Clemson Football: Complementary football is key to 2020

For Clemson football to win their fourth national championship in 2020, they will have to play complementary football.

When the final horn sounded on Clemson football in 2019, one thing was clear, their final game of the season was not their best performance. Unlike the title game in 2018 where they played their best game of the year, this was by far their worst performance and it came against one of the best teams to ever play the game.

In the national title game against LSU, they played complementary football for all of one quarter and the scoreboard reflected that. What exactly does complimentary football mean? Well, NFL Atlanta Falcons Vice President described it best.

"“It means the offense leads to the defense, the defense leads to the special teams, the special teams lead back to the offense there is a rhythm to it and it takes all those phases to go together.”"

The Clemson defense got enough stops versus LSU to give the offense a chance at putting points up the board. Unfortunately, the offense was unable to sustain drives and give the defense a chance to rest.

In the second half against LSU, the Clemson defense was on the field for 20 minutes and 32 seconds of the 30 minutes possible. The longest Clemson drive was their first of the second half when they went on a two and a half minute scoring drive.

Regardless of how good a defense is, no one is built to play nearly 21 minutes in a single half.

With all the talent coming back and the freshman class coming in, Clemson football is currently the Vegas betting favorite to win the 2020 College Football Playoff at 2/1. If they are going to live up to the lofty expectations, they are going to have play better complementary football, which includes special teams.

The strength of the Clemson defense in 2020 will once again be the front four. Hopefully, the guys up front will give the young guys like Sheridan Jones and Andrew Booth time to acclimate to being thrown into action in 2020.

The offense, led by Travis Etienne and Trevor Lawrence, can really help the young backend of the defense by sustaining drives and putting points up on the board. Conversely, the offensive line is going to be a work in progress and the defense can aid in their development by getting stops so that they can get more reps together as a unit.

Complimentary football is going to be key to Clemson football winning the ACC title and getting back to the College Football Playoff for the sixth straight year and will certainly be key to winning their fourth title in program history.