Wait, I thought we won
The good:
5 turnovers and 3 scoring opportunities defeated.
The bad:
5 sacks
Davis 58 net yards
Spiller -1 net yards
A punt return for TD. Luckily it was returned for a block on the back call.
The ugly:
Furman owned The Tigers in most offensive aspects of the game including: rushing, total yards, TOP and first downs. The Paladins also picked apart the secondary all day with their short passes. I foresaw this as a concern and am glad that a team that we beat uncovered the problem.
From “The State”:
“Furman (1-2) ran 79 plays and outgained Clemson in yardage, 384-377.. Paladins quarterbacks Jordan Sorrells and Renaldo Gray combined to complete 28 of 43 passes for 242 yards. The rushing attack wasn’t too shabby, either; the Paladins gained 142 yards on 36 carries.”
One thing I have mixed emotions about is the offenses ability to pop off huge plays and get off the field under a minute at times. This is great except that the defense has to go back out on the field with almost no rest at all. Now the D obviously has to get better if they are spending that much time on the field without forcing the turnover but when does Koenning go up to Spence and ask him for some conservative plays that will keep the ball moving but at at a slower pace than that mentioned? Of course, with threats like Spiller, Davis, Ford, Kelly and Grisham it would be entirely possible for even teh small play to blow up into an 80 yard play for 6.
The offensive line looked like FSU’s line from the start of the season, letting Harper fend for himself at times. They did stack the line so the rush offense may be understandable (although in a Greenville Times article the Furman coach claims that they plaid a standard set D). The defensive line still has issues wrapping up. The secondary just can’t find the defense on the short plays. Concerns abound, I am not sure if we should be looking forward to a “learning” NC State team. The Tigers need to pick up the sills quick before they start facing off against the big boys of the ACC.
…And we moved up to #15 in the polls after this. Let’s hope the boys focus on NC State and don’t look at the Tech stretch coming up.
I won’t say that we’re overrated right now, but I will say that we’re over-ranked.
I think that’s a valid semantic difference.
Hence my post with the new schedule before this one. Thanks to all those teams that upset the big boys to create the vacancies that Clemson could bypass while beating Furman.