Monday October 19, 2009

Wake Forest Review

Wake Forest Review
Saturday’s 38-3 win over Wake Forest was perhaps the most complete performance since the last time the Tigers beat the Deacons 44-10 in 2007. I thought the offense, defense and special teams all played as well as they have all season.

I think we all could make a legitimate argument on which side of the ball was more impressive but for those that point out the defense, I think tackling was one of the two biggest factors. Coach Swinney pointed this out Sunday after the film. I thought the open field tackling was much better including Kavell Conner’s best performance.

The other major factor on defense Saturday was pressure. Riley Skinner entered Saturday’s game with three consecutive games of more than 350 yard passing but the senior was hammered all day. Clemson had five sacks and eight quarterback hurries. By the end of the game Skinner’s jersey was a completely different color than the rest of his Wake Forest teammates.

Saturday was Da’Quan Bowers’ 19th game at Clemson and I think this was his best performance. He had four solo tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack and three quarterback hurries. Wake Forest had a difficult time handling the sophomore defensive tackle who actually cut his hair since the Maryland game but looked like a different player aside from his hair.

It was pretty obvious to me that Wake Forest had a hard time with the rest of the Clemson defensive line also. Rennie Moore and Jamie Cumbie combined on a sack. Ricky Sapp added another sack to his total this season. Wake ran 70 plays and 12 resulted in a tackle behind the line of scrimmage. Bowers had three tackles for loss. Cumbie had a couple. Sapp, Moore, Branch and Malliciah Gooman also had one each. This kind of pressure and penetration had the Deacs behind the chains and in bad down and distance situations the entire afternoon.

One of the surprising parts of this effort is that it came against perhaps the hottest offense in the league. Wake Forest came into the game averaging just 0.7 yards per game less than the ACC’s leading team in total offense, Georgia Tech.

The total team effort can also be attributed to the linebacker corps. I mentioned Connor’s open field tackling. He had eight tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss and a seven yard sack. Jonathan Willard was the team’s second leading tackler with seven including a tackle for loss. Brandon Maye had six tackle and true freshman Corrico Hawkins played the most snaps of his career and had a couple of tackles.

Some of those sacks were coverage sacks that came from an aggressive defensive gameplan and tremendous execution from the secondary. From the stands, it appeared to be one of the top performances by the secondary including DeAndre McDaniel’s very important interception in the first period.

The offense looked crisp as well. It looked like the offense got an injection of confidence after taking the opening kickoff and scoring first. Also, I don’t think you can underestimate the impact of getting seven points on that drive. The offense looked like it was in a rhythm all day and it started with the opening drive.

What else can you say about C.J. Spiller? Wake Forest tried to limit his touches by not kicking to him so Spiller made his difference as a tailback. The Deacs kicked off only twice all day and both were away from Spiller. They punted the ball out of bounds all day as well. So Spiller only touched the ball 11 times but he made them count. He had nine carries for 107 yards for two touchdowns including a 66-yard burst. It was that run that told me the game was out of hand and this one was going to be a Tiger victory. The run came one play after Wake scored to cut the lead to 17-3 and Spiller took any momentum away from the Deacs.

I thought Kyle Parker had one of his best games of the year especially running the football. He ran the zone read well and his touchdown off of the option was a thing of beauty. Parker made better decisions also. His 51-yard bomb to Jacoby Ford was a thing of beauty.

Speaking of beauty, the play calling had some different aspects that were easier on the eyes. I love the tight ends more involved in the gameplan. Michael Palmer had two catches on the opening drive including his touchdown catch. When was the last time you saw a tight end screen at Clemson? Put the screen to Dwayne Allen in the memory bank but hopefully it won’t be long before we see another one. The play calling even included a trick play from Jacoby Ford to Xavier Dye for 32 yards and a fullback carry in a short yardage situation.

The big improvement on offense came in the red zone. The Tigers had four trips into the red zone Saturday that resulted in three touchdowns and one field goal. Execution is the key here. A one-yard touchdown pass to Palmer would have been criticized if the play hard not been executed properly. Spiller’s 14-yard touchdown run came on a second down and 13 where the staff chose to run the ball. If the play had not worked then it would have been criticized.

I also liked how aggressive the staff was with their time outs at the end of the first half. The Tigers scored with 3:37 to go in the first half then used their time outs to get the ball back again and score with 66 second left in the first half to go up 31-3.

We also saw a bunch of young players play well Saturday. The Tigers started three freshmen on offense in Dalton Freeman, Dwayne Allen and Kyle Parker. Spencer Adams, Spencer Benton, Jonathan Meeks, Andre Ellington, Xavier Brewer, Rashard Hall, Carlton Lewis, Brandon Clear, Byron Clear, Corrico Hawkins, Tig Willard, Matt Sanders, Kenneth Page, Matt Skinner, Brandon Ford, Jaron Brown and Malliciah Goodman were the others to play to give the Tigers 20 freshmen that saw action Saturday.

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Prayer List
We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
*If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.
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Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, Larry in Naples, FL, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Jo Ann Bachman, Frank Taylor, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, Jack Huffman, Nancy Winkler, Dr. Nancy Strom Morgan, John Reeve, Eileen Woodrum, Ethel Southard, Vinnie Brock, Jean-Pierre Bailey, Kaitlyn L, Delores Weaver, Eric Boessneck, John Bowers, Jimmy Ness, Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, John Petrey, Chalmers Carr, Drayton Melton, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Ann Fallaw, Bob Pollock, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs, Mike Kingsmore.