Clemson Football has hit the halfway point of their season and is sitting at 4-2 overall. The bye week comes right in the middle of the schedule and honestly couldn’t come at a better time. The Tigers dropped their first game of the year on the road on Labor Day night against Duke and then had two cupcakes to get ready for possibly the biggest game of the year. After the opening game loss, Clemson has seemingly improved each week and continued to get better as the season went on. In the last game before the bye week, Wake Forest came into Death Valley and gave the Tigers all they could handle, and eventually Clemson walked away with a 17-12 win.
In the win against Wake Forest, all of the positive momentum that Clemson has gained over the last few weeks seems like it just went out the window. This past Saturday was a slow, sluggish, and overall bad performance from the offense. What happened? Where did the progress go? Is it just a blip on the radar (of continuous improvement) or is Clemson just going to be up and down all season?
The Defense:
Outside of the poor tackling and subpar effort shown in the Duke loss, this defense has played very well in every other game.
Total Defense – 7th
Scoring Defense – 33rd
Rush Defense – 11th
Passing Yards Allowed – 19th
Red Zone Defense- 17th
This defense has been playing incredibly since week one and with a fire that we haven’t seen in the past 2-3 years. The freshmen have made an immediate impact and the secondary has made a massive leap from last year, which we expected.
Nate Wiggins has shown that he is a legitimate first-round talent and a lockdown corner, RJ Mickens is taking advantage of the added playing time this year and showing out. Andrew Mukuba is looking more and more like the freshman version of himself, which earned him a freshman All-American.
The three freshmen who have undoubtedly made the biggest impact on the defensive side of the ball are Khalil Barnes, Peter Woods, and TJ Parker. If I had said that Peter Woods would have been the third-best freshman on defense to this point, nobody would have believed it but that might be the case to this point. Woods has caused havoc in the middle of the field when he has been in but TJ Parker and Khalil Barnes have really jumped off the screen and been major contributors to this defense.
Overall Grade: A
The Offense:
New starting QB, a new offensive coordinator, and questions at receiver. And the offense overall has been iffy.
Cade’s pocket presence has definitely improved from when we saw him in the Orange Bowl last year against Tennessee and is definitely playing well enough overall. Unfortunately with the lack of playing time last year, it seems like we are seeing some of the freshman growing pains, in his sophomore season.
Total Offense – 35th
Scoring Offense – 46th
Rushing Offense – 34th
Passing Offense – 59th
Red Zone Offense – 119th
Just looking at where this offense ranks in different categories, it’s easy to tell that the red zone offense has really hindered this group. Is it because Clemson isn’t taking shots into the endzone? Are they playing too timid with the smaller field? Is the offensive line not able to get a good enough push up front for the running backs to score?
There are just too many things going on that are stopping this team from punching the ball into the endzone once they get inside the 20.
The running backs have been good overall. Shipley has 91 carries for 450 yards (4.9 per carry), And Mafah has 52 carries for 341 yards (6.6 per carry). The question is, at least for me right now… Is Mafah getting enough touches? He has shown that he deserves more touches and that maybe the role with Shipley should almost be flipped.
The receivers have honestly been better than expected. There have still been some drops (especially against Wake Forest), and a lack of separation but overall there has been improvement in the WR group. Antonio Williams who has dealt with an injury the last two weeks has shown that he is ready for another good season when he gets back against Miami. Beaux has still been inconsistent but has shown some flashes. The deep play touchdown against Syracuse, and what seems like his signature route, the 8-10 yard out route.
We have finally gotten a healthy Troy Stellato and he has been playing really well. He got his first start of the season in the game against Wake Forest and I could definitely see him keeping that spot for the rest of the year and going forward.
Tyler Brown has seemingly been the alpha of the receiver group this year with Antonio Williams missing two games. Through six games, Brown has 24 catches for 338 yards and two touchdowns. He just always seems to be open and make the catch. Without him, this group would really be struggling with AW being out, and nothing from Adam Randall.
Overall Grade: C-
Special Teams:
Aiden Swanson has been a really solid punter so far this season. 23 punts on the season for an average of 45 yards, and a long of 62 yards. He hasn’t been flashy, or the best punter in the country but has been a steady guy that Clemson can count on.
As far as field goals… that is a different story. Robert Gunn III was 1-4 on field goals, so Dabo Swinney had to call down to the beach and get Jonathan Weitz to come and take over. So far, Weitz has gone 3-6 on field goals. In his first game against Florida State, he had an opportunity to give Clemson a lead late in that game and pulled it wide left.
The only thing saving the overall grade for special teams is Aiden Swanson being consistent.
