes to go in each of those three games, the offense had scored
3 vs Georgia
7 vs Georgia Tech
7 vs NC State
It is hard to hold an FCS school to those numbers on the scoreboard.
13. They need our support now more than ever, but these issues on offense are much deeper than just young players need to come around. Dabo will need to make some tough decisions at season's end. He made tough decisions the day he was made interim coach, he made tough decisions after the 2010 offensive disaster, and again after the 2011 defensive disaster. Will he make them in 2021, with all the titles of the past 10 years already in the books?
14. Dabo is getting taken to the cleaners on his transfer portal policy. I hope he changes his stance on that, but it does not appear he has any intention of doing that.
|
|
50
