The Clemson football team took care of business against the Charlotte 49ers Saturday. Here are our defensive grades for the Tigers.
The Clemson football team improved to 4-0 on the season with a 52-10 win over the Charlotte 49ers Saturday night in Death Valley.
The Tigers played 111 players and looked absolutely dominant– as they should have- in the performance.
As we begin to conclude our coverage on the game, let’s take a look at our defensive grades for Clemson football in the match up against the Charlotte 49ers.
Defensive Report Card:
Let’s go ahead and start with the one bad from the night: Tackling in the running game.
There were too many times where we saw defensive linemen allow big holes to be opened up and linebackers miss tackles in the open field or in the second level. You have to give credit to Charlotte running backs Benny LeMay and Aaron McAllister who made things difficult for the Tigers and continued to run hard even after contact.
That being said, it seemed as if the Tigers shored some of that up in the second half and, overall, they still only allowed Charlotte to gain 153 yards on the ground despite having the ball for 34:27 of the game.
The defensive backs looked good in coverage and we continued to see that elite pass-rush when Charlotte did attempt a pass.
Brent Venables was also able to see a bunch of different guys and work some of the younger players- especially at linebacker- to help build depth as the season progresses.
Grade: A
Overall, you can’t really argue that this defense did what it needed to do. They gave up a field goal and the lone touchdown of the night was a product of a muffed punt that gave Charlotte the ball inside the red zone. This group continues to prove that they have the skillset to be elite and they’re only going to get better as the season progresses.