THURSDAY CLEMSON FOOTBALL NUGGETS
By: Larry Williams
Hope everyone out there is doing well on this lovely afternoon in Clemson.
Last week, sort of overshadowed in the Tigers' closer-than-it-should-have- been victory at Florida State was Clemson's total stifling of the Seminoles' running game (22 yards on 23 attempts).
No, FSU is not good at running the ball this year. The only time the Seminoles have cracked 100 yards was against California, and at that just barely (107 yards on 41 carries at 2.61 yards per attempt).
So was the trench ownership that we saw from Clemson's defensive line more a reflection of FSU being really bad at blocking, or did we see substantial progress from a defensive front that is still developing and still getting everyone healthy?
We'll know more Saturday afternoon, because it's pretty close to imperative that Clemson's defensive front be active and disruptive against Wake Forest's slow-mesh concepts.
And we'd say the Demon Deacons' offensive line is probably a good bit better than FSU's in that they seem more well-schooled in their system and more cohesive.
About that slow-mesh thing, just as a refresher:
It's still such an odd thing to see, even though they've been doing it for years, because of the quarterback and running back drifting toward the line of scrimmage as they hold the mesh.
The idea is to hold the mesh for a two-count and create second-level conflict.
The natural way to stop the slow mesh is to blow it up with either an active front four and/or blitzing linebackers.
So the read for the quarterback is: Pull the ball and throw it if the linebackers come forward, or hand it off if the linebackers play back.
-- Here's a good close-up view of the slow mesh against Ole Miss:
You can see quarterback Hank Bachmeier with his eyes on the linebackers, and also the Rebels' defensive line not really rushing upfield so they can keep their eyes on Bachmeier.
Here it's blocked pretty well. And I really like this back, Demond Claiborne, because he just seems to have a great sense of finding the creases and then accelerating:
-- Here Claiborne is last week at N.C. State. This guy will make you pay for overpursuing:
-- The Wolfpack brought a lot of pressure last week, and the feeling here is that's a sound approach because the Deacons are missing stud wideout Donavon Greene and I'm not sure Bachmeier is poised enough to make accurate throws under duress:
-- I hadn't watched a lot of Ole Miss this season before yesterday when I checked out their 40-6 romp in Winston-Salem.
Wow, the Rebels are really freaking good up front and the Deacons had no answers:
-- Saw a lot of good things from Clemson's defensive line in Tallahassee that figure to bode well for the Tigers inflicting their own disruption of the slow mesh.
After allowing Stanford to pile up 236 yards on the ground, really like how they contained the ball in Tallahassee:
-- And we'll close with some quite favorable clips from DeMonte Capehart and Jaheim Lawson:
By: Larry Williams
Hope everyone out there is doing well on this lovely afternoon in Clemson.
Last week, sort of overshadowed in the Tigers' closer-than-it-should-have- been victory at Florida State was Clemson's total stifling of the Seminoles' running game (22 yards on 23 attempts).
No, FSU is not good at running the ball this year. The only time the Seminoles have cracked 100 yards was against California, and at that just barely (107 yards on 41 carries at 2.61 yards per attempt).
So was the trench ownership that we saw from Clemson's defensive line more a reflection of FSU being really bad at blocking, or did we see substantial progress from a defensive front that is still developing and still getting everyone healthy?
We'll know more Saturday afternoon, because it's pretty close to imperative that Clemson's defensive front be active and disruptive against Wake Forest's slow-mesh concepts.
And we'd say the Demon Deacons' offensive line is probably a good bit better than FSU's in that they seem more well-schooled in their system and more cohesive.
About that slow-mesh thing, just as a refresher:
It's still such an odd thing to see, even though they've been doing it for years, because of the quarterback and running back drifting toward the line of scrimmage as they hold the mesh.
The idea is to hold the mesh for a two-count and create second-level conflict.
The natural way to stop the slow mesh is to blow it up with either an active front four and/or blitzing linebackers.
So the read for the quarterback is: Pull the ball and throw it if the linebackers come forward, or hand it off if the linebackers play back.
-- Here's a good close-up view of the slow mesh against Ole Miss:
You can see quarterback Hank Bachmeier with his eyes on the linebackers, and also the Rebels' defensive line not really rushing upfield so they can keep their eyes on Bachmeier.
Here it's blocked pretty well. And I really like this back, Demond Claiborne, because he just seems to have a great sense of finding the creases and then accelerating:
-- Here Claiborne is last week at N.C. State. This guy will make you pay for overpursuing:
-- The Wolfpack brought a lot of pressure last week, and the feeling here is that's a sound approach because the Deacons are missing stud wideout Donavon Greene and I'm not sure Bachmeier is poised enough to make accurate throws under duress:
-- I hadn't watched a lot of Ole Miss this season before yesterday when I checked out their 40-6 romp in Winston-Salem.
Wow, the Rebels are really freaking good up front and the Deacons had no answers:
-- Saw a lot of good things from Clemson's defensive line in Tallahassee that figure to bode well for the Tigers inflicting their own disruption of the slow mesh.
After allowing Stanford to pile up 236 yards on the ground, really like how they contained the ball in Tallahassee:
-- And we'll close with some quite favorable clips from DeMonte Capehart and Jaheim Lawson:
