Clemson Offense: 2012 compared to 2013

Nov 1, 2012, 3:45 PM

I think the first thing I should preface this topic with is that the Clemson offense is prolific, so keep that in perspective when the data illustrates some weakness. That said, I was curious how the offense is looking in Year 2 of Chad Morris, the new Pistol, the new man blocking on the offensive line, the new personnel, etc. The only way I could think of doing this was to compare the overall rush offense, pass offense and sacks allowed and take into account the defenses we faced last year and this year. I removed the Division II match-ups from both years (Wofford and Furman). Remember the ranking are out of 120 Division I teams, so 60 is the midpoint:

2011 Rush Offense - 59th ranked, 158.5 ypg
faced an average of 54.5 average rush defense. Therefore, Clemson played an above average rush defense last season.

2012 Rush Offense - 45th ranked, 180.4 ypg
faced an average of 75.3 average rush defense. Therefore, Clemson has played a much easier schedule of rush defenses this year compare to last year.

Comparison - +21.9 more ypg this season, against a defensive schedule that is almost 21-ranking points easier than last year.

2011 Pass Offense - 21st ranked, 282.29 ypg
faced an average of 51st average pass defense. Therefore, Clemson played an above average pass defense last season.

2012 Pass Offense - 12th ranked, 317.63 ypg
faced an average of 63rd average pass defense. Therefore, Clemson has played an easier schedule of rush defenses this year compare to last year.

Comparison - +35.34 more ypg this season, against a defensive schedule that is almost 12-ranking points easier than last year.

2011 Sacks Allowed - 85th ranked, 2.36 sacks allowed per game
faced an average of 51st average defenses for sacks. Therefore, Clemson played an above average defenses for sacks last season.

2012 Sacks Allowed - 81st ranked, 2.25 sacks allowed per game
faced an average of 71st average defenses for sacks. Therefore, Clemson played a much easier schedule of defenses for sacks this season.

Comparison - -0.11 less sacks this season, against a defensive schedule that is almost 20-ranking points easier than last year.

As I said before, Clemson has a prolific offense. However, I think it could be questioned that we are not much better in the run game this year compared to last year. The Auburn game was memorable since Ellington was able to run for 200+ yards. However, those Tigers are 105th against the run this year. Since then, the Tigers run game has been slowed down considerably. Against two below average rush defenses statistically in VaTech and Wake Forest (69th and 79th), Clemson picked up well below their game average of 135 and 101 yards. And it does not get any easier with the schedule. The Tigers are facing the 66th, 4th, 40th and 16th against the run to close the regular season.

The pass game does look improved to me and I think the stats illustrate that. Boyd is much more composed and more of a natural leader this year. Clemson plays a pass defense schedule of 81st, 40th, 108th and 28th remaining in the regular season. Sacks are about even, but we are playing a much easier schedule to this point for pass rushing teams. In terms of sacks, Clemson plays a schedule of 52nd, 12th, 12th and 8th!!! So look out Clemson offensive line, the true test of this teams ability to pass blocks will be challenged very soon.

A big difference in the success of the offense compared to last year is Tajh Boyd. He is simply a better QB this year as exemplified by his remarkable improvement to his QB efficiency.

Boyd threw at a good 141.2 passer efficiency clip last season (good for 34th overall in nation). This year he's at 163.9 rating (or 10th overall). The four components that go into pass efficiency are passing yardage, TDs thrown, completions with interception subtracted all divided by pass attempts. So the improvements to Boyd's efficiency are the increase in passing yards thrown, but more importantly the completion rate. This year Boyd is completing at a 67.7% rate as compared to 59.7% last season. That is a HUGE jump in passes completed.

To project it out over the attempts from 2011 season, Tajh would have completed 40 more passes on the season. Per game, that's another 3 passes completed on average, which probably makes up the passing yardage difference.

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Comparable to my offensive comparison post, I crunched the numbers to compare the defense. It's remarkable how comparable last years defense is to this years. And the level of competition appears to be neglible in terms of Rush offenses and pass offenses.

2011 Rush Defense - 83rd ranked, 176.86 ypg
faced an average of 64.3 average rush offense. Therefore, Clemson played a slightly below average rush offense last season.

2012 Rush Defense - 86th ranked, 183.25 ypg
faced an average of 63.3 average rush offense. Therefore, the schedule to this point is negligilbe compared to last year (only 1 rank point difference)

Comparison - +6.39 more ypg given up this season, against a schedule that is about the same as a rush offense. This is a wash out, so it appears our defense is about on the same par as last season. This is losing a starting CB and 3 DLs, including a new scheme and some of the injuries we have in the secondary. Clemson ends the season with the 97th, 115th, 99th and 80th rush offenses on their schedule. Given that, it is probably a fair assumption to expect this defense to end the regular season with better rush defensive stats compared to 2011.

2011 Pass Defense - 50th ranked, 217.50 ypg
faced an average of 61.8 average pass offense. Therefore, Clemson played an average pass offense last season.

2012 Pass Defense - 68th ranked, 237.88 ypg
faced an average of 63rd average pass offense. Therefore, the schedule to this point is negligible compared to last year (only 2 rank point difference)

Comparison - +20.38 more ypg given up this season, against a schedule that is about the same as a pass offense. This is a wash out, so it appears our defense is about on the same par as last season. This is losing a starting CB and 3 DLs, including a new scheme and some of the injuries we have in the secondary. Clemson ends the season with the 36th, 84th, 18th and 69th pass offenses on their schedule. I actually feel pretty good about this comparison, since it feels like this secondary is so much worse than last season, but the stats don't back it up much.

2011 Sacks Allowed - 76th ranked, 1.71 sacks per game
faced an average of 63.8 average offenses for sacks allowed.

2012 Sacks Allowed - 70th ranked, 1.75 sacks allowed per game
faced an average of 59.3 average defenses for sacks. Therefore, Clemson played a slightly tougher schedule of defenses for sacks allowed this season.

Comparison - 0.04 more sacks this season or neglible, against a slightly tougher offense for sacks allowed. Hard to believe we're ahead of sacks to this point since it seems like QB pressure has been lacking this season. Andre Branch had 10 sacks also, which distorts our success last year, since one guy was the face of our pass rush.

Overall, our defense is below average. But it seems like we are about the same as last year to this point in the season. And we end the season with teams that are not offensive powerhouses, at least statistically. Much more room for improvement to end the year. Plus, it does feel like the defense is making more plays and tackling better of late.

Clemson Offense: 2012 compared to 2013

Re: Clemson Defense: 2012 compared to 2013

Great write-up

Re: Great write-up

so WNCTiger = Pigskin Tiger

Re: so WNCTiger = Pigskin Tiger

Thanks for putting that together

Re: Clemson Offense: 2012 compared to 2013

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