Breaking down the Tigers
As NC State travels down to the southern part of the Carolinas, they prepare to take on a Clemson team that lives somewhere between two extreme performances. In the opener with Georgia, the Tigers displayed a talented but thin defense and an absent offense. In their follow-up with Appalachian State, Clemson’s offense looked unstoppable while the defense suffocated the Mountaineers until the backups took over.
Just where in that vast landscape the Tigers really exist we don’t know, so let’s get to know the opponent a bit better.
Clemson
Strengths
Obviously, whatever Clemson did against App State two weeks ago is a strength. Eight first half drives, 8 touchdowns. Yeah, they had that moving.
The real strength for this team is a defense that is one of the nation’s best. The group wore down against Georgia when the offense couldn’t sustain drives outside of a 12-play drive coming out of halftime that resulted in a field goal. The Bulldogs didn’t run that many more plays, but the physicality of the offense eventually wore down the Tigers until the gates opened. As much as we all love the Wolfpack, we can’t expect a same level of physicality from State’s O-line against the Tigers on Saturday. This defense is legit.
Also to the Tigers’ benefit is a bye week to provide extra time to prepare for NC State. A healthy, rested, and confident Clemson team is not what the Pack want to see as they break in a new QB.
Weaknesses
The questions around Clemson’s offense will remain unless/until that unit can provide some consistent performances on which to reliably build a profile. The truth is that this is likely to be an up-and-down group all year. Against Georgia, 5 first half drives resulted in 5 punts, 0 points, 3 three-and-outs, and one more drive that went just 4 plays before bringing on the punting unit. Georgia’s defense tallied 6 tackles-for-loss against Clemson, including a pair of sacks.
This isn’t really a weakness for Clemson, but more of a question. After App State got destroyed at home Thursday night, 48-14, by a South Alabama team that already has losses to North Texas and Ohio, there’s a question about if Clemson’s epic performance against the Mountaineers was really more of App just being that bad this year. We’ll find out.
Opportunities
While it’s less than ideal to have a true freshman making his first career start on the road in an environment as hostile as Death Valley, the upside there is that Clemson has limited tape on which to prepare for C.J. Bailey. Roughly 40 plays with Bailey under center doesn’t provide much to build a game plan. There’s a little more tape from the Wolfpack’s spring game, but the offense operated there was rather basic. That’s an advantage for NC State.
Hey, it’s a nooner! Thankfully, that should tone down the hostility of Death Valley, even if just ever so slightly.
Trivia
Forget threats, let’s go with some trivia (trivial?) facts.
- NC State has won two of the last three meetings with Clemson, with both of the wins coming in Raleigh.
- Clemson is 3-2 in their last five home noon games.
- Tigers QB Cade Klubnik ranks 6th nationally with a completion percentage of 76.4%.
- Dolph Lundgren… you know, Ivan Drago… studied Chemical Engineering at Clemson in the late 1970’s.