By William Qualkinbush.

Each week, we will re-watch Clemson’s game and give a detailed breakdown of the action. Also included will be observations, personal opinions, and statistical analysis to help provide a full context.

–First of all, let’s point this out: It’s entirely possible Georgia is a better team than Clemson, and that’s okay. I picked Clemson to win a close game but recognized the issues that might arise with a new quarterback—two of them, actually—behind a semi-inexperienced offensive line blocking possibly the best front seven in the country and no proven playmakers. There’s been lots of criticism, both warranted and unwarranted, and the unwarranted kind has seemed to come from people who didn’t consider these potential pitfalls prior to the game, then were dumbfounded when things worked out as they usually do for teams in Clemson’s situation. This is important to recognize.

–On the radio Friday, I said if Todd Gurley played all four quarters, then Georgia would win. The problem is that I predicted the oft-injured Gurley wouldn’t make it that far, and that certainly wasn’t the case. He was the best player on the field on either team, and he showed why he might be the best player in college football.

–There’s a reason the entire nation isn’t asking what’s wrong with Clemson after this game. The general consensus is that Georgia played an outstanding ballgame, led by a Heisman candidate at tailback, and that virtually nobody in the country would have beaten the Bulldogs. The tendency is always to look at yourself first, but in this case, it’s the other guys that deserve credit more than Clemson deserves blame. Sure, there will be some fault in certain areas, but Georgia was very impressive, and re-watching the game only further supported that theory.

–One more quick thing: In trying to figure out what went wrong with Clemson, keep in mind this was a three-point game almost 50 minutes into the game. It’s not like the Tigers were blown out here. Look at the things people around the country are saying about Georgia, then think about how it felt to watch the game unravel. Clemson didn’t play its best game on Saturday but was in a dogfight against a high-caliber team being lauded as a playoff contender by national pundits on the road. That doesn’t sound like a doom-and-gloom scenario to me.

–The best kickoff return was the first one by T.J. Green. After that, Clemson got absolutely nothing in that regard. It’s one big reason why Georgia won the field position battle by an outrageous margin. The Tigers’ average starting field position was their own 19, while the Bulldogs started at their own 43. That’s almost one-quarter of the football field.

–There’s been a lot of clamoring for Deshaun Watson to go ahead and become the starting quarterback for this team. It’s my view that neither QB would have won this game and that Stoudt was just as effective running the show as Watson, albeit without the flash the freshman showed. In fact, I believe Stoudt was just as effective as Hutson Mason was on Saturday. Since both are seen as game managers, I tracked the number of “great plays” made by both. Those are plays above and beyond the demands of a game manager, whether a throw into coverage or a scramble for yardage. I’ll reveal the results at the end.

–Stoudt’s first great play was the second one from scrimmage. Damian Swann blitzed off the corner, and Stoudt threw right to his spot. The pass was on the money to Mike Williams, leading to a 38-yard gain. That’s not an easy throw to make when you’re looking right into the teeth of a defender.

–Stoudt showed his wheels in escaping the pocket and scrambling for 18 yards on 3rd-and-10. That’s something we know he can do, but I’m sure most of the nation was stunned to see him move that well.

–It was interesting to see Chad Morris use Stoudt in the Tajh Boyd short yardage package. We pondered what would happen in those situations all offseason, but few predicted Stoudt would function as a wildcat quarterback.

–That first scoring drive seemed like it took about eight years. Georgia’s front really showed its grit down at the goal line. Clemson’s offensive line played really well against mostly vanilla looks during that drive.

–Clemson’s defense won’t have a better 3-and-out than its first possession against Georgia. Virtually nothing on first down, a tackle for loss on Gurley on second, and a busted-up screen that Jarrett and Anthony cleaned up led to a punt. Brilliant work.

–Morris’ conservative playcallling when the Tigers were backed up into their own red zone has come under intense scrutiny among fans. There’s some validity in the concern, especially once the game started getting out of hand. You have to give Morris credit, though, for being consistent. When Collin Barber pinned Clemson back at its own 10 in the first quarter, there was nothing fancy about any of the calls.

