Clemson football defeated Furman 35-12 Saturday in Death Valley after an up and down performance against the Furman Paladins.
Here is the Good, bad and sus from the game.
The Good
This doesn’t get said very often, so let’s say it right off the bat:
The best part of Clemson’s day was DJ Uiagalelei.
DJ played with confidence. He appeared calm and focused. In the 2nd drive, DJ came off his initial target and found Antonio Williams for a first down. He didn’t look nervous. The offensive line did a good job with pass protection. The only punt of the first half came on the drive led by Cade Klubnik. DJ had a very good game. Was the interception on him? Was it on Spector? It’s hard to say. Probably a bit of both.
The receivers did a better job than last week. I was worried about drops since it was a very wet day, but there weren’t any major issues. EJ had a pass he should have pulled in, but it was the only one that really stood out.
The Bad
The boo birds came out today. They weren’t the heaviest I’ve ever heard them but they are demonstrative of why you shouldn’t always be proud of a 23 point win.
The defense wasn’t good on Saturday. The Paladins got too many big plays off screens, taking advantage of defense’s aggressiveness. Georgia Tech did that, and Furman lifted it straight from the game tape. Wes Goodwin’s first real challenge of his tenure will be to figure out how to stop that, or every opponent they face this season will take advantage of that weakness.
We still saw some bad tackling too. I wouldn’t be very concerned about that under normal circumstances, as it can be harder to tackle in wet conditions. The concern comes from the fact that Clemson’s tackling against Georgia Tech wasn’t great either. If this continues as a trend, we have to dial back our expectations for this defense.
The Sus
No blocked punts today? Just kidding. Good fortune went against Clemson today on special teams. It was wet, so mistakes like that happen. Just disappointing.
A few penalties early: an offsides call, a false start. Nothing too serious.
I was hoping the running game would be better. The offensive line blocked well at times, but didn’t get much of a push at other times.
I assumed DJU’s day would be done after his touchdown pass to Beaux Collins in the 3rd quarter but they sent him back out there. If keeping DJ in a positive place is as critical as so many people seem to think it is, they made a mistake sending him back out. The following two drives after that were a sour ending to his day.
Clemson football scored a pedestrian 35-12 win over an outmanned Furman Paladins program that left a fair amount to be desired
Klubnik did not look good today. I am disappointed he wasn’t inserted after the 3rd quarter touchdown. He needs to be developed. I’m not going to have long-term confidence in DJ until he performs like this against a team that isn’t a lower-tier opponent.
I think the biggest concern overall was that this team’s two biggest strengths were supposed to be the defense and the run game. When you play an FCS opponent like Furman, you want to see your strengths be dominant, and today they were far less than dominant.
You would think Clemson would win bigger against Furman at home than Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Is it because it was a short week? Eh, I really don’t think so. Was it because Furman was better than we expected? Maybe, but if you think you have the potential to be a Power Five conference champion and get a spot in a four-team playoff, that shouldn’t matter. You should dominate any FCS team. It’s still early, and I wouldn’t call this a bad performance by the Tigers, but it didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.