So we're doing the video review thing a day early this week in advance of tomorrow night's clash at Louisville.
Brent Venables said something interesting yesterday as he shared insight into how he assesses the progress of his group. Someone asked him if he feels better about the interior defensive line now than he did before the season -- a perfectly reasonable conclusion, given how disruptive the've been in the first two games -- and he said this:
"I don't know. Better isn't necessarily the word. There's always give and take. How are we going to play this week? I know what the issues were. And I think more about the bad plays. Not that I'm a negative person. But if you put it on tape, you're going to see it again this week. So hopefully we're better at some certain things this week than we were last week. We're playing a more quality opponent.
"If you've been exposed to something, they're going to find you and see if you got coached up and got it corrected. That's my concern going into this week. ... They're not watching you and talking to each other in their staff room about how great this play was or that play was that you did. They're looking at, 'Oh my gosh. Look at him. He's laying all over the ground,' or 'He can't do this and he can't do that. Let's do this so we can exploit that.' So as a player you have to take responsibility for it and own it, or it won't get corrected. And as coaches we've got to identify it and find a way to get them better at it."
This is good perspective when it comes to the weekly routine here of analyzing the previous week's game. Clemson dominated Appalachian State, as it should have. But what are some potential trouble spots as the Tigers prepare to face Louisville? Our focus on those potential trouble spots isn't the product of a negative takeaway from the game as much as a deeper look into what this team has to do better to walk away with a win Thursday night. As fun as it is to revisit all the impressive plays from the last game, it's often more helpful and useful to break down some of the not-so-impressive plays. Because as Venables was pointing out, when you have breakdowns against dramatically inferior opponents you're going to have to get them corrected when it comes time to face a team of more equal stature. If the Tigers successfully address some of the breakdowns, we'll have a lot of fun highlights to analyze this time next week.
With that, we'll start with the blocking that took place Saturday -- or lack thereof, in some cases.
(And before we start, thanks to the guy who has the YouTube handle tigerrray. His willingness to upload every game is the reason we're able to get some video breakdown of this particular game. Because Lord knows I didn't have the patience to sort through the cumbersome ESPN3 replay).
-- The edge blocking has to get better, particularly against a defense that primarily runs a 3-4 with big, athletic outside backers Devonte Fields and Keith Brown.
It was not a good day for Jordan Leggett, as you can see here:
Here:
And here:
On this play, a power run to the left side, he and Tyrone Crowder are the main blockers. He and Crowder don't touch anyone, largely because Leggett gets in Crowder's way. And they both get in the running back's way:
-- Not sure how to diagnose what went wrong on this sack of Deshaun Watson. The snap by Ryan Norton throws off the timing of the mesh, and Watson looks to throw outside but both receivers are blocking. Looks like Stanton Seckinger is supposed to chip his guy but doesn't get much on him. Open for suggestions on what the intended play was here. Maybe a zone read?
-- Speaking of Seckinger, they simply have to get a better job of blocking from him than this. And you could probably also throw Eric Mac Lain in there in this instance:
-- I asked Tony Elliott about his message to his tight ends and H-backs this week after the blocking struggles against Appalachian State. Here's his reply:
"It was more technique issues. There were a couple of times on some of the speed game that we run, we just missed a guy. We tried to cut and missed. There was one where we went out there with the wrong mentality and got caught. I give credit to App. State, they were ready to play. And they made it a point that they wanted to try and be more physical. But once we locked in, there weren't as many issues.
"But it is critical versus this team for us to be able to run our two-back stuff. Those guys need to be physical at the point of attack so we can get the ball to the line of scrimmage and to the second level as well."
-- As the coaches have said all offseason, it would be crazy to coach scared when it comes to protecting Watson from another injury. This is a zone-read offense, and Watson is going to be a running threat even if he's not the type of running threat Tajh Boyd was (read: fullback) when he was here. When Watson does run, it's largely going to be outside and he's going to have opportunities to get out of bounds.
What is scary, and what has to be avoided at all costs, is opposing defenders getting free shots at Watson when he's standing in the pocket. If there's one thing that does give the coaches some stress as it relates to keeping Watson healthy, this is probably it.
And you can see an example of that right here. Could have been worse:
Looked to me like Watson was supposed to quickly move toward Wayne Gallman for the mesh. But also some miscommunication on the right side of the line.
-- It's been pointed out that Appalachian State put seven guys in the box to make running difficult for the Tigers. But when you have two tight ends and seven blocking seven, you should be able to move people off the ball better than this:
-- And we'll close with some feel-good material, part of the reason we think Bobby Petrino is going to have to go with Lamar Jackson. Because if you can't block them, you gotta come up with something.
