Hope everyone out there is doing well this open week. The extra time affords us extra opportunity to provide you with video analysis, so we'll do it today and then again next week. Next week we'll add some more clips from the Louisville win, plus some stuff on Notre Dame.
Here goes:
-- Dabo Swinney has explained why it was so important for Clemson to have the running success it did. Louisville basically sat back and played soft coverage, making the Tigers execute down the field. You can sort of see Todd Grantham's logic given a number of factors: 1) Clemson is breaking in new offensive coordinators; 2) Clemson is very young on the offensive line; and 3) Clemson has typically not been able to run the ball all that well, including last year when the Tigers ran for 72 yards on 33 carries and didn't have much of any success until late.
Here's a screenshot of a look Clemson saw a lot of last week:
By my count, that's six men in the box. And when there are six men in the box, the defense is telling you they don't think you can run it. Clemson rushed for 202 yards on 40 carries (5.05 YPC), and Wayne Gallman was an absolute workhorse.
A lot of Gallman's yards came after contact, and some of that contact came behind the line of scrimmage. But there were also occasions where the offensive line opened big holes. Such as this one, right up the A gap:
-- Quick, name some of the best play-callers in college football.
If you thought of five guys or 10 guys or 20 guys, chances are they were all offensive coordinators.
Well guess what? Defensive coordinators call plays too. And man, has Brent Venables done a fantastic job of that the last two years against Louisville. The deciding play a year ago with the Cardinals a few feet away from handing Clemson a devastating victory was the result of hours of film study, and a perfect calculation of what Bobby Petrino would call in that situation. So much of it is putting yourself in the mind of another guy and anticipating what his next move will be.
Venables does that on the first possession, after Louisville had the D wobbling a little bit. It's second-and-6, very manageable for Petrino -- well, until T.J. Green wrecks everything by blitzing and getting a sack.
The way this play develops, you'd think Venables was in their huddle. Just the perfect call for that play-action bootleg:
Looks to me like that was a man blitz. Venables changed it up with this blitz of Ben Boulware and B.J. Goodson, right up the middle. This time, Venables sends the two backers while playing what looks like Cover 3 behind it:
-- No, Deshaun Watson didn't have his best game as we'll get to in a moment. But he made some crucial contributions also. This ability to extend plays is part of what makes him so special:
-- And on the touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow, Swinney provided some really good insight into that earlier this week:
"We had been hitting some little out cuts and thought they might be a little more aggressive on the out cut in the red zone. We tried to run a little out-and-up. Great play by Deshaun because sometimes your quarterback can get locked in on things. He’s not that way. He has great vision and understanding of the game. They just happened to go Cover 2 right there and rolled up the corner. He knew what his second progression was and went to Renfrow."
-- Really dig this little backside quarterback counter they ran a few times at Louisville, with Tyrone Crowder and Wayne Gallman providing the blocking. Gallman was a better option on these lead-type plays than Jordan Leggett was a week earlier against Appalachian State.
-- Poor decision here by Watson. Guessing the only place to go was underneath. And remember, it was first-and-10 so you can't force this ball:
-- Interested to get your opinions on the cause of the sack here. Initially you might think it's on Mitch Hyatt, but I don't think so because it's a slide protection to the right. Can't say with confidence it's on Deshaun to spot it because not sure what the protection checks are; there are five men rushing and six protecting. Could've been just a good call by Louisville: Maybe they saw on tape that Clemson likes to slide protect on third down.
-- Great stuff here from Jayron Kearse. We've said all year we think he's going to be in a role similar to Jalen Ramsey last year at Florida State, playing closer to the line of scrimmage more frequently and serving as an edge enforcer to funnel things back inside. Good example of that:
-- And yes, the kickoff return. Pretty clear that Jadar Johnson and T.J. Green were the main culprits here, not to mention the line-drive kick right down the middle. It also doesn't help that C.J. Fuller (No. 27) gets grabbed and thrown down. But Johnson has a chance to make the tackle, and then Green overruns it:
The kickoff team underwent a shakeup after the Appalachian State game, with C.J. Davidson, Judah Davis and T.J. Burrell getting replaced by Johnson, Jefferie Gibson and D.J. Greenlee. You can count on more turnover as they try to find the right combination.
