Brent Venables: Defense still has work to do after inconsistent effort

Andrew Booth celebrates a play against the Cavaliers.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 04 06:01:02 GMT-04:00 2020

CLEMSON – Clemson’s defense played inconsistent football and on its heels Saturday night, but it still came away with enough big plays to defeat Virginia.

The Cavaliers gained 417 total yards, with 270 of those coming through the air and 147 on the ground. Virginia averaged 3.9 yards per rush on 38 carries and it was quarterback Brennan Armstrong doing the most damage, with 89 yards on 22 carries. Several of Armstrong’s runs came after missed tackles or bad run fits by the Clemson defense.

Virginia was 6-of-16 on third down but 4-of-5 on fourth down and held the ball for over 33 minutes. The Cavaliers also ran 81 plays. It marked the first time Clemson allowed 400-plus yards to an ACC opponent since November of 2017 against NC State.

Defensive coordinator Brent Venables met with the media following the game and said there was good and bad in the outing.

“I thought we were pretty inconsistent on the night. A bunch of good plays, plenty of opportunity to improve and get better,” Venables said. “They do a lot before the snap - probably more than anybody we'll see all year - and we knew it would be a challenge. What we saw against Duke was pretty vanilla. They had some good concepts and they force you to defend every patch of grass, pretty similar to last year. I think they scored 17 on us a year ago in the ACC Championship and it felt like we couldn't stop them all day. It felt like we were on our heels.”

Clemson led 24-3 late in the first half but allowed an easy four-play drive that the Cavaliers turned into a touchdown right before the half. It was a drive that Venables termed “pathetic.”

“I thought the first half, we have a chance to go in 24-3 and we didn't handle it. I think it went three or four plays and a touchdown,” Venables said. “We just played pathetic and let them go to 24-10. We had couple of great stops and a couple of great turnovers. Booth had an incredible interception. They’re very accurate and very precise in what they're doing. We have to leverage the ball better. We have to play with better positioning. In coverage, we had some miscommunication and some calls because of some of the things they were doing. We have to play the ball better. In two-deep, we let the guy drop the ball in behind us, not very good fundamentals and technique.”

It wasn’t all bad.

“Proud of how hard our guys played. There's a lot that was really good, a lot that we have to learn from that wasn't very good - whether it was tackling, positioning or communication or alignments,” Venables said. “We've got work to do.”

Venables then said that Armstrong was tough to defend.

“He was exactly what we thought. They have a design quarterback draw on every play so everybody has to be aware,” he said. “Like when they had the touchdown with the lineman down the field, that's a draw that's delayed. They get rid of the ball so fast that the quarterback has an RPO. When they start spreading you out like they do from sideline to sideline, you have to have people with discipline in their rush lanes and you have to whoop blocks. Good athlete. He's exactly what we thought he was.”

All in all, it was an “okay” effort.

“We were okay. We were good enough but just okay. It's perspective,” Venables said. “I think they had 17 starters back from a Coastal Division championship team. They've done a great job there. They've got an experienced line and backs. They have a really good system too that's quarterback friendly and a good defense. We'll take the win and it's time to go back to work. We have a lot of learning and improving. A lot of guys who played in spot duty a year ago are out there starting now. They've got a ton of improvement that we need across the board, but a lot to love, too.

“We had three sacks and a bunch of hands on balls. A year ago we had one sack and one pass breakup. We forced two turnovers. They're a good team, so there's certainly things that are positive that you can build from. Our guys were fighting like heck all night. We had a chance to get a bunch of other guys in the game as well. Whether it was a good or bad performance, it's all good because you learn, improve and grow from it.”

What do the Tigers have to do to get better?

“Oh man, just name it - run defense, pass defense, leverage, physicality, all of it,” Venables said. “I don't think we were pathetic by any stretch of the imagination but what do you expect when you put a bunch of newbies out there? That's the challenge. That's a very, very mentally and physically challenging offense to defend. There are a number of things that our guys really hadn't seen on tape that was new, so it takes some time. We defended some of it well and some of it not so well.”