110%er [5406]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 4974
Joined: 6/2/01
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Facts, opinions, and other things you've been awaiting.
Jan 2, 2013, 10:02 AM
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Well good morning, Tiger fans! And the rest of you! Happy 2013 to you. May it be a happy and prosperous year for you all, with the caveat that if you're a Gamecock fan I hope all of your teams lose every game they play but that you're otherwise happy and prosperous and well and not dead, etc.
I tell you, I'm not taking any crap from anyone on our victory over LSU. We won the game in exciting and dramatic fashion. We physically beat the crap out of them, but made enough mistakes that the game was close - unbelievably so. Any team in the country would have celebrated that win the way we have. Including LSU, had the roles been reversed.
Clemson is 11-2. 11 wins is awfully nice. It's unfortunate that we lost to South Carolina. Very much so. I hate them a lot. But we won ELEVEN GAMES. That's awfully good for anybody, no matter their schedule. There wasn't a game on the schedule that we tanked, and we've been doing that for...well forever. That would be under every single coach in my lifetime.
But it's GOOD that we are not satisfied with 11-2. Happy with it? Yes. Satisfied? No. But we won our last game of the year against a quality opponent on the national stage in dramatic fashion. That reaps more benefits than winning game #11.
The whining and crowing going on is just ridiculous. We won our game. South Carolina won theirs. I wish they hadn't, but they did. That sure as hell isn't spoiling our win for me. THIS WEEK - our win was far far better than theirs. We played a better opponent, and we really smacked them around.
More notes:
LSU: I realize you had to defend 100 offensive plays, not counting field goals, etc. But please. Having your rear end dragging is not an injury and please don't insult our intelligence by pretending it is.
Big East Officials: Thanks for trying on that first down for Michigan. I have no standards when it comes to screwing over South Carolina and it's good to know that you don't either. Sorry you probably won't be officiating your next game.
As regards Clowney: The guy is probably the best player in the country, or certainly that argument could be made. I can respect that while still hating Chicken State. He made a statement play in the game, and it's disgusting that it will be all over ESPN for a year. That said, it probably should be. I would just hope that if one of our guys had done that we'd get the same coverage. Not sure that would be the case.
Michigan: Try to cover someone. How in the wide wide world of sports do you leave someone that wide open in that situation? And don't talk to me about a blitz - you brought one extra person and had two just standing around looking at him as he waltzed into the end zone. You are now right up there with Georgia - completely useless.
ACC: Now I am not an ACC homer by any means but it is interesting (and nice) to see that our 4 football schools all won their games. The two basketball schools did not.
Vs SEC: 1-1 (Clemson win, NCSU loss)
Vs PAC-12: 1-0 (GT win)
Vs Big East: 1-1 (VT win, Duke loss)
Vs MAC: 1-0 (FSU win)
SEC: Nicely done vs the Big 10, SEC.
Big 10: Making everyone else look good. How come the ACC didn't get to play any Big 10 teams? FSU got stuck with having to play the much tougher MAC instead! 
Clemson Defense: I keep reading the articles about Boyd and Hopkins being the heroes. They are. But there were a lot of heroes, including some linemen on the offensive side playing out of position, and presumably out of their depth that made it happen. But where's the defensive love in the media? Way to go, Clemson D - and especially the D line. You out-physicaled perhaps the most physical team i the country. Not news - just not widely reported.
Les Miles: Les may have overthunk the plumbing a little bit there, but not terribly so. It just didn't work for him. If Mettenberger throws any kind of decent pass on 2nd down, they win. So sometimes it's not all about the play calling. Sometimes it's about executing what was called. And like on 3rd down, sometimes it's about the other team out-executing you. Miles was right about one thing - we had at least 114 men in the box on 2nd down. Having 3 timeouts was very nice indeed - but we still win with 1 or 2 I think.
LSU fans: I know you're searching for answers. I get it. Officiating was not the answer. You were fortunate to even be close in that game. We made a lot of mistakes and to give you credit, you made some really nice plays. But you were stomped. You're a rushing team, but gained less than 100 yards on the ground. You're a defensive team, but gave up about 450 yards. You're a ball-control offense, but had 8 3-and-outs and punted NINE TIMES (Ferris Bueller reference). Good job by your backup punter, by the way - dude was killing it. You pride yourselves on your physical line play, but were just annihilated by our D-line (6 sacks). There's your answer. Sometimes you just get beat.
Bottom line - I really don't like it when we lose to Chicken State. But we didn't play them on Monday. We played LSU. And we beat them. And it sure is nice going into the offseason with a win.
That's what matters this day.
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