Saturday, October 25, 2014

Belated thoughts on Clemson

I've been watching the loss to Clemson back in pieces as I could this week. I finally wrapped it up Friday. Obviously I knew the outcome, but that didn't make it any less painful. We could have had that game. As Addazio and everyone else pointed out, two or three more plays and BC wins.

My biggest takeaway though is that we went the wrong way on offense. We passed -- because the guys were open -- and it hurt us. And I am not talking about the drops. None of our primary targets can make anyone miss. Callinan and Crimmins had great downfield catches but are limited. They are not turning those catches into scores. They are not making multiple people miss. Murphy makes people miss. An explosive play from him is much more likely to score. Late in the game when he finally kept it, he was gashing Clemson. We should be doing that more! Even against eight-man fronts. As daunting as the crowded box is, all it takes is one guy to miss and Murphy is off. Do you expect that same sort of scoring from any of our WRs?

Although they gave up a late score off of bad tackling, I thought the D played better. The front four probably had their best game. The DBs were better too.

This was a tough loss, but very encouraging. One and a half seasons in and the evidence is mounting that BC is well coached. If we increase the talent level, there is no reason to think we won't be competing in the division quickly.

2 comments:

EL MIZ said...

interesting point regarding the WRs not making anyone miss. we really only use Bordner, Crimmins and Callinan, and all of them are the slow, plodding type. where have Thadd Smith, Nat Dixon and Gabe McClary been all season? what happened to Shakim Phillips?

Alston, although he is listed as a WR, is essentially a RB with the way he is used (sweeps and screens mostly). the point being its strange that we can find such playmakers to run the ball but have yet to find a WR who can make people miss. maybe one of the two WR recruits for next year changes that?

regarding increasing the talent level, our class for next year seems very solid top to bottom and i love that the two best commits both should be staples on the o-line for 4 years. that said, with this staff, i would have thought we would have landed 1 or 2 bigger names. maybe that will change when all is said and done (Hilliman was our biggest recruit last year and he was one of the last guys, if not the last, to commit).

for such a young team, last week was pretty positive. second straight year we've hung with Clemson. next year we need to get the W.

Hoib said...

ATL


Glad to see u make this point. I've been making similar comments for several weeks now. I think on allot of the gives to Hilliman, Murph has the option to keep it should do so more often.

El MIZ


Those guys are in there because they are good blockers. I also think this trend will continue in future years. It's how Daz wants to play. I don't think we'll see many games where we throw more than 20 times. He will continue to recruit to play this style of ball. I think for us this is a good plan going forward. It helps protect the defense and gives a school like BC it's best chance to win in a talented league like the ACC.