As Clemson comes off its last bye week of the season, it must prepare for another tough conference matchup. This time it will be against Duke, making its visit to Memorial Stadium. The Blue Devils will be bringing their high powered offense along with them.
Duke enters this game with the third best total offense in the ACC. It’s also the 19th best in the FBS. They average 463.3 yards per game, with many of those yards coming as a result of the number one passing attack in the ACC. The leader of the eleventh best passing game in the FBS is Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah.
Mensah is a transfer from Tulane, where he threw for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. He decided to take his talents to the power four level, and has been cooking ever since.
Mensah has not slowed down one bit, since moving up a level in competition. He is completing 70.3% of his passes, for 2,211 yards, and 17 touchdowns. He’s also only thrown two interceptions in seven games. Mensah’s impressive performances through the first half of the season has Duke sitting at 3-1 in the ACC, and sixth in the conference standings.
The multitude of weapons around Mensah make it even tougher to stop him. Three different Blue Devil receivers have over 300 receiving yards. Six players have at least one touchdown catch on the season.
So, how does the Clemson defense slow down the Duke passing attack?
It starts with Tom Allen living with the fact that he doesn’t have the personnel to play much man coverage with the secondary. The Blue Devils have too many talented pass catchers for the Tigers to attempt to play them one-on-one. It hasn’t worked well for Clemson against other conference opponents this season anyway.
This means the defensive line has to work hard to put pressure on Mensah themselves. It is going to be tough to bring more than four, maybe five, and hold up in coverage against this Duke team.
Mensah does well recognizing man coverage quickly, and giving his receivers a chance to make plays one-on-one. When he has to read different coverages though, he begins to struggle. Mensah especially struggles with his progressions when he is getting pressured.
So, if Allen wants to give his unit the best chance at slowing down Mensah, he’s got to mix up coverages on the back end. Two high safety shells would be the best to play out of, since Mensah has the hardest time with them. Allen also needs to challenge the defensive front to be in Mensah’s face all game long.
Stopping Mensah has been a tough task for any defense he’s gone up against. This week won’t be any different. If the defensive line can win up front and make Mensah uncomfortable, it’ll give them a chance to slow him down drastically.