Re: OC Riley on Offense taking foot off the gas too early

tboonpickens

Game Changer [2047]

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Re: So Brown played the entirety of the first 3 quarters, but not at all

Dec 17, 2024, 8:08 PM

Technically I believe Sammy played 4 snaps in the 4th quarter. Despite this fact, he still was the team's leading tackler for the game if that tells you anything about his value and effect on the game. He was not on the field for the final Sellers TD run. It was an idiotic decision to pull him given the circumstances. Sellers is a mediocre passer and they have no weapons that scare anyone in the pass game with their 74th ranked passing offense. if they beat you through the air then you just tip your cap. You don't let them ring up more yards rushing in the 4th quarter than they had in the first three quarters combined because you have the wrong personnel on the field.

From USA TODAY after the game:

Clemson football's defense dominated South Carolina's offense for three quarters in the Tigers' 17-14 rivalry loss on Saturday. The Tigers stifled quarterback LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecocks' rushing attack, holding them to just 240 total yards, including 127 on the ground, while allowing only seven points.

Much of that was courtesy of linebacker Sammy Brown, who was everywhere during the first three quarters. Brown was relentless, making nine tackles, one sack, and 1.5 tackles for loss while consistently disrupting Sellers and running back Rocket Sanders. Despite that, Clemson defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin made the puzzling decision to pull Brown off the field in the fourth quarter.

The move, head coach Dabo Swinney said, was a shift in defensive packages. "We felt they were going to change the way they were going to play, but nothing more than that," Swinney said. But the Gamecocks didn't change their game plan. Instead , they relied more heavily on the run, carrying 17 times for 140 yards in the final quarter—more than they had managed in the first three quarters combined.

Brown briefly returned for one snap in the fourth quarter, which ended with Khalil Barnes' interception to end a would-be South Carolina scoring drive. Yet, the Gamecocks kept rolling, with him on the sidelines for the most part. Given how limited South Carolina was in the passing game - with heavy reliance on the run - it's a head-scratcher why Clemson ever sat Brown.

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The old adage that when teams start trying to prevent the usual thing they prevent is winning>

Getting conservative on offense to try to use up clock, seems to me at least, to do more to put the defense on its heals because the offense gets into a funk.

When it comes to these playoff games score score score. It is what we will have to do to beat Texas. a 21 point lead is not good enough to be sure you have a sustainable lead. Texas score from a long way out. they have a worse redzone offense than we do by the numbers, but the sure do hit it alot from outside the redzone. That ads up to a team that can score really quickly.

I read an article about long drives not being nearly as good as qucik scoring drives, because long drives greatly multiply your chances of making a major drive ending error. Its one thing if it does take a long drive, but its another when you purposely slow the offense down to try to eat up game clock when your run game is not dominant.

OC Riley on Offense taking foot off the gas too early