A Bit of a Scare

A bit of a scare to say the least.  We were very fortunate to come away from that monster of a place with a win.   But the bottom line is we’re now 2 and 0 and still on track.   Louise asked if we would drop some in the polls.  With all the other contenders winning by big margins, we may drop a spot or two, but it doesn’t matter.  If we win them all, we’ll be right back up there at 1 or 2.  Before the season started I had a shaky feeling about playing at Texas A & M, and I felt that they would be our toughest opponent.  The shaky feeling was certainly justified, and I still think I’m right about them being our toughest opponent.  I know that most of the pundits felt like we had far superior talent, thus making us double-digit favorites, but I really believe that they match up better against us than anyone we’ll play up to the playoffs.

They had a huge offensive line that weren’t intimidated by our front four.  I will say also that they knew how to hold and get away with it.  They were penalized once or twice for it, but could have been flagged on almost every passing play.  But if you can get away with it, it’s not a penalty.  Their quarterback, Kellen Mond, had a terrific game.  He was running for his life on most passing plays, yet managed to get the pass off and put it where his big receivers could go up and get it, too often just out-fighting our defenders.   We had two or three near interceptions, but a near interception is merely an incompletion or a completion for the offense.  We had too many defensive breakdowns in the middle of the field, leaving receivers wide open.  Hopefully, we can get that fixed.  I was proud of our defensive line.  They shut down a rushing attack that gained almost 500 yards in A&M’s first game.  Our offensive line needs to get better, especially at protecting the quarterback.  We were sacked four times and had to hurry our throws several times.  I think our quarterbacks showed that we can win with either or both.  They both made key plays.  I was a little disappointed in our special teams last night.  Two times they flipped the field on us by punting the ball far over the head of our return man, Amari Rodgers.  That should never happen, but especially not two times in succession.  It’s much easier to come up on a short kick than to go back on one over  your head.  And those long punts are the best ones to get a good return on, as they outkick the coverage.  Also, we did not punt well.  Especially on the critical last punt, all of 32 yards, giving them the ball with excellent field position.  They went on from there to get there final touchdown, which would have tied the game had they made the two-point conversion.  I’ve never liked that rugby style of punting, and Spiers is not a good rugby-style punter.  That was the only time in the game that he tried that.

I don’t mean to sound down on the team.  I’m very proud of a lot of what I saw last night.  I still think this is the best team Clemson has ever fielded, and I believe it will play out that way as the season goes on.  We’ve still got some tough games to play, but I don’t see a better team on the schedule than the one we played last night.  Texas A & M is going to beat some very good teams this year.

GO TIGERS!!!!