Clemson Football: 2019 Midseason Offensive Report
What has the Clemson football offense looked like to this point in the 2019 season? Here’s our Midseason Offensive Report for the Tigers.
The 2019 Clemson football team is currently 5-0 heading into the first bye week of the season.
Though the middle point of the season will technically occur next week after the Tigers play their sixth game against Florida State, the midseason is certainly upon us. The bye week represents the Tigers putting a bow on the first half of the season and entering the second phase.
Here’s a look at the midseason offensive report for Clemson football.
By The Numbers:
- 38.0 Points Per Game
- 486 yards per game
- 68.6 plays per game
- 7.08 yards per play
The offense, despite the fact that it has looked out of sync, has still averaged 38 points per game and close to 500 yards of offense each game. Here’s a look at the 2016 and 2018 (The two National Championship winning seasons) stats through the first five games of the season.
2016: 35.2 points per game; 463.4 yards per game.
2018: 38.0 points per game; 500 yards per game
Interestingly enough, this team is actually ahead of where the 2016 offense was five games into the season and they are right on track with last year’s offense.
Analysis:
I understand that numbers can help put things into perspective, but if you have looked at this offense, you can tell that they aren’t clicking on all cylinders. The Tigers typically always come out slow offensively, but this group has too much talent to not be performing at a higher level.
That will eventually come, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
Trevor Lawrence has looked off passing the ball at times. He’s already thrown more interceptions through the first five games of the season than he did all of last season. Other than the Georgia Tech game, Travis Etienne has had a tough time getting much going in the running game and the Offensive Coordinators haven’t opened up much of the play-book.
We’ve seen a lot of RPOs, mixed in with some basic runs. In the passing game, we’ve seen back-shoulder fade after back-shoulder fade with wide receiver screens. The one thing we haven’t seen the Tigers do a whole lot of is attack the middle of the field against the defense. In some cases, the defense hasn’t left the middle open. In others, it has been there for the taking and the Tigers haven’t elected to try.
It’s not an easy thing to figure out.
The Clemson football offense always has a ‘feeling out’ process where they see what the defense will give them and attack accordingly. It would be nice, though, to see the unit just come out and aggressively take some shots down the field. It’s going to need to happen to open up defenses in the future.
Next. Studs and Duds from victory vs. UNC. dark
Overall, I think the offense has left a ton of points on the field. They’re much more talented than the numbers or scores show and that talent is going to shine through at some point. When they get things going, opposing defenses will not be able to slow them down. It’s just a matter of time.