Alright folks, here is the film review, offense and defense, for the first half of the UGA game. I will list out the plays of each drive and then have a little commentary on that drive if needed.The Youtube Video I was using to chart got taken down. The ACC will have theirs up around noon. I took screenshots from the skycam replay and will add video clips for the ACC replay if able to. Also hat tip to @tboonpickens for the sky cam replay https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/eba7f97f-abdf-4e78-bccf-10477d6c86b2
Clemson’s base personnel on offense is 11 personnel (1 RB and 1 TE). I will only note the personnel if we are using something different. Offense is more of my strong suit than defense but after talking about it with @willydee1 I think it is important to include the defense.
Note: A Bear front is when 3 defensive linemen cover up the offense’s center and guards. Under front means a LB has walked up to the LOS to create a 5-man front.
My overall, big picture commentary will be at the end. I appreciate any input and any questions you guys have.
1st Drive offense
-1st and 10. 1x3 Trips to the boundary, motion Briningstool in-line, 1x2. Cade peaks left, line blocks down, Cade rolls right, ball at Mafah’s knees
-2nd and 10. 1x3 Bunch to the boundary. Randall motions wider. RPO Inside Zone, Cade hits Briningstool on a stick for 7. Illegal motion on Randall. 5 yard penalty.
-2nd and 15. 2x2 pre-snap motion into 1x3. Cade hits Briningstool on a stick. Dropped
-3rd and 15. 1x3. 4 Verts. UGA jumps offsides and Cade scrambles. Big Hit
-3rd and 10. 1x2. Interior pressure. Quick checkdown to Mafah. Gain of 1.
1st drive of the season and we can’t get out of our own way. The 1st play is a good call to get Cade to rollout. Gets him away from pressure and gives him a half field read. Riley schemes up a first play with two lay ups to make. We still mess it up. Tyler Brown is running a 10 yard out route and is open. Cade doesn’t seem him because he is too quick to go to Mafah. He then throws it at his knees. It needs to be a better pass but Mafah can still still catch that. He easily gets the 1st down if he does. The 2nd play is an RPO inside zone. A nice completion to Briningstool is wiped out by a stupid illegal motion penalty by Randall. Riley then uses motion to confuse the LBers, which gets Briningstool open but he drops it.
1st Drive Defense
UGA plays a lot of 11 and 12 personnel with TEs flexed. I will try to note that where applicable.
-1st and 10. 12 personnel 2x2 Tight. Clemson w/ 8 in the box. Touch pass to Arian Smith. Gain of 11
-1st and 10. Motion into 2x. Clemson in a Bear front. T/T stunt, Capehart TFL on the Inside Zone.
-2nd and 10. Audible from a 2x2 into 1x2 tight, TE in a wing position. Arian Smith motion, RPO WR screen. No gain.
-3rd and 10. 2x2. Clemson playing cover 2 man under. Beck scrambles for ~14.
-1st and 10. 1x2. Motion TE into 1x3 to the boundary, RPO WR Screen. Gain of 2.
-2nd and 8. 2 WRs to the field, 2 TE in-line to the boundary. Motion wing TE to field, RPO bucksweep. No gain.
-3rd and 10. 3x1 bunch to the field. Clemson running 2 man under. Terrell on the WR like white on rice. Incomplete.
Clemson eventually gets the stop but UGA gets two first downs, allowing them to flip the field. Clemson’s defensive tackles flashed early. Capehart and Williams each had a TFL. Georgia is clearly going after us on the perimeter. First play was targeting Woods on the edge and our alignment gave up an easy first down. They’ve had WR screens tagged onto their RPOs and thrown them twice.
2nd Drive Offense
-1st and 10. 12 personnel. 1x1 with both TEs to the boundary. Williams goes in motion to the field, UGA doesn’t buy it, split zone, gain of 2. Holding called, declined.
-2nd and 8. 12 personnel. 2 TEs to the boundary, 2 WR to the field. Pin and pull toss sweep to the boundary. Gain of 7. I like this call.
-3rd and 1. 12 personnel. Tight bunch in-line with Williams out wide. Inside Zone. Gain of a few. First down.
-1st and 10. 12 personnel. Tight bunch to the boundary. Williams goes in motion. We’re setting up the WR jet sweep. Pin and Pull toss sweep to the boundary. Tate can’t climb to the second level and seal off pursuit. Gain of 3.
