Tuesday September 02, 2008

Clemson-Alabama Review

Clemson-Bama Review
Because of the holiday we are a day behind schedule for this week. Here is what the blog will look like this week:

Today-Review of the Alabama game

Wednesday-Game Worksheet for the Alabama game

Thursday-The Citadel Preview

Friday-E-Mail Bag

The season opener was a nightmare for the Tigers that started bad and got worse. The game was the worst case scenario for this program. We all like to analyze football games and break them down in every way possible but Saturday’s night’s game was as simple as it gets in terms of post-game analysis. To me, this was the simplest game to review. This game came down to a physical football team that had a sense of urgency, physically and mentally dominated a smaller, less mentally tough team.

Clemson’s offense could do nothing. In last week’s blog I said Terrence Cody was the key to the Alabama defense and I can’t remember a more dominating performance from a nose guard. He blew up the Clemson guards and centers. He also made some plays down the line. Cody collapsed the pocket on the passer and made it easy on Bama.

The Tigers could not run the ball between the tackles and got behind early. The staff chose to abandon the run and found it hard when they became one-dimensional. Bama’s linebackers were able to get deep drops into coverage because they did not have to respect the running game.

Clemson’s offensive line was overmatched and dominated by the physical front. The Crimson Tide linebackers were also extremely physical. They limited the yards after contact unlike the Tiger’s backers.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the offense was the lack of protection against a four man rush. Bama did not have to blitz often because they were able to pressure Cullen Harper with their four man front. Harper was hammered all night and showed one if his few weaknesses which is his ability to feel the pressure and escape.

Defense was probably a bigger surprise and disappointment. The Tigers were dominated up front but the linebackers may have been a bigger concern. Clemson’s tackling effort was pathetic. Often times a Tiger would hit Alabama running back Mark Ingram close to the line of scrimmage but the freshman bowling ball bounced off of tacklers and got the extra, hard-earned yards. Time and time again, Alabama ran the ball right at Clemson on first down and faced second and less than four too many times.

Alabama’s offensive line was fantastic and their sense of urgency set the tone for the game. Their dominance made things easy for the Alabama staff because the running game allowed the offense to get into a rhythm. The play-action passing game was terrific partly because the Clemson defense had to pay attention to the running game. John Parker Wilson had an easy night because of the lack of pressure. It was a quarterback’s dream situation.

The Tigers had a hard time covering the Crimson Tide tight ends in the passing game. The balance of the Alabama offense made it difficult for the Tigers but the running game set all of that up.

If there was a bright spot Saturday night it might have been the special teams. Dawson Zimmerman was impressive punting the ball and C.J. Spiller’s kick-off return provided the only true spark.

The physical dominance was showcased in two major statistic areas. First was the time of possession. Alabama had the ball for 41 minutes and the Tigers were limited to 19 minutes. The other major stat was the total number plays. Alabama ran 80 plays and Clemson ran 48. Both of these numbers were alarming but yet again other examples of how dominant the Crimson Tide was Saturday night.

It is hard to imagine a worse case than what we saw in the Georgia Dome. Alabama may be a lot better than we first think but the concern here is about Clemson. Several items showed up and now we have several questions have to be answered. First is the offensive front. Clemson’s tackles played OK but the interior line got dominated. Barry Humphries has a knee injury and I would not think he will be back anytime soon. Now the question will be how Cloy handles the starting duty? Can David Smith overtake Jamarcus Grant? Can the Tigers overcome this from a confidence front? Will the Tigers be able to run the ball effectively behind our new starters? Can Clemson afford to be one-dimensional?

On the defensive side of the ball, the alarming unit was the linebackers. Who will emerge and take control at linebacker? Will the Tigers tackle better in the future?

Weaknesses were exposure Saturday night. Does Clemson face another team that can exploit them the way Alabama did? Can the Tigers fix some of the issues before they face another physical opponent?

I guess the most discouraging thing to me was the mentality. Some finesse teams can beat some physical teams and vice versa but when two teams that have different styles face each other the winner is the team that can impose its style on the other team. Alabama was able to impose its will on Clemson.

It concerns me that like Boston College and Virginia Tech, Bama was able to smash Clemson along the lines of scrimmage. The only difference is they did it better than Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Clemson’s losses can usually be attributed to toughness in my opinion. Last year, Auburn was more physical than Clemson. Boston College was more physical than the Tigers. Virginia Tech was and so was Georgia Tech. Time and time again, teams that hit Clemson in the mouth have a better chance at beating the Tigers.

The season is not over and all of Clemson’s goals are still ahead of them but until they fix the toughness issue then this program cannot advance to the place where we all want it to go.

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