–The relative lack of versatility in the tailbacks seemed to tie Morris’ hands somewhat. Early in the game, the Tigers began to run sets where the back would be set up parallel with the quarterback out wide. This is designed to remove a player from the box, or even just to make the defense move before the snap. But every time it happened, whoever the back was would go in motion into the backfield. This makes sense because Howard and C.J. Davidson are more traditional tailbacks that belong primarily in the backfield. It became predictable after a while. Some misdirection or a screen pass—anything creative—would have given Clemson’s runners more lanes on these plays.

–How impressive are Nick Chubb and Sony Michel? We knew they were talented backs, but goodness gracious, they were impressive. I’d nominate Georgia as the nation’s best backfield, and I also think Chubb reminds me of a younger Gurley in many respects.

–When Gurley gets the edge, good luck trying to catch him. The first quarter touchdown run he had was a thing of beauty. It was aided by B.J. Goodson’s inability to set the edge. He basically ceded the corner to Gurley. Either he or Anthony has to get outside the tight end, and neither did.

–On a related note, Clemson’s linebackers repeatedly underestimated his speed and took bad angles in pursuit. Anthony and Tony Steward were repeat offenders in this regard. Because Gurley is so talented, this probably won’t be as big of an issue again, but it certainly was on that play and several others.

–Williams has to catch the football. It’s imperative for receivers to hang onto it given Stoudt’s lack of arm strength and high level of concern for finding the open man.

–It’s still really tough to tell whether Michael Bennett fumbled the ball or not. The officials overturned the call, which I thought was a questionable decision. It looks like a fumble by a hair, but that’s not the kind of evidence generally required to make that call.

–The toss sweep is Georgia’s best offensive play. It fits the blocking personnel they have, as well as Gurley’s running style. I’ve said on many occasions Georgia should just run that toss sweep every snap until the defense stops it twice in a row. I’d pick the Bulldogs to win the national championship if they did it, because you just can’t stop it. The Bulldogs ran the toss sweep nine times for 133 yards in the game, good enough for an average of 14.8 yards per carry. That total includes both Chubb’s 47-yard TD run and Gurley’s 51-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

–Watson looked very polished for most of his workload. He wasn’t rattled by the crowd or the stage. He adjusted well to different looks at the line and showed great presence in the pocket. His dart for the touchdown to Charone Peake was the best play any quarterback made in the game. His fade to Williams that set up the touchdown was a great one too, as was the move Williams made to free himself from veteran cornerback Damien Swann in coverage.

–Clemson’s interior defensive line put on a clinic for most of the game. Grady Jarrett and Deshawn Williams manhandled the Bulldogs’ interior blockers for much of the game, particularly in short yardage. D.J. Reader and Josh Watson were integral parts of that process, as well. The 3rd-and-1 stop early in the 2nd quarter was a great example of both Williams and Reader blowing up the play from the snap.

–Artavis Scott looks really, really good. We’ve heard about him since the spring, but even in limited action, his burst and ball skills were on display. The deep catch he had coming back through a defender was the best play made on a ball in the air all day long.

–It was a gutsy call to go for it inside the 10 in the 2nd quarter, but the gutsier move was to go to the quarterback power for a third straight play. Morris can be stubborn to a fault, and this was a prime example of that.

–We heard some rumblings about the quarterback-center exchange during camp, but there was really only one poor snap in Saturday’s game. Most of the time, Ryan Norton and his quarterbacks seemed in sync.

–Davidson jumped over a person to score. Let that resonate with you for a moment. That was an incredibly athletic play to get into the end zone.

–Clemson scored 21 points in the first quarter and a half, then it spent the next two and a half quarters completely stymied by Georgia’s defense. Credit to Jeremy Pruitt and the Bulldogs for that bit of domination after some early struggles.

–Gurley’s kickoff return for a score was the easiest I’ve ever seen. He was never really forced to change directions, and the one time he did, it was by choice. He’s a great player, but the Tigers made him look insanely great right there.

–For the most part, Stoudt remained poised and composed. But on a few third downs, he seemed indecisive about his audibles at the line of scrimmage. It cost Clemson two timeouts during the game, and there were other occasions where the play clock almost ran out before the snap.

–Another issue with Stoudt is his tendency to hold onto the football too long. This allows the defense time to adjust after receivers make their moves. He held the ball too long on the Aaron Davis interception in the second quarter.

