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This past Saturday, Clemson finished its two-game road stint undefeated after taking down Syracuse, 18-13, to improve to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the ACC.
Though the offense looked nothing like it did against Florida State in Week 9, the Tigers’ defense stepped up with the team’s only touchdown of the game, while kicker Nolan Hauser continued to prove himself the best kicker in the country.
That said, let’s take a look at the PFF grades for each player who saw action yesterday in the road victory; snap counts will be in parentheses next to the player grades.
Clemson and head coach Dabo Swinney had a lot of key players absent from this past weekend’s contest, including starting running back Gideon Davidson (ankle), starting center Harris Sewell (ankle), starting left guard Elyjah Thurmon (concussion) and starting slot receiver Tyler Brown (ankle).
This unfortunate injury bug thrust senior Jarvis Green, true freshman Grant Wise, redshirt freshman Gavin Blanchard and redshirt freshman Juju Preston into starting spots for the week, and while they performed up to par for the most part, the offense still struggled immensely.
Starting quarterback Tait Reynolds is looking more consistent on the ground, totaling 61 yards on 15 carries, but still hasn’t taken that next step as a passer, completing 61% of his passes for 161 yards and one interception. However, wide receiver T.J. Moore did drop a potential touchdown pass over the middle late in the third quarter.
While it’s known that offensive coordinator Chad Morris likely can’t open up the playbook as much as he’d like, considering he has a true freshman as the signal caller, the play-calling was yet another failure against the Orange. The Tigers finished with zero offensive touchdowns on three red-zone trips and seven trips past midfield, and constantly displayed a lack of offensive rhythm throughout the contest.
Luckily, Hauser went four-of-five on field goal attempts while the defense scored the lone touchdown of the game for Clemson.
Wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. had a bounce-back game, catching six passes for 100 yards, but the rest of the room struggled, with Moore continuing to struggle with drops, as mentioned before. Preston dealt with similar drop errors in his first career start, totaling just three receptions for 21 yards.
But with the Tigers not able to get much going through the air, they’d likely utilize the run more, right? Well, not exactly. On the first offensive play of the contest, Green took off for a 53-yard run and looked to be in for a huge day after backing up Davidson for a majority of the year.
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However, Morris decided to give the ball to the senior just eight more times, finishing the victory with nine carries for 85 yards, an average of nearly a first down per carry. Another inept decision by the coaching staff.
Entering this week’s contest, the Tigers will likely get back Brown, Davidson and possibly Thurmon, but that means nothing if the offense can’t find consistency.
While the program could probably suffice against a team like Georgia Tech, which averages under 24 points per game, Clemson could easily drop its final two games of the year to Duke and South Carolina, both of which are top-35 scoring offenses.
As they have for a majority of the season, the Tigers' defense continued to dominate in Week 10 against Syracuse.
Outside of a late-game touchdown, which was due to a player reading the wrong live signaler, both the front seven and secondary played their roles extremely well.
Linebackers Sammy Brown and Jeremiah Alexander made plays all over the field, combining for 15 tackles and five defensive stops.
On the front's interior, the defensive tackles played arguably their best game of the season, putting heavy pressure on Syracuse quarterback Steve Angeli en route to totaling 10 tackles, 2.5 for a loss, six defensive stops, four pressures, two sacks, one pass deflection and one forced fumble as a unit.
The edge rushers did their part as well, with Will Heldt logging two tackles, half for a loss, two pressures, two defensive stops and a pass deflection while Jahiem Lawson posted a sack and a 22-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, starting nickelback Donovan Starr went down with a season-ending ankle injury in the contest, prompting senior Branden Strozier to fill in for him. However, the secondary remained strong, forcing Angeli to complete under 50% of his passes for 263 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Cornerback Ashton Hampton continued to look like one of the best players in the country, allowing just three-of-eight targets for 23 yards (6.3 NFL passer rating) while racking up eight tackles, two pass deflections and an interception, which has since earned him ACC Defensive Back of the Week honors.
Similarly, Elliot Washington had his side of the field locked down, allowing two-of-eight targets for 31 yards (43.2 NFL passer rating) in addition to logging two tackles, one and a half for a loss and one pass deflection.
Heading into Week 10, the defense appears to be in great shape, aside from the injuries they've suffered; now they just need the offense to help them out, as it did against Florida State.
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