Clemson football has championship-level defense & FCS-level offense in first half vs. UGA

The Clemson football team opened up the 2021 season with a majorly-hyped game against the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday night in Bank of America Stadium.

Unfortunately, the first half is something that Tiger fans will want to forget.

At the time of this writing, Clemson football is currently trailing Georgia 7-0 at the end of the second quarter. The Tigers were able to muster 90 total yards in the first half and they were 2-and-8 on third down attempts.

Clemson football has a championship-level defense & an FCS level offense in the first half against Georgia

You can’t forget the impact that the Tiger defense has had in this one. They’ve held Georgia scoreless and the Bulldogs, despite owning the field position battle throughout the first half, only ended up with 110 total yards.

The defense has been flying around and they’re doing a good job controlling the lines of scrimmage and keeping UGA from getting anything deep.

That being said, as good as the defense has been, the offense has been equally as bad. There are plenty of FCS teams who will put zero points and 90 yards of offense against that UGA defense in the first half.

The offense, especially D.J. Uiagalelei, has played timid. Uiagalelei has happy feet and his pocket awareness simply isn’t there. He threw a pick-six for the only points of the game thus far on a play where the defensive back read his eyes the entire way. Had that interception not happened, the Tigers likely kick a field goal.

You’ve got give UGA credit because the defense has been absolutely stifling, but there’s also plenty of blame to go around on that Clemson offense. They have gotten nothing on the ground and the play-calling has been about as bad as we’ve ever seen. The Tigers are playing conservative, scared and gun shy.

It doesn’t matter how good your defense is, if you can’t put up some points you’re not going to win.

Can the Tiger offense get better in the second half? If they don’t, Clemson’s not winning this game.