-2nd and 7. 11 personnel. 1x3. Wesco in as boundary WR. Randall motions to make it a bunch to field. Randall runs a drag from the motion. He’s open. Stellato comes open. Throw away.
3rd and 7. 1x3 bunch to the field. Cade hits Williams on a slant. Gain of 6. 4th down punt.
I like what Riley is doing with the run game. We’re putting Williams in motion and it looks like the second one is setting up the WR jet sweep with the in-line TE as a lead blocker. Riley ran that same look but handed it to the WR for a huge gain at TCU. I'll have to find the specific play. So thats 4 runs, gains us 15ish yards. The second pin and pull had a chance for more but Tate couldn’t climb to the second level. The second down passing play was bad. Cade has Randall WIDE open and doesn’t see him. Stellato shows in a window. Cade misses both. He doesn’t step up into the pocket. He reverts to his old self in scrambling back and out to the right. I think he had a chance to hit Brown for the 1st down on the 3rd down play.
2nd Drive Defense
-1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x2. Inside Zone. Gap sound by Mickens and Carter. Gain of 1.
-2nd and 9. Motion into 2x2. Clemson is in a soft cover 3. Curl Route. Gain of 5.
-3rd and 4. 1x3 Bunch, motion slot outside. Clemson zone blitz. Carter drops from LOS, Woodaz and Barnes Blitz. End/Tackle stunt frees up Parker. Rushed throw. Gain of 2. Punt
This was vintage Clemson defense. Shut down the run, keep everyone in front of you, bring pressure in a creative way to get a free rusher. This was one of the few times we actually generated pressure.
3rd Drive Offense
1st and 10. 2x1 motion Stellato into 1x2. Stellato and Randall run a Post/Wheel. Williams runs a deep corner. PA drop. Beautiful throw and catch. Gain of 36.
1st and 10. 3x1. GT Counter with Haynes in. Sadler has the play wrong and blocks the pulling linemen. Loss of 1.
2nd and 11. 1x2. PA. The 2 run a post/wheel, the 1(Wesco?) runs a crosser. He was briefly open. Cade checks it down to Briningstool. 2 yards.
3rd and 9. 1x2. PA. Georgia blitzes both LBs. Cade hangs in, hits Williams for a 1st on the curl. Penalty. Illegal formation on Stellato or Randall.
3rd and 14. 1x2. Empty with Williams and Briningstool as offset TEs. Motion Williams into boundary for a WR screen. Blown up.
Punt. Bounces inside the 10 and instead of going out bounces into endzone.
Multiple mistakes ruin a promising start and a chance to flip the field. Sadler gets the play completely wrong. UGA plays it well schematically. They crash the backside DE, betting correctly Briningstool can’t cut him off. They scrape the backside LB in case Cade pulls it. While I think Cade could have seen Wesco come upon, the bigger problem is Randall or Stellato wiping out a good gain for a first down. Just inexcusable.
3rd Drive Defense.
1st and 10. 11 Personnel. 2x1 formation. PA slight rollout to the right w/ guard pull. RB leaks out backside. Carter late recognizing it, misses tackle. Gain of 9. Clemson playing soft Cover 3, no pass rush.
2nd and 1. 12 personnel. 1x1 2 TE to the boundary, motion boundary WR to field. IZ. 3 yards.
1st and 10. Motion into 1x2 empty. Both TEs on LOS. Clemson playing soft Cover 3. Quick hitch to field WR. Good tackle. Gain of 5.
2nd and 5. 12 personnel? 1x2, WR motion into Pistol Ace formation. PA Bootleg. WR sneaks across the line for the flat route on the boot. Woodaz late in recognition. Gain of 15.
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 3x1, motion RB into 3x2 empty. Clemson in a Bear/Under front. Basically set up in a 5-0-6. Tunnel screen to motion’d RB into the boundary. Gain of 9
2nd and 1. 1x2. Clemson playing a Bear front. RPO Quick hitch against off coverage. Gain of 8.
1st and 10. 2x1. Clemson in a Bear front. Inside Zone. Capehart almost blows it up. Forces RB to bounce. Woodaz and Griffin swarm to the ball. Loss of 1.
2nd and 11. False start penalty.
2nd and 16. 1x3. Timing throw on slant, Terrell gives up inside leverage, gambles on PBU and misses. Gain of 23.
