Clemson Football: Final thoughts on the matchup with South Carolina

This morning I predicted that Clemson Football would defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks 31-14.

I think this Clemson offense will continue to be as productive as they were this past weekend against the North Carolina Tar Heels. It might be the offense. It might be the offense plus a contribution from the defense. Special teams might get involved.

I think the Gamecocks will have similar success to the Tar Heels through the air. I think Spencer Rattler is in the same category as Drake Maye. I think Xavier Legette and Tez Walker are both good wide receivers.

I think the Gamecocks will ultimately put fewer points on the scoreboard because I do not expect the same kind of ground game production that the Tar Heels got from Omarion Hampton. Hampton has over 1,400 yards of rushing yards this season. The Gamecocks as a team have 964 yards total.

There is only one concern in my mind for the Tigers today which could upset the entire applecart: they haven’t played well on the road.

They played well in Syracuse. The other road games were Duke, Miami, and NC State. Woof.

I lean towards today being different from those three poor performances because I still think the major difference for this team in the past month has been the play of the offensive line in the ground game. They are opening holes for both running backs and getting a push. This wasn’t happening in Durham, Miami Gardens, or Raleigh.

Has Cade Klubnik been better these past three games? Absolutely, but he hasn’t suddenly turned into Superman. He still makes mistakes. The difference is that with a functioning ground attack, the mistakes don’t stand out like a sore thumb.

The mistakes made by Clemson Football haven’t been the daggers this past month that they were earlier in the season

That goes for all offensive players. Earlier in the week I praised Will Shipley for his performance against the Tar Heels. A reader on Facebook commented that he felt the real difference for this offense was controlling the turnovers. This is very true when considering September Clemson.

I think of this Tiger offense in three phases: September Clemson, October Clemson and November Clemson.

September Clemson functioned well. They could move the ball. They just couldn’t stop turning the ball over.

October Clemson regressed to the incompetent offense we saw in 2021 that just couldn’t move the ball at all. It didn’t matter if they turned the ball over or not. They still couldn’t function.

November Clemson has worked out some of their difficulties on the offensive line and have found a way to be productive, even when they make mistakes.

I pointed out to the Facebook reader that Shipley himself had a drive-killing fumble inside the 10-yard line against UNC. It was the same kind of baffling lack of ball security that has plagued this team all season. The big difference was that with a productive ground game, regardless of whether it came from Shipley, Phil Mafah, or anyone else, the offense moved the ball enough to put the Tigers in positions to score.

That mistake from Shipley was a lot less impactful than it would have been with October Clemson because that drive might have been one of October Clemson’s few chances to put points on the board. For November Clemson, it was just one drive of several where the offense was able to get into scoring position.

November Clemson can’t turn the ball over at the rate September Clemson did, but as long as it isn’t excessive, they can overcome a mistake or two.

We’ll find out tonight if what I am thinking is on target, or if this team just doesn’t have the resiliency to be successful in a road environment.