The Clemson football defense had its high points and it had its low points during the 2020 season.
There were games where the defense showed its potential and had flashes of greatness. Then there were games where the defense simply couldn’t get out of its own way or find a way to get off the field.
Injuries to some of the top starters didn’t help matters during a couple of games in the regular season, but there was more than just injury problems that led to this unit having what most Clemson football fans considered to be a ‘down year’ for the unit.
When thinking back on the 2020 season, Clemson fans are quick to jump on the secondary and for good reason. The defensive backfield was absolutely eaten alive by Justin Fields and Ohio State in the CFB Playoff. The secondary had far too many blunders and we saw them out of position in both zone and man situations too often.
We decided to go back and watch the film on a few games where the defense struggled- including Ohio State, Notre Dame in the regular season, Virginia and Boston College- to look exclusively at the defense and what went wrong with the unit at times during these games.
It all starts up-front for the Clemson football defense to make an impactful change
It’s easy to blame the secondary for all the problems that the defense possessed in some of these games last year. The defensive backs deserve their fair share of blame for being out of position or getting beat in a one-on-one battle.
That being said, the one story that we kept finding to be true in each of these games started with the front-seven.
If you go back and watch the Ohio State, Boston College or Notre Dame games, what you’ll find is the Tigers’ failed success on called blitzes. Clemson ran that 3-man front for a large portion of the year because of the lack of experience on the defensive line and that led to blitzes coming from the linebacker corp.
The problem, though, is that quarterbacks were delivering the ball just tenths-of-a-second before the blitzer got there.
There were times where Brent Venables called up the perfect blitz play and what we saw was a quarterback get rid of the ball and find an open man. That comes back on the secondary to a point, sure, but when you’re sending 5-6 guys- and Clemson did on many occasions in these games- and you’re not getting to the quarterback, you’re putting your defensive backfield at a disadvantage.
You can’t send Baylon Spector and a safety along with your defensive linemen and expect that James Skalski is going to make up for it in coverage. If you’re dialing up that blitz, it’s with the expectation that they’re going to get to the quarterback or at least effect the passer.
When the quarterbacks didn’t find an open receiver, they somehow dodged the pressure and rushed up the middle of pocket to an open field. The result? A gain of 11 yards on a 3rd down and 9.
The moral of the story? If Clemson is going to have success defensively in 2021, it’s all going to start up-front.
The good news is that this might be the deepest and most talented defensive line that we’ve seen in recent Clemson football history. This group is going to find ways to get in the backfield- even without a blitzer- similar to what the 2018 unit did. As a result, the Tigers are going to be able to drop a man in coverage that they weren’t afforded the luxury of having in 2020.
Winning at the line of scrimmage defensively- and having success when you do call a blitzing package- is going to be just as important, and potentially even more important, than the emphasis we all have placed in the improvement of the secondary for the upcoming season.