A lot of people’s complaints were answered today, but since the outcome of the game wasn’t exactly what we hoped, no one wants to accept it.
First is the portal. Since this was basically dubbed the “Portal Game” everyone assumed it would answer the question on if Dabo has been making a mistake. I’ll admit that I’ve been really critical about lack of portal usage but at the end of the day, that didn’t make a difference in the game.
Clemson played good enough football to win that game and as was the case in the Duke game, they couldn’t get out of their own way. You can count on one hand the things that directly switched the game in FSUs favor. The blown Holding call on XT before the half. The playcalling to end the 1H. The fumble returned for 6. The fake reverse pass and the misdef FG.
What we wanted to see out of Clemson we saw today. 1) the defense held one of the more prolific offenses on the country to 17 regulation points. 2) the offense was light years better than it has been all season. 3) the playcalling, aside from a few gaffs, was the best it’s been all year. Clemson attacked the middle of the field & got the TE involved, like fans have been begging them to do. 4) Cade played like a seasoned QB. He stood in the pocket and delivered timely passes all game. Didn’t get shook by pressure and set in the pocket, worked thru leads and was clean with the football. 5) the WRs made plays. Whether it was timely catches, a couple of shots down the field (15-20 yd range), making a play after the catch, they all flashed today. Randall had a big drop on a back shoulder throw and came back with a circus catch and some hard RAC yards. Beaux caught huge timely 3rd down balls when Cade needed to get it out. Stellato flashed hard, finally looking like the WR coaches raved about before injury. Brown is a stud. Not having him on the field is a disservice to the offense at this point. He’s going to be a star in this offense for years to come. Not to mention the fact that our best WR was out injured. 6) the OL was pretty lights out all game. Cade had plenty of time to throw the football. Running lanes were tough to come by but as that game progresse, they started to reestablish the LOS. The sack fumble was a missed RB assignment and not on them. 7) the DB play was great. Outside of a few plays, which is expected to happen with high level WRs, the DBs played extremely well today. All of that to say, this team took a stride today IMO. They’re not a championship football team right now. It’s okay to admit that. But the future does look bright, at least from the offensive side of the ball. I think this can still be a really solid year for this team. Just enjoy the season. Enjoy getting to watch Clemson football and see where things go.
The sky is certainly not falling though. Atleast IMO. I feel more confident about the direction after this loss, than I did after the loss to Duke.