For the third straight year, Clemson starts the season 0-1. The week one loss was a tough one, especially when the Tigers came into the game with so much hype around them.
It is not all over though.
Clemson has plenty of time to get itself back on track to reach its goals. Getting back on that track starts with getting a dominant win at home against Troy.
The Trojans have a good team walking into Clemson Saturday afternoon. Last week they scored 28 points in the fourth quarter alone in their win against FCS opponent Nicholls.
This is great opposition for the Tigers because Troy will challenge them to do two things this team needs to show they can do to make a deep postseason run. That is to run the ball and stop the run.
The Trojans rely heavily on running the football to set up their offense. Being able to hand the ball off or have their quarterback Goose Crowder keep it and gain three to five yards is the base of the Troy offense.
The Trojans had 416 total yards of offense against Nicholls, and 272 of them were rushing yards. Running back Tae Meadows had 23 carries in the game for 186 yards and a touchdown himself. Meadows showed his breakaway speed too with a 47 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Shutting down Meadows and Crowder, who had a rushing touchdown as well, will be key for Tom Allen and his defense.
This is because the run game for Troy leads directly into its passing game too. The Trojans love play action passes. It is what Crowder does best as his three touchdown passes last week came from play action concepts. If Clemson can take the run game out of the equation early though the play action becomes irrelevant. That will force Crowder to have to drop straight back more which he is not as good at.
Not finishing was the biggest problem the defense had last week against LSU. This week it needs to be the focus for the defense.
Finishing through contact to get off of blocks and make tackles at the first and second levels will make it tough for the Trojans to get much going. Also finishing the game with the same drive and intensity will be key as this Troy team does not stop fighting.
Defensively Troy wants to get after the quarterback as much as possible. If the Trojans can get the Tigers into passing downs, Cade Klubnik should expect pressure to be coming from somewhere.
Which is why Clemson needs to find a run game to alleviate some of that. The lack of a run game against LSU allowed that defense to keep getting after Klubnik because there was no fear of Clemson being able to run underneath the pressure. Also the Tigers were in too many third and long situations because of throwing incomplete passes on first and second down.
If Clemson can’t find a way to hand the ball off or use Klubnik’s athleticism to get an easy three to five yards on the ground, it’ll be hard for this offense to find consistency.
Dabo Swinney expressed some disappointment in how quick Garrett Riley abandoned the run game last week. It is something that has been an issue at times in Riley’s tenure in Clemson even with Will Shipley and Phil Mafah in the backfield.
Now with both those guys gone and no proven backs on the roster, it’s as if Riley just does not trust the ground game. He needs to figure out something though. Even if that means getting creative with motions, jet sweeps, and reverses. Whatever it takes to find plays that will get easy yards on the ground early so they don’t have to air it out on every third down.
If Clemson wants to keep being considered a national championship contender, it needs a win reminiscent of the Appalachian State game last season. A win in which the Tigers dominate the game from the first snap to the last looking unquestionably like the much better team.