1st and 10. 1x2. RPO slant, PBU Terrell, lucky on no PI flag.
2nd and 10. 12 personnel. 1x1 WRs in tight. Clemson with 8 in the box, CBs off coverage. RPO TE flat that functions as a screen. Gain of 6. This takes advantage of how we’re lined up.
3rd and 4. 2x2. Clemson in a Bear/Under front. Coverage takes away anything quick, Page provides interior pressure, effort sack by Woods.
Field Goal
Georgia is struggling to block us up front in the run game. We are struggling to get pressure in the passing game. They’re attacking us on the perimeter again in two main ways. 1) They’re taking advantage of our off coverage and 2) they’re attacking our LBers in play action. File that one away.
4th Drive Offense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x3 tight bunch, motion slot WR wider, pin and pull toss sweep from the gun. Briningstool loses at point of attack vs DE, Turner can’t seal pursuing LB. Mafah needs to bounce it. Gain of 2.
2nd and 8. 12 personnel. 2x1, 2 WRs to the field, 2 TEs to the boundary. UGA in a Bear/Over PA toss into the boundary. No one really open, maybe field slant (Moore?). Cade checks it down instead of throwing away. Loss of 5.
3rd and 13. 11 Personnel. 3x1. Motion into bunch. Brinny (outside field) and Turner (solo field) go deep, Brown runs a deep cross, Williams runs a dig (Y-Cross?) Cade hesitates slightly at end of drop. Hits Williams on dig. Brown may have been coming open. Gain of 12.
UGA’s alignment on 1st down helped smother the pin and pull toss, a DE ended up head up on Briningstool. I think Mafah could have bounced it though. Cade understandably wanted to get rid of the ball quickly on 2nd down but throwing a check down like that made a negative play worse. Its frustrating to hit a good play on 3rd down and be that close to converting.
4th Drive Defense
1st and 10. 12 Personnel. 2 TEs to the boundary, 2 WRs to the field. Clemson in a Bear front. PA Rollout to the right, throwback deep to one of the TEs running am over-corner. Terrell falls down. Gain of 31.
1st and 10. 1x2. RB flare screen to the field. Peter Woods destroys it. Loss of 5
2nd and 15. 11 Personnel. 2x1. Clemson in a Bear/under front, playing Cover 1 Man. We’re playing way off. Lovett gets a free release on the Dig/Crosser. Bad throw, dropped pass.
3rd and 15. 2x2 formation. Clemson is in a 3-3-5 with 3 safeties. UGA motions the RB to the field (offense’s left), RB flare screen. Nice tackle by Mickens. Gain of 5.
55 yard Field Goal.
Despite not running the ball much UGA decided to go with a play action deep shot on 1st down. They tried testing the edges of the defense on the 2nd and 4th plays of the drive to see how we react to it. We got no pressure on their 3rd play, we were lucky it was a bad pass/dropped.
5 Drive Offense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x3 motion into 1x2. Inside Zone. Good job by the OL of climbing to the second level (though Parks could block the LB a bit better). Gain of 7.
2nd and 3. Bunch to the field (the offense’s right.). This is the same play call as the first play of the game, just a different formation. UGA covers it very well, no one is open. Turner quits on the route. Incomplete.
3rd and 3. 1x3. Williams is running a slant (I think) to the boundary. Brinny runs a stick, Brown an out, Randall a fade. UGA is running Cover 1 Man Under. Incomplete. Put
I understand the frustrations of not running the ball again after a successful 1st down run. On the second down pass play I would have liked to have seen an intermediate route at 7-10 yards to really layer it. Mafah was in the flat, and Williams was bracketed at 15-20 yards. Both Brown and Turner went deep. In a vacuum, I understand Cade’s decision to throw the fade to Randall. The safety is on the near hash. Randall gets open. The problem is the ball is slightly underthrown and Randall doesn’t fight for the ball. Jump back through the defender to draw the flag. Briningstool was also wide open. His defender was 10 yards off pre-snap and by the time Cade hit his drop the defender was at least 5 yards away.
5th Drive Defense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x2. Inside Zone. Gain of 4. Parker and Capehart getting off their blocks kept it short.
2nd and 6. 12 personnel. 1x1 with both TEs offset to the left. RPO Power. Williams is left unblocked by the line, kicked out by one of the TEs. Massive lane. Gain of 7.
1st and 10. Offsides by Page.
