Clemson football: Interior of offensive line and wide receiver are question marks
It’s not rocket science to see the obvious issues with the Clemson football offense. After 2021, questions at quarterback are a given and beyond that people generally gravitate towards the offensive line, and in particular the interior of the offensive line.
Our friend, Jason Priester of AllClemson.com was on Mark Rogers TV recently and for my money he hit the nail on the head when discussing both.
We all know D.J. Uiagalelei struggled, but he also spent a good portion of the season dodging defenders coming at him unblocked and dealt with receivers that dropped 27 passes on the season, some of them huge drops that could have changed at least one of Clemson’s three losses into a win.
Jason said the things most of us have been thinking. The offensive line and wide receivers are huge question marks headed into 2021.
Another interesting facet of the discussion above was where the blame was laid for the performance of the wide receivers as a group. One guest blamed it on the quarterback, where the host and Jason were more inclined to place blame on the place I believe it should be – the wide receivers themselves, including the drops mentioned above and poor blocking as a group, which I’ve detailed previously.
Everyone knows the quarterback deserves blame, but he’s not to blame for missed blocks by the wide receivers. If you’re looking at their stats, sure, they would have been better with better quarterback play, I think everyone recognizes that.
The point is, they have to play better, too and shouldn’t be absolved of any responsibility due for the offensive play.
D.J. Uiagalelei shouldered much of the blame for the offensive performance in 2021, but there was plenty to spread around
I’ve said this many times – there’s enough blame to go around.
On the offensive line, I’ve listened to Jason enough to know if he has questions about the interior of the offensive line, so do I. Of course, I had them prior to watching the video, but this reinforces that there could be some growing pains among that group, especially early in the season.
While we are all hopeful that Will Putnam will grow into a good center, hoping that happens on snap 1 of game 1 does not seem like a wise bet.
Next. Loud and clear - Clemson not a "catch and release program". dark
The good news for Clemson is they have three games to figure it out, before a trip to Winston-Salem makes it real.