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YOUR BALANCE
OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.
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OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 8:58 AM

I subm,it to you that the biggest difference was not Bama's offensive talent (even though I will submit that Bama's offensive skill positions are as a group better than Clemson's).

The HUGE difference was the OL.

Except for that one early fumble where Bama just didn't pick up the blitzer, Jones had all day to throw the ball. On the other hand, while Trevor didn't get sacked a lot, he was continually being pressured and had to release the ball quickly.

If Trevor had the same time to throw the ball that Mac Jones had, Clemson woulda hung 50+ on them as well.

Devanta Smith is outstanding. Mac Jones is a legitimate first round pick. Harris will have a fine NFL career, barring injury.

But, the Bama OL was the straw that stirred the drink last night.

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Right on all counts. Even though I wear Orange Colored


Jan 12, 2021, 9:06 AM

Glasses most times, our receiver corps (that was available most of the year) would not have been able to hang with Bama's last night. This would have been due to just what you said. Bama was hurrying Fields a lot last night, even if they did not get home for a bunch of sacks. That was against an O-Line that we didn't put much of a dent in.

And conversely, Jones had plenty of time to survey the field and pick out his targets. And, give him credit, he threw the ball VERY well. Unfortunately for him, he will be drafted high enough that his Pro line won't be as good as the one he just left at Bama.

Bama had a fierce rush last night, and, given the already made O-Line comparisons, Trevor would have been running for his life, without time to home in on receivers, and the game would probably have been just as ugly a result as it was against the Nuts. If we want to get better, we have to own up to these kinds of hard truths.

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Bama was hurrying Fields a lot last night because...


Jan 12, 2021, 9:10 AM

unlike the Clemson game, the officials did not permit the Bucknut OL to hold on literally every friggin' play.

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Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.


Re: Bama was hurrying Fields a lot last night because...


Jan 12, 2021, 5:11 PM

You are right re holding

and they finally called it last night somewhat

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Re: Right on all counts. Even though I wear Orange Colored


Jan 12, 2021, 10:03 AM [ in reply to Right on all counts. Even though I wear Orange Colored ]

Bama had a "fierce" pass rush after OSU lost their starting RB on the first play of the game and the backup showed he was no threat for big plays.

Once Teague showed that even on a busted play he wasn't going to get more than about 15 yards, Bama was able to turn all of their attention to getting penetration and trying to affect Fields.

This turned up even more once the score forced OSU's hand to be one dimensional. With the lead against Clemson, OSU was a threat to run the ball even on passing downs so we never got to put them in bad situations where we could key on one aspect of their offense.

That was the exact same scenario that made OSU look like an elite pass rushing team against Clemson in terms of score dictating the offensive strategy. Once they knew Trevor was throwing, it's much easier to ignore other keys as a DL or LB and just try to get to the QB.

Clemson's OL isn't nearly as good as either that played last night, but game situations dictate as much about how lines of scrimmage look as pure talent does.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 9:20 AM

All true.

Also, I think OSU played their best game of the season against Clemson. They looked a little in over the heads last night.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 9:29 AM

So what you are saying is OSU had a better "0-Line" than Clemson.That is what you are saying.
isn't it?

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 10:18 AM

What I was trying to say is Bama's OL is significantly better than Clemson's OL. At least it was for the one game they played Ohio State.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 9:55 AM

For the sake of conversation I will give my input and disagree with a few points.

The first thing I will agree with is that Bama's OL is outstanding, as expected, with their high level of talent and superstars returning for their senior seasons.

I also agree that Bama's skill guys are a fair amount better than the Clemson skill guys who actually played. Obviously Ross is a huge loss and even not knowing what Ngata can do yet, I think Ladson showed enough early in the year to say that he was a major loss when trying to compete at the highest level as well.

However, I disagree with Jones just camping out all night long going through progressions. There were many times where OSU moved Jones off of his spot and he either had to scramble (which they commented he never has to do) or dump to the RB.

Jones also has the luxury of throwing the ball 5 yards in the air and having Smith make him look like an all-pro QB by what he does for the next 10-20 yards once he catches it. Repeat that same notion for the short passes to Harris that went for chunk plays.

Due to using those short dumps early, Bama was able to catch OSU blitzing less and that's when Jones really started being able to sit longer in the pocket. Yes his OL is great, but Bama had the dudes at the skill positions to be able to answer any scheme being thrown at them.

Sark adjusts well and at different times in the game puts pressure on the OL and at other times puts pressure on skill guys to get the ball quick and make plays with it.

The difference this season as you say was that Clemson could only put pressure on it's skill guys because the OL couldn't take over for even a portion of a game (except ACC title game) to help balance the scheme.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 10:30 AM

Good points.

Bama did throw a lot of short passes that got out of Jones' hand quickly. I didn't see Jones' scrambling that much. I saw him stepping up into the pocket or sliding away from pressure.

I watched espnnews and listened to the four coaches dissect the game in real time so I am probably biased by their anaylsis. Here are two things I came away with:

1. Bama didn't run as many play action passes as they ran RPO.
2. The read was made pre-snap. Jones wasn't reading a guy after the snap to see if he should give it to the RB or not; he was reading the formation and making the decision before the ball was snapped.

They didn't make a focus of how well the OL was playing. They were bragging on the great play calling and the great execution of the Bama offense. Being coaches they were not dwelling on how stupid some of the defensive calls were for OSU (like the one where Smith was in man coverage with a linebacker that lead to a long TD pass).

My conclusion is this:

1. College football is an offensive game. Get the ball to a playmaker in space. Out athlete their guys with your guys.
2. In order to do that, you have to give the QB time to get the ball to the playmakers. The OL is the unsung hero of the successful offense in today's game.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 10:58 AM

I completely agree with your first #1 and #2 takeaways from the coaches channel.

I also agree with conclusion #1.

As far as conclusion #2:

I think just as much as giving Jones time to find playmakers, Bama puts their playmakers in a lot of different spots on the field both pre and post-snap. That makes it harder for opponents to find the playmakers which means you don't need as much time for them to fight their way open.

This is an area where I think Clemson needs to improve because we typically let our WR go play WR and try to beat coverages down the field instead of confusing the coverage by moving our guys and letting them get lost.

Along with that, Clemson didn't have the mismatches on the outside like what Smith gave Bama.

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Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama.


Jan 12, 2021, 3:09 PM [ in reply to Re: OSU vs. Clemson - OSU vs. Bama. ]

I will disagree with you on Conclusion #1

It was still a defensive game. I would say that OSU still had a potent offense but they ran up against a better performing D that night. I would make an argument that we made four runs to the payoff solely on defensive capacity. The two natties (really almost 3 with 2015) were because we had a O to match our D. We did not have a D as strong the last 2 years and our O masked it.


Our OL pass protection is/was very good. However, we did not have a balanced game and surprisingly a hard running threat. We could become far more one-dimensional than we wanted to be. I really wonder how much not having TE hurt us.

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It’s obvious


Jan 12, 2021, 2:12 PM

OL is THE glaring weakness at Clemson. It’s been getting worse. Youth on defense hurt us this season, but Clemson’s utter inability to coach up OL talent is going to be a problem here until the needed change is made. Maybe then it won’t seem like a freaking miracle when we sign a 5-star offensive lineman.

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