1st and 5. 12 personnel. Ace Shotgun. 2 WR to the boundary (offense’s right). Clemson in a Bear-ish front. PA counter, leadblocking TE leaks across to the flat. Covered up. Beck scrambles right, finds #86 all alone. Clemson bailed out by OPI.
1st and 20. 11 personnel. 1x2 motion into 2x1. RPO IZ packaged with WR motion screen. Inside Zone handoff. Gain of 6.
2nd and 14. 2x2. Peter Woods demolishes a double team, forcing Beck to roll right. Incomplete. Holding declined.
3rd and 14. 3x1 Trips to the field. Inside handoff. Gain of 5. Punt and end of half.
We lucked out twice on this drive. Khalil Barnes completely turned an UGA WR loose for a big gain but it was called back for an inconsequential OPI. Peter Woods bailed us out on 2nd and 14. If he doesn’t force Beck to scramble then Lovett was about to be wide open in the middle of the field. UGA is testing how well our LBs react to movement and motion. Woodaz and Carter leave a big hole in the middle of the field on the 2nd down run due to their responsibilities. They immediately get tested again on the 1st and 5. You can see how Bobo is pocking and prodding to find the weaknesses in the defense.
Overall 1st half impressions.
Offense:
I would have liked to have seen more inside zone with Mafah but we ran what 22? 23? plays. It is hard to have any sort of rhythm when you can’t hit the layups.We fell behind schedule way too many times. That is a death sentence against a defense this good. We don’t have the talent to make up for it. Within the first 3 series we had a drop, two procedural penalties, and a lineman blocking his own teammates. Where is the focus?
I won’t belabor the point too much on Cade. QB is a tough position to play. Without knowing the specific play call or read order I can’t be 100% what he is supposed to look at. But this offense is designed to give the QB easy plays. Cade has somewhat improved but there were still a few plays where he missed wide open guys. He also scrambled back and to the right again.
Defense:
I think Wes is playing this conservatively to avoid giving up the big play. We’re playing a Bear front to limit what their OL can do in terms of pulling linemen. We are playing basic coverage behind it with Cover 2 and 1 Man Under and Cover 3. We are hardly blitzing. We are barely getting pressure and Beck is getting time to throw. Bobo is attacking the perimeter defenders, like Peter Woods, and testing how the LBs read their keys. Knowing how the second half goes, you can see some cracks appearing.
Clemson’s base personnel on offense is 11 personnel (1 RB and 1 TE). I will only note the personnel if we are using something different. Offense is more of my strong suit than defense but after talking about it with @willydee1 I think it is important to include the defense.
Note: A Bear front is when 3 defensive linemen cover up the offense’s center and guards. Under front means a LB has walked up to the LOS to create a 5-man front.
My overall, big picture commentary will be at the end. I appreciate any input and any questions you guys have.
1st Drive offense
-1st and 10. 1x3 Trips to the boundary, motion Briningstool in-line, 1x2. Cade peaks left, line blocks down, Cade rolls right, ball at Mafah’s knees
-2nd and 10. 1x3 Bunch to the boundary. Randall motions wider. RPO Inside Zone, Cade hits Briningstool on a stick for 7. Illegal motion on Randall. 5 yard penalty.
-2nd and 15. 2x2 pre-snap motion into 1x3. Cade hits Briningstool on a stick. Dropped
-3rd and 15. 1x3. 4 Verts. UGA jumps offsides and Cade scrambles. Big Hit
-3rd and 10. 1x2. Interior pressure. Quick checkdown to Mafah. Gain of 1.
1st drive of the season and we can’t get out of our own way. The 1st play is a good call to get Cade to rollout. Gets him away from pressure and gives him a half field read. Riley schemes up a first play with two lay ups to make. We still mess it up. Tyler Brown is running a 10 yard out route and is open. Cade doesn’t seem him because he is too quick to go to Mafah. He then throws it at his knees. It needs to be a better pass but Mafah can still still catch that. He easily gets the 1st down if he does. The 2nd play is an RPO inside zone. A nice completion to Briningstool is wiped out by a stupid illegal motion penalty by Randall. Riley then uses motion to confuse the LBers, which gets Briningstool open but he drops it.
1st Drive Defense
UGA plays a lot of 11 and 12 personnel with TEs flexed. I will try to note that where applicable.
