I wanted to look into the Clemson defense because I believe it is much weaker than the media has let on. Their Dline is small and their LBs and Safeties outside of Isiah Simmons are a little slow. Being in a historically weak conference has masked these issues. I am picking the Virginia game because Virginia runs a spread and has a very mobile QB(not as fast as Fields) this is also the best team they have played since A&M. Virginia is 37 in SP+ with the 57 ranked offense. For reference Indiana is 24 and Cincinnati is 39 overall. FAU has the 61 ranked offense in SP and is the most comparable offense on OSU's schedule. This is also the most recent game played and Clemson has been a different team since the North Carolina game.
For every play it is important to note what Isiah Simmons is doing because it changes every play. Clemson will likely play a similar defense to this when they play us. They are running man across the board with 1 safety free over the middle, one LB in the box is man on the RB and the other #43 Chad Smith is spying the QB. Isiah Simmons is man on the slot at the top of the screen. Two things stand out, 1.Poor pass rush from the 4 Dline against a poor Oline 2.once Virginia QB Bryce Perkins gets out of the pocket it is obvious Chad Smith is much slower than Perkins. If Isiah Simmons isn't spying Fields this will be a mismatch.
This is the very next play and it is big for Virginia. Clemson goes to Cover 2 zone leaving the 4 lineman to rush and a new LB true Freshman Kane Patterson is in to spy Perkins. First the completion is on 18 Tanner Muse. He is without a doubt the worst starter Clemson has, he looks stiff in this and nearly gives up the touchdown. Again the 4 man rush applies almost no pressure on Perkins but because of the lack of pressure the RB is able to leak and isn't picked up. If the coverage was solid in the back end a dump pass still could have got a first down. Simmons is in underneath coverage
This is how this series ends. Just a terrible throw from Perkins to a player who wasn't near a receiver. Clemson dropped everybody and rushed 4 and had no spy. Because it was 3rd and 9 they could play the sticks and nobody was open. No rush again and the better option would have been for Perkins to run it, he wouldn't have got there but they could have kicked the FG.
This next series Clemson ramped up the pressure after they couldn't get there the first drive with their front 4. This is a 5 man blitz that again gets no pressure. With the camera angle its hard to see whats happening but it looks like a zone in the back. Again the lack of speed is obvious as the other starting LB #47 James Skalski cant beat Perkins to the edge, the Tight end on the back side also releases and isnt picked up which could have been a first down.
Nothing sums up a Venables defense quite like this play. 3rd and 3 and Clemson has 6 guys up on the line showing an all out blitz with straight man on the back end. Only the outside guys actually rush and the middle 4 drop back. If this play was a quick slant or a called QB run it would have been blown up. Because of the alignment the QB run would have been checked off and instead of a quick slant the slot WR runs a post route on #18 Tanner Muse who gets ROASTED, it appears like he expected the QB to not even get the ball off and is really just a head scratching play. If they ran a slant into this and Perkins panicked because he thought the rush was coming Venables looks like a genius, instead he looks like an idiot.
Virginia wasn't able to stop Clemson's offense at all and as Virginia had some success moving it they didn't score much. After the deficit grew Clemson moved to a 3-3-5 that they have been running most of the year similar to Iowa State's defense designed to stop the spread. Virginia had to throw into this defense and had basically no success. Clemson won't be able to run this against OSU because we would just gobble up yards on the ground. If they are able to get a solid lead though it is a defense that is very hard to throw on. Keeping the game close is imperative because this defensive line is just not impressive at all. They also have 1 linebacker athletic enough to spy fields well enough in Isiah Simmons but in this 4-3 scheme moving one of their slow guys into man to man with KJ Hill doesn't seem prudent. Tanner Muse is also a joke at safety and should be a target for downfield throws in zone and a mismatch against anybody in man to man.
This is my first one of these I have done give me feedback and let me know if you want to see their offense or Clemson against another team.
Edit* I posted the youtube highlight video below with the time stamps for those plays because the gifs are impossible to watch with the 2MB limit on 11W. If you are wondering why all the plays are from the start of the game is because the defense Clemson runs later in the game only comes out in blow outs and passing downs, if OSU sees that defense a lot it means we are losing.