Here goes:
-- Dabo Swinney has explained why it was so important for Clemson to have the running success it did. Louisville basically sat back and played soft coverage, making the Tigers execute down the field. You can sort of see Todd Grantham's logic given a number of factors: 1) Clemson is breaking in new offensive coordinators; 2) Clemson is very young on the offensive line; and 3) Clemson has typically not been able to run the ball all that well, including last year when the Tigers ran for 72 yards on 33 carries and didn't have much of any success until late.
Here's a screenshot of a look Clemson saw a lot of last week:
By my count, that's six men in the box. And when there are six men in the box, the defense is telling you they don't think you can run it. Clemson rushed for 202 yards on 40 carries (5.05 YPC), and Wayne Gallman was an absolute workhorse.
A lot of Gallman's yards came after contact, and some of that contact came behind the line of scrimmage. But there were also occasions where the offensive line opened big holes. Such as this one, right up the A gap:
-- Quick, name some of the best play-callers in college football.
If you thought of five guys or 10 guys or 20 guys, chances are they were all offensive coordinators.
Well guess what? Defensive coordinators call plays too. And man, has Brent Venables done a fantastic job of that the last two years against Louisville. The deciding play a year ago with the Cardinals a few feet away from handing Clemson a devastating victory was the result of hours of film study, and a perfect calculation of what Bobby Petrino would call in that situation. So much of it is putting yourself in the mind of another guy and anticipating what his next move will be.
Venables does that on the first possession, after Louisville had the D wobbling a little bit. It's second-and-6, very manageable for Petrino -- well, until T.J. Green wrecks everything by blitzing and getting a sack.
The way this play develops, you'd think Venables was in their huddle. Just the perfect call for that play-action bootleg:
Looks to me like that was a man blitz. Venables changed it up with this blitz of Ben Boulware and B.J. Goodson, right up the middle. This time, Venables sends the two backers while playing what looks like Cover 3 behind it:
-- No, Deshaun Watson didn't have his best game as we'll get to in a moment. But he made some crucial contributions also. This ability to extend plays is part of what makes him so special:
-- And on the touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow, Swinney provided some really good insight into that earlier this week:
"We had been hitting some little out cuts and thought they might be a little more aggressive on the out cut in the red zone. We tried to run a little out-and-up. Great play by Deshaun because sometimes your quarterback can get locked in on things. He’s not that way. He has great vision and understanding of the game. They just happened to go Cover 2 right there and rolled up the corner. He knew what his second progression was and went to Renfrow."
-- Really dig this little backside quarterback counter they ran a few times at Louisville, with Tyrone Crowder and Wayne Gallman providing the blocking. Gallman was a better option on these lead-type plays than Jordan Leggett was a week earlier against Appalachian State.
-- Poor decision here by Watson. Guessing the only place to go was underneath. And remember, it was first-and-10 so you can't force this ball:
-- Interested to get your opinions on the cause of the sack here. Initially you might think it's on Mitch Hyatt, but I don't think so because it's a slide protection to the right. Can't say with confidence it's on Deshaun to spot it because not sure what the protection checks are; there are five men rushing and six protecting. Could've been just a good call by Louisville: Maybe they saw on tape that Clemson likes to slide protect on third down.
-- Great stuff here from Jayron Kearse. We've said all year we think he's going to be in a role similar to Jalen Ramsey last year at Florida State, playing closer to the line of scrimmage more frequently and serving as an edge enforcer to funnel things back inside. Good example of that:
-- And yes, the kickoff return. Pretty clear that Jadar Johnson and T.J. Green were the main culprits here, not to mention the line-drive kick right down the middle. It also doesn't help that C.J. Fuller (No. 27) gets grabbed and thrown down. But Johnson has a chance to make the tackle, and then Green overruns it:
The kickoff team underwent a shakeup after the Appalachian State game, with C.J. Davidson, Judah Davis and T.J. Burrell getting replaced by Johnson, Jefferie Gibson and D.J. Greenlee. You can count on more turnover as they try to find the right combination.