-1st and 10. 12 personnel 2x2 Tight. Clemson w/ 8 in the box. Touch pass to Arian Smith. Gain of 11
-1st and 10. Motion into 2x. Clemson in a Bear front. T/T stunt, Capehart TFL on the Inside Zone.
-2nd and 10. Audible from a 2x2 into 1x2 tight, TE in a wing position. Arian Smith motion, RPO WR screen. No gain.
-3rd and 10. 2x2. Clemson playing cover 2 man under. Beck scrambles for ~14.
-1st and 10. 1x2. Motion TE into 1x3 to the boundary, RPO WR Screen. Gain of 2.
-2nd and 8. 2 WRs to the field, 2 TE in-line to the boundary. Motion wing TE to field, RPO bucksweep. No gain.
-3rd and 10. 3x1 bunch to the field. Clemson running 2 man under. Terrell on the WR like white on rice. Incomplete.
Clemson eventually gets the stop but UGA gets two first downs, allowing them to flip the field. Clemson’s defensive tackles flashed early. Capehart and Williams each had a TFL. Georgia is clearly going after us on the perimeter. First play was targeting Woods on the edge and our alignment gave up an easy first down. They’ve had WR screens tagged onto their RPOs and thrown them twice.
2nd Drive Offense
-1st and 10. 12 personnel. 1x1 with both TEs to the boundary. Williams goes in motion to the field, UGA doesn’t buy it, split zone, gain of 2. Holding called, declined.
-2nd and 8. 12 personnel. 2 TEs to the boundary, 2 WR to the field. Pin and pull toss sweep to the boundary. Gain of 7. I like this call.
-3rd and 1. 12 personnel. Tight bunch in-line with Williams out wide. Inside Zone. Gain of a few. First down.
-1st and 10. 12 personnel. Tight bunch to the boundary. Williams goes in motion. We’re setting up the WR jet sweep. Pin and Pull toss sweep to the boundary. Tate can’t climb to the second level and seal off pursuit. Gain of 3.
-2nd and 7. 11 personnel. 1x3. Wesco in as boundary WR. Randall motions to make it a bunch to field. Randall runs a drag from the motion. He’s open. Stellato comes open. Throw away.
3rd and 7. 1x3 bunch to the field. Cade hits Williams on a slant. Gain of 6. 4th down punt.
I like what Riley is doing with the run game. We’re putting Williams in motion and it looks like the second one is setting up the WR jet sweep with the in-line TE as a lead blocker. Riley ran that same look but handed it to the WR for a huge gain at TCU. I'll have to find the specific play. So thats 4 runs, gains us 15ish yards. The second pin and pull had a chance for more but Tate couldn’t climb to the second level. The second down passing play was bad. Cade has Randall WIDE open and doesn’t see him. Stellato shows in a window. Cade misses both. He doesn’t step up into the pocket. He reverts to his old self in scrambling back and out to the right. I think he had a chance to hit Brown for the 1st down on the 3rd down play.
2nd Drive Defense
-1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x2. Inside Zone. Gap sound by Mickens and Carter. Gain of 1.
-2nd and 9. Motion into 2x2. Clemson is in a soft cover 3. Curl Route. Gain of 5.
-3rd and 4. 1x3 Bunch, motion slot outside. Clemson zone blitz. Carter drops from LOS, Woodaz and Barnes Blitz. End/Tackle stunt frees up Parker. Rushed throw. Gain of 2. Punt
This was vintage Clemson defense. Shut down the run, keep everyone in front of you, bring pressure in a creative way to get a free rusher. This was one of the few times we actually generated pressure.
3rd Drive Offense
1st and 10. 2x1 motion Stellato into 1x2. Stellato and Randall run a Post/Wheel. Williams runs a deep corner. PA drop. Beautiful throw and catch. Gain of 36.
1st and 10. 3x1. GT Counter with Haynes in. Sadler has the play wrong and blocks the pulling linemen. Loss of 1.
2nd and 11. 1x2. PA. The 2 run a post/wheel, the 1(Wesco?) runs a crosser. He was briefly open. Cade checks it down to Briningstool. 2 yards.
3rd and 9. 1x2. PA. Georgia blitzes both LBs. Cade hangs in, hits Williams for a 1st on the curl. Penalty. Illegal formation on Stellato or Randall.
3rd and 14. 1x2. Empty with Williams and Briningstool as offset TEs. Motion Williams into boundary for a WR screen. Blown up.
