My view from Death Valley (long)

[CowGill]

Many, many observations. Take them with a grain of salt (if possible). I am no football expert. Please note that this is all from memory (and a bad one, at that). I have not had a chance to watch the tape yet. I might never watch the tape.

THE GOOD:

1) Did everyone see Mr. Tony Hollings out there? Good. I about messed my pants during the 70+ yarder.

2) The defense, I thought, did enough to win. They did not play great by any means.

3) Rhino's interception. Great break on the ball.

4) Dyke looked pretty good. Shanked one early, but came back and had some beaut's today.

5) Manget's streak is still alive?

6) No injuries, I think.

That's all I can think of.

THE BAD:

1) Suggs was off today. Many plays you can watch him stare down one receiver until he either threw it or got sacked.

1b) At least twice I saw Bridges line up next to the wide receiver on the left side with only one corner covering both of them. Both times Bridges ended up pretty much wide open, with a LB trying to cover him.

2) Offensive line seemed to give AJ adequate time sometimes, and completely fall apart other times. I am not sure if this was due to clever blitzing or just poor execution on our part. I would like to think it is both, however I really think it was due much more to execution on our side of the ball.

3) Offensive line wasn't giving Tony much to work with, either. When they did, he capitalized, and sometimes when they didn't he capitalized anyway.

4) Our receivers really, really like to run sideways. This is not fun to watch.

5) Kick coverage was pitiful. Return blocking was also pitiful. If I see one more block in the back I will commit ritual suicide.

6) Poree's little blunder in the end zone. This kind of thing is what happens on days like these. I felt for him after that.

7) Rhino getting exploited at Nickle. Rhino looked bad out there today (not talking about punts). Many times everyone knew when they lined up that the ball was going to go to Rhino's receiver. Many times Rhino left his man to go attend other business. Now, this was probably not all his fault, or maybe any his fault at times. Sometimes when Willie was rolling out (every other play) Rhino was forced to leave his man to try and hem up the QB. This seems like the LB's job, but I'm not sure.

8) We got no pressure on Willie.

9) Play calling was not exactly top-notch. Defensively I thought it was OK, just poor execution for the most part. Offensively, you have to notice something isn't working when you go in the lockerroom with a big 6 pasted on the board. We either needed to go to Hollings more, try a new play, or maybe put Bilbo in and see what he can do.

10) The time out at the end of the half.

11) Refs suck, but they always do when we lose.

I'm sure most of the calls I would have slit their throats over were semi-legitimate. One thing that I would like to see changed is the unsportsmanlike/celebration/talking-too-loud-in-the-hall rule. Please, that was ridiculous.

THE UGLY (Clemson Observations

):
(Pretty short because I wasn't looking for them or thinking about them on the ride home)

1) Yusef looked good.

2) The Clemson campus sucks. What do they have against road signs?

3) They deserved to win. I could not believe we were in a position to take it at the end.

That was a tough game to watch. The team seemed unfocused. Hopefully the team will bounce back and not dwell on this. I think everyone screwed up a little today. I know they are better than this. So do they. Now they just need to relieve any frustration from this game by kicking the CRAP outta BYU!

 

[bellyseries]

Sounds about right, Cowgill.

 

[ContactBuzz]

Maybe I haven't read enough posts but I'm surprised noone is calling the coaching staff out on that time-out at the end of the half. No time out and the probably send the FG unit out for 3 (or maybe don't get a play off period - they were out of TOs w/ 12 secs on the play clock and noone on the field).

 

[bellyseries]

It's been mentioned, Contact. My theory is that we called it when it looked like Clem was going to go for the TD, then all of a sudden Clemson decides to kick, but we had already called the time out, so they get a chance to reconsider and go for it. Probably should have let them try to get themselves ready in 12 secs and not worried about whether we were ready for a TD try. But stuff happens in ball games. Worse is how we were poorly prepared overall.

 

[bizzybee]

Everyone has been questioning that TO!! Cannot wait til Thurs. Why is CG's call-in show so many days away. I like it closer like UGA. That is when the game is fresh. No excuses for that TO unless too many men on field or something. Looked like coaches asleep!

 

[Beeski]

Good post Cow,

I wonder if Suggs lack of checking secondary receivers (or even looking at them) was caused by the O-Line breakdowns? AJ had happy feet and tunnel vision....I would too if I had Eason bearing down on me every snap. Our 2 best pass plays were when he threw it immediately to a streaking Watkins.

I heard/read Coach Gailey called the TO to give us time march back down the field to close out the first half. Makes sense to me. I thought our D could stop them.

With 20/20 hindsight, we should have played a standard D without a nickel. We should be blitzing an LB not an S. Kelley didn't have a chance against those 6'4" receivers, not his fault.

The ACC refs are penalty happy. Saw it in the UNC-Cuse game, the MD-FSU game, they do not need to dominate the game...frustrating.

Manget's streak is still alive (it was a fumble, not a PAT attempt).