Disappointed in some of our fans

Dec 30, 2021, 1:33 PM

This post is likely to come across as preachy but I'm not intending for it to be or to try and tell anyone else how to act. However, I've always taken great pride in the Clemson fanbase being above the rest and being a family. However, I've been disappointed in a lot of the comments about DJU this year including last night.

I'm as disappointed as anyone with how things went with him this year and our offense overall. I'm not saying there should never be any criticism of players. I have no problem with anyone pointing out things that need improvement including the QB position. I don't have a problem with anyone saying DJ needs to improve a ton next year or there will need to be a change. I'd imagine that DJ would be the first to tell you that. What is disappointing though are the comments saying he sucks and other similar comments.

I especially thought last night was unfair to him. He didn't play great, but he made some good throws, some good runs, and would've made a few more plays if not for a few drops. I saw a few comments last night saying Purdy looked good and we'd be a championship team without him while being critical of every little mistake DJ made. That's especially interesting to me considering DJ had a higher completion percentage and made fewer mistakes than Purdy last night. Before anyone comments saying DJ only threw short passes I'd like to point out that DJ averaged more yards per completion than Purdy.

The same people who were passing out compliments to Purdy were all over every mistake DJ made while ignoring mistakes by Purdy. Just off the top of my head Purdy missed a wide open receiver in the end zone on their 1st scoring drive, threw a pick 6 that was only a pick 6 because after our 1st defended tipped the pass he decided to tip it again himself which went right into the hands of Goodrich...and then Purdy fumbled on their last offensive play which sealed the game for us.

I'm not saying the mistakes of another QB make up for any made by DJ, it just seems unfair to me for our own fans to be so critical of our own QB while passing out compliments to a guy who did worse.

This part will come across as simply taking up for DJ, and I suppose it is in a way, but I'm not trying to act like he played great this year or wasn't deserving of criticism. However, in the 2nd half of the year it's unfair to overlook his finger injury. I mainly say that to the people who keep saying they never saw any improvement from him during the season. It certainly makes it harder to improve whenever you have a hurt finger on your throwing hand.

I also don't think people take into account how much impact the injuries at receiver had on him. It seems nobody even mentioned that last night. The fact that his 2nd completing of the game was to Will Swinney says all that needs to be said. No way that had no impact on play calling, ability for receivers to get open, or the chemistry between DJ and his receivers. He really never had a chance to build a trust with his receiving group this year. Again, that doesn't totally excuse his own play, but I don't think our offense would've been scoring 40+ per game with a different QB with the same receiving group we had after the injuries.

Again, this post isn't meant to act like DJ is the most awesome QB in the world or should be our starter next season without question. In fact, one of 2 things will happen next season. Either DJ improves a ton and goes back to looking like he did against ND last year or we'll end up with a new starter at QB. To me though, those things will take care of themselves and making constant posts about how much he sucks is going to do nothing but make our fanbase look terrible. I know someone will say all fanbases have fans who say things like that, but aren't we as Clemson fans supposed to be better than that?

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Disappointed in some of our fans

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