Streeter breaks down wide receiver drops, issues on second down

Brandon Streeter says Clemson is stopping Clemson more than the opposition for the majority of the inefficiency this point.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Oct 11 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offensive numbers are better across the board this season, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, including drops by wide receivers and executing better on second down.

Clemson ranks 19th nationally in scoring offense at 39.3 points per game, is 13th nationally in third down conversions (50-percentm 46-of-92), and is first nationally in red zone offense (32-for-32).

Against Boston College, the Tigers were successful (positive yards) on each of their first four second-down plays. A drop – this one by Beaux Collins in the endzone – forced the Tigers to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown and the offense stalled for much of the next 24 minutes of regulation time.

On the third drive, a pre-snap penalty put the Tigers behind the chains, turning a 2nd-and-4 into a 2nd-and-9. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei ran the ball for just one yard on the next play and an incomplete pass on third down ended the drive. On the next possession, on 2nd-and-10, running back Phil Mafah ran it up the middle for just three yards, and a 3rd-and-7 pass to Collins was incomplete.

I asked offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter about second down during his media session Monday, and he admitted the Tigers have to do a better job of making something positive out of that down.

"On a 2nd and long situation, the general rule of thumb is let's get half those yards back so that we get a third and manageable situation,” Streeter said. “Right now, second down is a place we've got to do a better job of right now as far as calling it and executing it to get into that third down and medium or short or get a first down. We just have not been quite as consistent in that situation. First down, we've been pretty good at getting our plus-four and keeping us on schedule. That is something we will continue to identify and is something we'll continue to work on."

The drops are better this season, but three big ones stalled drives Saturday.

"I don't think I'm concerned about it, because I think we did a lot better job this past game of making those contested plays downfield outside of a few plays,” Streeter said. “It should have been a touchdown right off the bat against Boston College. I have a ton of confidence in Beaux (Collins) because he's such a professional. I really believe he can put stuff behind him quickly too. Drops are not a concern... they were maybe last year and early on this season when we weren't making some plays downfield, but we've gotten better and better as the year has gone on (making plays downfield).

“I feel like we're in a pretty good spot. That's the name of the game though. This is an offense that can be very explosive if we're making those plays, and if the quarterback is making those throws and giving those guys an opportunity. So I think we missed a little bit of that on Saturday, which made us sputter on a couple of those drives."

As the offense continues to improve, Streeter said it’s less about what the defense is doing and more about Clemson’s execution.

"Just trying to be more and more consistent. Honestly the majority of the time this year when we were not successful, it's not something the defense did, but it's something that we didn't do or execute because of one or two guys not doing their job,” Streeter said. “That's what it's going to take as you get higher and higher on the mountain, so we've got to be more consistent."