The Clemson faithful are still reeling from the tough loss to LSU this weekend. Losing a game 17-10 at home with so much hype surrounding it and the high expectations for the team is not a good feeling. It is not the first time the Tigers have suffered a tough loss against a very good team in week one though.
Just last season Clemson lost to Georgia in a week one matchup in Atlanta. The next week the Tigers put up 66 points on Appalachian State en route to an ACC Championship and college football playoff berth.
The difference between the Georgia game and this year’s LSU game was this game was a hard fought barn burner until the last possession. Keeping this game close is what was most important for both teams going in. That makes it so that a loss does not put either team too far off track in the playoff race.
It does show that this Clemson team still has much to work to do to reach the national championship goals it has in mind. The Tigers can still make it happen though. In order to do so, they must first ask the questions of what went wrong against LSU? Then work to fix those problems.
So, what went wrong
The most glaring issue Clemson has right now is that it has absolutely no run game. It is something that was already a question mark coming into the season, but it sounded as if the staff were confident in who they have. That seems to not be the case considering the leading rusher for the Tigers, Adam Randall, only had five carries.
Rushing the ball just 20 times in the game for only 31 yards is not going to win Clemson a championship. Some resemblance of a run game needs to exist if the Tigers want to make noise in the postseason. Otherwise teams will be able to do what LSU did Saturday night and just get after Cade Klubnik.
Klubnik had a rough day throwing the ball. He completed just 50% of his passes for 230 yards, an interception and no touchdowns. He looked as if he was rushing through his reads and speeding up his mechanics all night long. The LSU pass rush kept coming after the senior quarterback. Meanwhile the Clemson offensive line looked as if they had no answers for the pressure.
The offensive front only gave up two sacks during the game but the pressure was felt by Klubnik all night. The Clemson offensive line is supposed to be one of the best in the country with all veterans across the front five.
They looked very average against the LSU defensive line as they struggled to move them in the run game or keep them off of Klubnik in the pass game. Expect offensive line coach Matt Luke to be all over the offensive line this week as they had the most disappointing performance of the night.
On the defensive side of the ball there is one issue that sticks out more than anything else, the inconsistency in finishing. Whether that is finishing on tackles, finishing getting off of blocks, or even just finishing the game.
The Clemson defense held the high powered LSU offense to just three points in the first half. In the second half, the Tigers defense gave up 14 points largely due to penalties. LSU took its first lead of the game in the fourth quarter after a couple of pass interference calls on Ashton Hampton and a roughing the passer call on TJ Parker. Without those penalties, LSU doesn’t have that drive extended for a chance to score.
Bad finishes were the theme of the night for this Clemson defense though.
The tackling by the Tigers’ defense was not good enough. It allowed LSU’s Caden Durham to break a couple of 10+ yard run plays that were first stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage. The defense did a much better job filling run lanes properly compared to last season, but could not get off of blocks well enough to actually make the plays. The same applies to the pass rush which did well collapsing the pocket, but could never actually get to Garrett Nussmeier.
Finishing and being more disciplined must be the theme for Tom Allen to his defense this week in order to clean up the mistakes from this loss.
Still much to be excited for
As easy as it is to panic right now after the loss, there really shouldn’t be any at this moment. Clemson lost a one possession game that went down to the wire to another national championship contender.
Not to mention the Tigers led the game up until the fourth quarter. There is obviously plenty that needs to be cleaned up but that is expected after week one. Clemson also showed plenty of things to be excited about as well.
Bryant Wesco Jr and TJ Moore look ready to explode onto the college football scene at any moment. The return of Tyler Brown has added another weapon to the offense that can be used in many different ways as well.
The defense came up with only one sacks in the game, by transfer Will Heldt, but also had eight tackles for loss. Sophomore Linebacker Sammy Brown is already looking like a game wrecker. He finished the game with eleven total tackles and a tackle for loss.
All the pieces are still there for Clemson to go on a run. Playing a game of this caliber so early in the season is going to make this team better.
Figuring out ways to create something in the run game and finishing on defense are the two main areas of focus for the Tigers right now. Those are two things that are fixable. If they can improve in those two areas everything will still be on the table for them. It is not all over for this Clemson team by any means.