Punt. Bounces inside the 10 and instead of going out bounces into endzone.
Multiple mistakes ruin a promising start and a chance to flip the field. Sadler gets the play completely wrong. UGA plays it well schematically. They crash the backside DE, betting correctly Briningstool can’t cut him off. They scrape the backside LB in case Cade pulls it. While I think Cade could have seen Wesco come upon, the bigger problem is Randall or Stellato wiping out a good gain for a first down. Just inexcusable.
3rd Drive Defense.
1st and 10. 11 Personnel. 2x1 formation. PA slight rollout to the right w/ guard pull. RB leaks out backside. Carter late recognizing it, misses tackle. Gain of 9. Clemson playing soft Cover 3, no pass rush.
2nd and 1. 12 personnel. 1x1 2 TE to the boundary, motion boundary WR to field. IZ. 3 yards.
1st and 10. Motion into 1x2 empty. Both TEs on LOS. Clemson playing soft Cover 3. Quick hitch to field WR. Good tackle. Gain of 5.
2nd and 5. 12 personnel? 1x2, WR motion into Pistol Ace formation. PA Bootleg. WR sneaks across the line for the flat route on the boot. Woodaz late in recognition. Gain of 15.
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 3x1, motion RB into 3x2 empty. Clemson in a Bear/Under front. Basically set up in a 5-0-6. Tunnel screen to motion’d RB into the boundary. Gain of 9
2nd and 1. 1x2. Clemson playing a Bear front. RPO Quick hitch against off coverage. Gain of 8.
1st and 10. 2x1. Clemson in a Bear front. Inside Zone. Capehart almost blows it up. Forces RB to bounce. Woodaz and Griffin swarm to the ball. Loss of 1.
2nd and 11. False start penalty.
2nd and 16. 1x3. Timing throw on slant, Terrell gives up inside leverage, gambles on PBU and misses. Gain of 23.
1st and 10. 1x2. RPO slant, PBU Terrell, lucky on no PI flag.
2nd and 10. 12 personnel. 1x1 WRs in tight. Clemson with 8 in the box, CBs off coverage. RPO TE flat that functions as a screen. Gain of 6. This takes advantage of how we’re lined up.
3rd and 4. 2x2. Clemson in a Bear/Under front. Coverage takes away anything quick, Page provides interior pressure, effort sack by Woods.
Field Goal
Georgia is struggling to block us up front in the run game. We are struggling to get pressure in the passing game. They’re attacking us on the perimeter again in two main ways. 1) They’re taking advantage of our off coverage and 2) they’re attacking our LBers in play action. File that one away.
4th Drive Offense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x3 tight bunch, motion slot WR wider, pin and pull toss sweep from the gun. Briningstool loses at point of attack vs DE, Turner can’t seal pursuing LB. Mafah needs to bounce it. Gain of 2.
2nd and 8. 12 personnel. 2x1, 2 WRs to the field, 2 TEs to the boundary. UGA in a Bear/Over PA toss into the boundary. No one really open, maybe field slant (Moore?). Cade checks it down instead of throwing away. Loss of 5.
3rd and 13. 11 Personnel. 3x1. Motion into bunch. Brinny (outside field) and Turner (solo field) go deep, Brown runs a deep cross, Williams runs a dig (Y-Cross?) Cade hesitates slightly at end of drop. Hits Williams on dig. Brown may have been coming open. Gain of 12.
UGA’s alignment on 1st down helped smother the pin and pull toss, a DE ended up head up on Briningstool. I think Mafah could have bounced it though. Cade understandably wanted to get rid of the ball quickly on 2nd down but throwing a check down like that made a negative play worse. Its frustrating to hit a good play on 3rd down and be that close to converting.
4th Drive Defense
1st and 10. 12 Personnel. 2 TEs to the boundary, 2 WRs to the field. Clemson in a Bear front. PA Rollout to the right, throwback deep to one of the TEs running am over-corner. Terrell falls down. Gain of 31.
1st and 10. 1x2. RB flare screen to the field. Peter Woods destroys it. Loss of 5
2nd and 15. 11 Personnel. 2x1. Clemson in a Bear/under front, playing Cover 1 Man. We’re playing way off. Lovett gets a free release on the Dig/Crosser. Bad throw, dropped pass.