They might not be able to block this Christian Wilkins guy:
Brent Venables said something interesting yesterday as he shared insight into how he assesses the progress of his group. Someone asked him if he feels better about the interior defensive line now than he did before the season -- a perfectly reasonable conclusion, given how disruptive the've been in the first two games -- and he said this:
"I don't know. Better isn't necessarily the word. There's always give and take. How are we going to play this week? I know what the issues were. And I think more about the bad plays. Not that I'm a negative person. But if you put it on tape, you're going to see it again this week. So hopefully we're better at some certain things this week than we were last week. We're playing a more quality opponent.
"If you've been exposed to something, they're going to find you and see if you got coached up and got it corrected. That's my concern going into this week. ... They're not watching you and talking to each other in their staff room about how great this play was or that play was that you did. They're looking at, 'Oh my gosh. Look at him. He's laying all over the ground,' or 'He can't do this and he can't do that. Let's do this so we can exploit that.' So as a player you have to take responsibility for it and own it, or it won't get corrected. And as coaches we've got to identify it and find a way to get them better at it."
This is good perspective when it comes to the weekly routine here of analyzing the previous week's game. Clemson dominated Appalachian State, as it should have. But what are some potential trouble spots as the Tigers prepare to face Louisville? Our focus on those potential trouble spots isn't the product of a negative takeaway from the game as much as a deeper look into what this team has to do better to walk away with a win Thursday night. As fun as it is to revisit all the impressive plays from the last game, it's often more helpful and useful to break down some of the not-so-impressive plays. Because as Venables was pointing out, when you have breakdowns against dramatically inferior opponents you're going to have to get them corrected when it comes time to face a team of more equal stature. If the Tigers successfully address some of the breakdowns, we'll have a lot of fun highlights to analyze this time next week.
With that, we'll start with the blocking that took place Saturday -- or lack thereof, in some cases.
(And before we start, thanks to the guy who has the YouTube handle tigerrray. His willingness to upload every game is the reason we're able to get some video breakdown of this particular game. Because Lord knows I didn't have the patience to sort through the cumbersome ESPN3 replay).
-- The edge blocking has to get better, particularly against a defense that primarily runs a 3-4 with big, athletic outside backers Devonte Fields and Keith Brown.
It was not a good day for Jordan Leggett, as you can see here:
Here:
And here:
On this play, a power run to the left side, he and Tyrone Crowder are the main blockers. He and Crowder don't touch anyone, largely because Leggett gets in Crowder's way. And they both get in the running back's way:
-- Not sure how to diagnose what went wrong on this sack of Deshaun Watson. The snap by Ryan Norton throws off the timing of the mesh, and Watson looks to throw outside but both receivers are blocking. Looks like Stanton Seckinger is supposed to chip his guy but doesn't get much on him. Open for suggestions on what the intended play was here. Maybe a zone read?
-- Speaking of Seckinger, they simply have to get a better job of blocking from him than this. And you could probably also throw Eric Mac Lain in there in this instance:
-- I asked Tony Elliott about his message to his tight ends and H-backs this week after the blocking struggles against Appalachian State. Here's his reply:
"It was more technique issues. There were a couple of times on some of the speed game that we run, we just missed a guy. We tried to cut and missed. There was one where we went out there with the wrong mentality and got caught. I give credit to App. State, they were ready to play. And they made it a point that they wanted to try and be more physical. But once we locked in, there weren't as many issues.
"But it is critical versus this team for us to be able to run our two-back stuff. Those guys need to be physical at the point of attack so we can get the ball to the line of scrimmage and to the second level as well."
-- As the coaches have said all offseason, it would be crazy to coach scared when it comes to protecting Watson from another injury. This is a zone-read offense, and Watson is going to be a running threat even if he's not the type of running threat Tajh Boyd was (read: fullback) when he was here. When Watson does run, it's largely going to be outside and he's going to have opportunities to get out of bounds.
What is scary, and what has to be avoided at all costs, is opposing defenders getting free shots at Watson when he's standing in the pocket. If there's one thing that does give the coaches some stress as it relates to keeping Watson healthy, this is probably it.
And you can see an example of that right here. Could have been worse:
Looked to me like Watson was supposed to quickly move toward Wayne Gallman for the mesh. But also some miscommunication on the right side of the line.
-- It's been pointed out that Appalachian State put seven guys in the box to make running difficult for the Tigers. But when you have two tight ends and seven blocking seven, you should be able to move people off the ball better than this:
-- And we'll close with some feel-good material, part of the reason we think Bobby Petrino is going to have to go with Lamar Jackson. Because if you can't block them, you gotta come up with something.
They might not be able to block this Christian Wilkins guy:
