Game Review: Clemson vs. Stanford

After two near perfect football games from the Clemson Tigers, they were forced back down to Earth a little bit. Clemson was able to beat new ACC foe, the Stanford Cardinals, 40-14 after many questions about playing this game. The early Tiger offensive showcase fans have become used to after these past few games was halted by the underrated Stanford Defense that started out strong against the Tigers. However, a “bend don’t break” mentality from the Tiger Defense caused the Stanford Offense to stall and created many opportunities for Klubnik and Co. to strike during the second half.

Key Tiger Takeaways:

“Bend Don’t Break”: Despite a rough showing against the Stanford run game, the Clemson Defense was able to hold its own through many early opportunities from the Cardinals. The Defense started out strong creating a turnover-on-downs on the first drive of the game, but the Stanford Offense was able to drive inside Clemson’s 20 yard line on the next two drives with ease. Yet, the Tiger Defense stood strong during both drives creating disruption on QB Ashton Daniels that led to 2 INTs from star Avieon Terrell and Jeadyn Lukus (ESPN). Clemson’s Defense was also able to hold strong at the beginning of the second half when the Stanford Offense drove to the Clemson 10 yard line, but they were stopped on 4th down to cause another turnover-on-downs. The Tiger Defense struggled heavily against the Cardinal run game giving up an uncharacteristic 236 rushing yards (ESPN). However, the Tiger’s efforts against Stanford’s passing attack, and their caused turnovers provides hope that there is always trust within Clemson’s Defense.

Tiger Secondary: The Tiger Secondary headlined by star CB Avieon Terrell were given two back-to-back difficult Receivers to guard in N.C. State’s K.C. Concepcion and Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor. The Secondary was able to successfully limit opportunities given to Concepcion, and they also succeeded in slowing down Elic Ayomanor. Ayomanor totaled only 4 catches for 50 yards and 1 TD (ESPN). The starting Tiger Secondary only gave up half of those yards as well as the touchdown. Two back-to-back impressive performances against two elite Receivers showcases the talent within their Secondary. They limited Ayomanor while also inhibiting Daniels to a measly 79 passing yards and 2 INTs (ESPN).

Newfound Cade Klubnik: The Stanford front 7 posed themselves as a challenge for the Clemson Offensive Line during the game. Klubnik was getting roughed up after almost every throw that he attempted. However instead of reverting back into the uneasy Cade Klubnik that Tiger fans grow way to accustomed to last season, he was able to stay calm and collected allowing himself to still throw for over 250 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, and still rush for 48 yards and 1 TD (ESPN). Klubnik has had a lot of weight on his shoulders these past two seasons, and we are now seeing him transcend past the pressure of the game. He has truly grown up in front of our eyes and that does not mean that he is the perfect Quarterback, but he is more than capable enough to led the Tigers to success especially with help from the two new Freshman Receivers on Offense.

Barrett Carter and Sammy Brown Homecoming: Barrett Carter has been a quiet contributor on the Defense all season despite being one of the most talked about athletes on the Tiger roster. Carter had only accumulated 6 solo tackles with no sacks or tackles for loss (TFLs) through 3 games, but he finally arrived during this past game. Carter led the Tigers in total tackles with 10, solo tackles with 5, and TFLs with 3.5 while also creating 1 sack (ESPN). He was truly able to showcase his ability that gets so much talk, and this is the game that Clemson fans expected early on from the Veteran LB. I believe it is also worth mentioning fellow LB Sammy Brown. Brown has been constantly working during garbage time these past few weeks and that work paid off today as he was given a lot of meaningful snap opportunities. Brown accounted for 2 sacks himself, and his clear nose for the football is needed often on the Tiger Defense (ESPN). Sammy Brown has been proving that he is deserving of meaningful playing time for the Tigers, and it is almost time to release the training wheels for the Freshman.

Step Back from Offensive Line: After a very strong first three games, we saw the first speed bump in improvement from the Tiger Offensive Line. While Klubnik was only sacked once against a very good Stanford front, he was not given a lot of help from his friends up front. Klubnik was constantly hurried on throws that created disruption with his timing and placement, and he was hit hard on many different occasions after the throw. I am not saying that the OL performance was awful, as they were able to create enough space in the rushing attack to rush for 150 yards against that good Stanford front. However, they did not perform up to the standard in which Tiger fans were expecting. It is important to know that the Stanford front 7 will be one of the best Clemson will have to compete against for the rest of the season. I was looking for the Tiger OL to continue their domination up front, but I was not thrilled about their performance as they were just okay. Their are still lots of areas for improvement for this portion of the Tiger Offense.

Ugly Run Defense: As mentioned earlier, the Tiger Defense gave up an uncharacteristic 256 rushing yards against the Cardinals (ESPN). The Defense was thrashed by Freshman Running Back Micah Ford, 15 carries and 122 yards, and QB Ashton Daniels, 11 carries and 87 yards (ESPN). These past game was going to give insight on how the Clemson Defense would fair against true dual-threat QB’s that they have match-ups with later on through the season. This insight was not a pretty sight for Tiger Fans that wanted to see some hope. Stanford’s option attack was able to confuse the Defense enough to create disruption with their assignments that led to the production in the run game. Stanford’s Coaching Staff was also able to take out Clemson’s interior DL with good execution coupled with outside run plays. It is worth noting that Clemson did not have star DE Peter Woods for this game, but the Defense still has better standards than what they did with stopping the run against the Cardinals. Clemson needs their DL to get back to full health, and they need players to step up within their interior Defensive Linemen. A player that was expected to finally make that leap into stardom was Graduate DeMonte Capehart, but he is still yet to fully make that jump. Players to keep an eye on will still be Capehart, as he as showcased his potential at times, and RS/Freshman Stephiyan Green who has seen his production increase heavily since the start of the season. Clemson needs these steps to happen to ensure that this thrashing in the run game does not happen again.

Sources:

ESPN. “ESPN.” ESPN.com, 2019, www.espn.com/.

“Clemson Tigers | Clemson University Athletics.” Clemson Tigers Official Athletics Site, clemsontigers.com. (Picture)