3rd and 15. 2x2 formation. Clemson is in a 3-3-5 with 3 safeties. UGA motions the RB to the field (offense’s left), RB flare screen. Nice tackle by Mickens. Gain of 5.
55 yard Field Goal.
Despite not running the ball much UGA decided to go with a play action deep shot on 1st down. They tried testing the edges of the defense on the 2nd and 4th plays of the drive to see how we react to it. We got no pressure on their 3rd play, we were lucky it was a bad pass/dropped.
5 Drive Offense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x3 motion into 1x2. Inside Zone. Good job by the OL of climbing to the second level (though Parks could block the LB a bit better). Gain of 7.
2nd and 3. Bunch to the field (the offense’s right.). This is the same play call as the first play of the game, just a different formation. UGA covers it very well, no one is open. Turner quits on the route. Incomplete.
3rd and 3. 1x3. Williams is running a slant (I think) to the boundary. Brinny runs a stick, Brown an out, Randall a fade. UGA is running Cover 1 Man Under. Incomplete. Put
I understand the frustrations of not running the ball again after a successful 1st down run. On the second down pass play I would have liked to have seen an intermediate route at 7-10 yards to really layer it. Mafah was in the flat, and Williams was bracketed at 15-20 yards. Both Brown and Turner went deep. In a vacuum, I understand Cade’s decision to throw the fade to Randall. The safety is on the near hash. Randall gets open. The problem is the ball is slightly underthrown and Randall doesn’t fight for the ball. Jump back through the defender to draw the flag. Briningstool was also wide open. His defender was 10 yards off pre-snap and by the time Cade hit his drop the defender was at least 5 yards away.
5th Drive Defense
1st and 10. 11 personnel. 1x2. Inside Zone. Gain of 4. Parker and Capehart getting off their blocks kept it short.
2nd and 6. 12 personnel. 1x1 with both TEs offset to the left. RPO Power. Williams is left unblocked by the line, kicked out by one of the TEs. Massive lane. Gain of 7.
1st and 10. Offsides by Page.
1st and 5. 12 personnel. Ace Shotgun. 2 WR to the boundary (offense’s right). Clemson in a Bear-ish front. PA counter, leadblocking TE leaks across to the flat. Covered up. Beck scrambles right, finds #86 all alone. Clemson bailed out by OPI.
1st and 20. 11 personnel. 1x2 motion into 2x1. RPO IZ packaged with WR motion screen. Inside Zone handoff. Gain of 6.
2nd and 14. 2x2. Peter Woods demolishes a double team, forcing Beck to roll right. Incomplete. Holding declined.
3rd and 14. 3x1 Trips to the field. Inside handoff. Gain of 5. Punt and end of half.
We lucked out twice on this drive. Khalil Barnes completely turned an UGA WR loose for a big gain but it was called back for an inconsequential OPI. Peter Woods bailed us out on 2nd and 14. If he doesn’t force Beck to scramble then Lovett was about to be wide open in the middle of the field. UGA is testing how well our LBs react to movement and motion. Woodaz and Carter leave a big hole in the middle of the field on the 2nd down run due to their responsibilities. They immediately get tested again on the 1st and 5. You can see how Bobo is pocking and prodding to find the weaknesses in the defense.
Overall 1st half impressions.
Offense:
I would have liked to have seen more inside zone with Mafah but we ran what 22? 23? plays. It is hard to have any sort of rhythm when you can’t hit the layups.We fell behind schedule way too many times. That is a death sentence against a defense this good. We don’t have the talent to make up for it. Within the first 3 series we had a drop, two procedural penalties, and a lineman blocking his own teammates. Where is the focus?
I won’t belabor the point too much on Cade. QB is a tough position to play. Without knowing the specific play call or read order I can’t be 100% what he is supposed to look at. But this offense is designed to give the QB easy plays. Cade has somewhat improved but there were still a few plays where he missed wide open guys. He also scrambled back and to the right again.
Defense:
I think Wes is playing this conservatively to avoid giving up the big play. We’re playing a Bear front to limit what their OL can do in terms of pulling linemen. We are playing basic coverage behind it with Cover 2 and 1 Man Under and Cover 3. We are hardly blitzing. We are barely getting pressure and Beck is getting time to throw. Bobo is attacking the perimeter defenders, like Peter Woods, and testing how the LBs read their keys. Knowing how the second half goes, you can see some cracks appearing.
