Clemson Football: Interior OL could cost Tigers a National Championship
The interior offensive line is a concern for Clemson football moving forward
Perhaps the biggest concern surrounding this 2020 Clemson football team and its ability to make a run in the CFB Playoff is the offensive line, particularly along the interior.
The Tigers have shown deficiencies in the secondary and on the defensive line at times this season, but no position has been as consistently bad as the offensive line, especially in running situations.
On the season, Clemson is averaging just 4.1 yards per carry through the first eight games. That’s in stark contrast to last year where we saw this team rush for 6.4 yards over the course of 15 games.
You can tell me all you want about how ‘defensive schemes have changed, blah blah blah’ but the truth is that they haven’t. Teams have sent blitzes at times and they’ve stacked the box at times, but guess what? That’s no different than what we saw last year.
So, unless you’re going to say that Travis Etienne has somehow regressed (he’s averaging 5.2 YPC this year compared to last year’s 7.8 YPC), then we have to look somewhere else.
The answer is the offensive line.
Dabo Swinney continues to harp on the Clemson football offensive line, but the unit simply hasn’t been good
Swinney has maintained the position that nothing is wrong with this Clemson football offensive line, but anyone who has watched the Tigers in any form this season knows that’s not completely true.
Yes, the line has done a decent job in pass-protection at times and the two offensive tackles- Jackson Carman and Jordan McFadden- haven’t been beaten all that often. As a matter of fact, McFadden has been the bright spot of this OL this season and he has me excited about his development moving forward.
That being said, the interior of this line- Matt Bockhorst, Cade Stewart and Will Putnam- haven’t lived up to expectations. The OL as a whole hasn’t gotten any type of a push on rushing plays and that all starts with the interior- and then the offensive tackles follow.
It’s the guard and center’s job to push their man off the ball and to open up a hole. They haven’t done that. Instead, they’ve been the ones who have been pushed back off the line and basically haven’t given Travis Etienne- the nation’s best running back- any room to bust off a big play up the middle or just to wear down the defense with his workhorse ability.
That’s a concern moving forward, whether or not you want to believe it. This offensive line doesn’t have the power along the interior that it had last year when John Simpson, Sean Pollard and Gage Cervenka were manning the middle- and no one is saying they didn’t have troubles at times- but there was a different trust factor with them.
When Clemson needed a yard on 4th and short last year, there was a confidence that the Tigers were going to pick it up with Etienne and the offensive line. This year? That confidence is completely thrown out the window.
Next. Two AP voters have Clemson outside their top-5. dark
If Clemson football wants to win a National Championship, it’s going to start right in the heart of that offensive with the interior offensive linemen. If they can’t make improvements and adjustments, 2020 won’t be the season that we once thought it could be.