One Last Rewind: Florida State
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ESPN’s Steve Levy said that Clemson was playing like ‘they’ve got something to prove’ last weekend.
Watching the game from the get-go, it’s clear that was the case -- by the 8:58 mark of the second quarter, Clemson led 28-0.
Clemson played like a ticked-off group, beating up on Florida State, 45-14. In many ways, it was similar to last year’s shellacking in Tallahassee.
Getting back to normal
As we mentioned Sunday, Dabo Swinney and Clemson’s offensive staff wanted to be aggressive and not ease into the contest.
The two first offensive snaps: Trevor Lawrence hit Tee Higgins for a 40-yard completion. Travis Etienne threw a pass to Justyn Ross. A few plays later, Clemson got on the board. You could tell there was a sense of urgency from the offense after hearing about what’s wrong with Lawrence and Co. over the last two weeks.
Travis Etienne rushed for 205 yards in the Tigers’ season opener against Georgia Tech. Since then, he hasn’t had the same explosiveness-- until Saturday. The junior ran with purpose to the tune of 127 yards. He also made a critical block on a blitzing linebacker on a touchdown in the second quarter. If Etienne can continue what we saw last weekend, look out for Clemson’s offense moving forward.
Everyone has been waiting for Clemson’s offense to open up the playbook. The Tigers seemed to accomplish that against FSU as we saw a little bit of everything. Amari Rodgers got involved on a reverse for a touchdown, and at that point, the game was already in hand. There were no turnovers, and things just looked clean.
This is the Clemson offense fans have been wanting to see. It will be interesting to see what happens moving forward and what buttons the staff will push to keep the offense motivated.
Slowing Cam Akers and the FSU offense
If there’s been one knock on Clemson’s defense in the first half of the season, it might be their run defense. While they’ve done a good job, statistically, they rank 22nd in America in that category giving up over 100 yards per game. The Tigers rank 3rd in total defense and played well against a quality running back in Cam Akers.
Clemson held Akers to just 34 yards on nine carries as he was never able to get anything going.
Florida State’s plan was to play two quarterbacks, but the problem was their offensive line did not provide any help. The Clemson defense was teeing off on both players disrupting everything the Seminoles wanted to do. At one point, Clemson had more touchdowns than Florida State had first downs.
Clemson safety, Tanner Muse said it wasn’t challenging for the defense to adjust to two quarterbacks.
“I didn’t think their game plan really changed that much, so it wasn’t really difficult. They kind of did the same stuff.”
The Tigers will face a more versatile duo tomorrow at Louisville. Scott Satterfield has two good prospects at quarterback in Malik Cunningham and Evan Conley. Former starter “Puma” Pass is out for the season. Speaking of the Cardinals...
Looking Ahead
Up next for Clemson is a trip to the Derby City to take on Louisville at noon tomorrow. The Cards put up 62 points against a previously unbeaten Wake Forest squad. Satterfield’s bunch is now 4-2 and would control their own destiny with a win over the Tigers.
Don’t be fooled by last season’s blowout win. This group is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were under Bobby Petrino. It will undoubtedly be a challenge for Clemson’s defense.
It feels like the Cardinals are a few years away, but given how Clemson looked at Chapel Hill their last time on the road, who knows? Could this be another game where the Tigers really get pushed, or will they perform like they are capable of? We’ll see.