Closer Look: Grades from Clemson's win over Syracuse |
A top-15 divisional bout between Clemson and Syracuse had a little bit of everything and the Tigers came out on top with a double-digit, fourth-quarter comeback on Saturday in the 27-21 win.
Breaking down the key figures with some season and unit notes, with the aid of Pro Football Focus: Offensive MVP I was tempted to make it co-offensive MVPs, but if you watched the game at all and watched the lines of scrimmage, you saw that left tackle Jordan McFadden was all over the place. He was run blocking, he was pass blocking, he was pulling, he was running down the field and blocking, and he was out wide blocking. As a result, he drew the highest offensive grade of 90.1, easily the highest offensive grade of the day at 90.1. McFadden played all 88 plays and graded out at 81.9 in his run blocking. There is a reason Clemson went left in the run game. According to PFF, the Tigers ran 33 of their 57 rushing plays to the left. More notables RB Phil Mafah Mafah jumps into the grades this week after rushing 18 times for 94 yards against Syracuse. He has the second-highest grade on the team with an 82.2. He earns a 78.6 grade on his runs, easily the highest on the team. After grading at just a 60 against NC State, Mafah has been on the rise, with big increases each week (which also might explain more playing time), with a 65.9 against Boston College, a 70 against Florida State and the 82.2 this week. His one ding? A 0 in pass protection. Offense
LG Marcus Tate
Big old Tate just seems to get better every week, and as we said with McFadden, there is a reason the Tigers run to the left side. Tate graded out at 73.2, but his highest grade was in pass blocking with an 84.2, second only to McFadden.
RB Will Shipley
Shipley had yet another career day for the Tigers, gaining 242 all-purpose yards and a career-high 172 rushing yards. It’s interesting to note that with four regular season games left to play, plus the postseason, he has already recorded three more catches in 2022 (19) than he had in 2021 (16). He graded out at 70.7 on the day. He had one big fumble, but otherwise a clean game. – David Hood
QBs
It was an obviously tough day for DJ Uiagalelei, who after a 41-yard pass to start the game connected on only one of his seven other throws of 10-plus yards and tallied two interceptions. His 49.2 grade as a passer was by-far a career low as a starter and over 15 points below his lowest grade of the season there (65.8 at Florida State). He was not as harshly graded in the fumble category (70.8) as Shipley was (42.6), however.
Not a lot was asked from the freshman Cade Klubnik passing with six total dropbacks and three of his four targets within 10 yards and the other between 10-20 yards (a completion for 18). He graded 60.8 as a passer in those dropbacks and 63.4 overall, adding a 62-mark as a rusher compared to a 75 for Uiagalelei.
Unit grade notes: Believe it or not, Clemson’s overall offensive grade was its second-highest of the season (75.1; 78 vs. La Tech the best) thanks to a season-best in run blocking (75.1; previous best was 67.3 v. La Tech) and good numbers for the run game (79.7) and pass blocking (77.2). The run blocking grade was the best versus FBS competition since 2020 at Georgia Tech (76.5, a 73-7 win).
Defense
Defensive MVP
DE KJ Henry
Henry continues to hassle the QB with another five hurries and a sack, also tallying two more tackles and a batted pass.
His 82.6 grade as a pass rusher was Clemson’s leader Saturday by over 10 grade points.
Henry leads all Power 5 edge rushers with 25 hurries this season.
History repeats itself.@atxlete x @thekjhenry pic.twitter.com/TNmdZRBVHt
— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) October 22, 2022
More notables
Hard to beat the 1:1 ratio of targets to interceptions for a defense-leading 85.4 grade overall in 20 snaps.
DT Tyler Davis
Davis had the top mark among starters (77.5) over 42 snaps, credited with two sacks, two hurries and four tackles. He had the top grade against the run (74.1).
Phillips paced the defense in tackling grade (85.5) with seven on the game.
Unit grade notes: Maybe the most noteworthy change week-to-week came in the tackling grade, which improved from the worst total since the opener last week (50.7) by nearly 18 points (68.6; fourth-best this season). The group cut their missed tackles in half from those noted by PFF last week at FSU (18 to 9). Overall, however, the grade was the lowest this year (69.5) with the third-lowest on rush defense (65.7) and second-lowest coverage mark (67.2). – Brandon Rink
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