Clemson Football: 5 Things to look for as Tigers tackle Deacs

You don’t have to be an NFL analyst to see the running backs struggle to block blitzers from Will Shipley getting trucked a couple of times to Kobe Pace opted to leave a blitzer unblocked and the only sack of the evening resulted.  Simply put the backs have to do a better job at blocking.

Shipley and Mafah are near the very bottom on the team in pass blocking grades, while Phil Mafah is at the very top in limited action.

Who knows what’s at the core of the issue for the backs, but Shipley seems like a guy that would accept the challenge of improving in this area of his game, especially since it’s a talent that pro scouts absolutely look for.

If the backs were simply competent at this portion of the game the Clemson offense would likely be much improved since D.J. is much more likely to be on target with a clean pocket as we outlined above.