–Man, Georgia has some incredible linebackers. The talent level is incredible. Guys like Herrera, Floyd, and Kimbrough could play for anybody. Those talented players were simply too much for Clemson’s front after halftime.

–Ben Boulware is an animal on special teams. That is all.

–Georgia went hurry-up on offense right after halftime. I thought it was a brilliant move to go up-tempo for a couple of snaps by Mike Bobo. It put Clemson’s defense on its heels immediately, although the Tigers held the Bulldogs to a field goal on the drive.

–Bradley Pinion was really good in the game. In fact, the only issues he had were related to hang time. He never kicked a super short punt and averaged 45.1 yards per punt. Georgia’s Collin Barber and Adam Erickson were incredible, as well. Their adept punting kept Clemson backed up against the goal line for an entire half of football.

–People will lament poor tackling, but that issue was really limited to Gurley. Generally speaking, the Tigers did a pretty good job bringing down ball carriers on Saturday night. No team will be able to tackle a healthy Gurley with consistency.

–Vic Beasley was nowhere to be found. I noticed him twice in the entire game. That’s not enough, no matter what the cause or how adverse the situation. I never even saw Mason step to avoid him as a pass rusher.

–He didn’t run the ball well at all, but D.J. Howard was a monster in pass protection. That’s his single biggest strength as a part of Clemson’s offense. Stoudt would’ve gotten killed if Howard hadn’t sacrificed his body a load of times during the game.

–My main argument for Watson getting more playing time has nothing to do with Stoudt. In fact, it involves an incomplete pass. With about 2:30 left in the third, Watson overthrew Demarre Kitt on a third-down pass. Watson correctly read a Cover 2 look from the defense and reacted by throwing the ball to the intermediate left sideline—one of the traditional weak spots in the Cover 2. Kitt, for some reason, stopped short of Watson’s target in a place that effectively nullified his status as a receiver. It was a veteran read by Watson, even though the pass was incomplete.

–Davidson showed great burst at times, like his cutback run for a first down at the end of the third quarter. It was the only first down of the second half for the Tigers. Davidson should be the starter against South Carolina State in my opinion.

–It’s safe to say Clemson’s offensive line wore down, both physically and mentally, in the fourth quarter. Georgia began using more stunts and twists in its blitzes, which caused some communication issues up front. Credit Jeremy Pruitt for that adjustment.

–In addition, Joe Gore’s inexperience began to show against Leonard Floyd. Floyd just simply abused him at the end of the game, due to fatigue or another reason. Gore will get better with time, and he actually played pretty well for most of the contest.

–Clemson’s defense was on the field for almost 19 minutes in the second half, and it showed late. Georgia was able to gash the Tigers for big gains due to a lack of push up front and overpursuit at the second level. Both of these issues suggest tired legs from a defense that is deep but also needed its best on the field a ton down the stretch.

–Steward lost contain on Gurley’s first touchdown run of the fourth quarter. There was no one in the middle of the field at all, and the error was even more egregious given that the defense was in an “under” look to protect against the toss sweep. Steward should’ve stayed home since more bodies were out on the edge, but he got sucked into the fray and gave Gurley a wide open cutback lane.

–Georgia showed Clemson much more press coverage after halftime. The receivers couldn’t break free down the field, the protection broke down more often, and the linebackers started to tee off on the swing pass. It’s not too difficult to see how the Tigers went absolutely nowhere on offense in the second half.

–Davis committed pass interference against Stanton Seckinger with about nine minutes left in the game on a third down play. Okay, I don’t think it was necessarily pass interference, but Clemson got popped twice with a penalty for similar plays earlier in the game. That was a huge opportunity missed. If Clemson could have gotten out from the shadow of its own goal line at 31-21, the game might have gone a bit differently.

–In the end, it was simply a case of a superior team playing at home wearing down its opposition over time. Clemson can certainly play better, but a slew of teams are going to look shaky against this Georgia team this season.

–As for the quarterback discussion from earlier, I counted four plays by Stoudt I felt were above and beyond expectations, compared to only two such plays by Mason. This is obviously a subjective exercise, so I won’t go too far with it. I also think Mason’s team won the game because he did what he was asked to do. But I’m not sure Stoudt played much worse than him, either.

–For the record, I thought there were two instances in Watson’s playing time where he went above and beyond to make a play. That’s the wow factor that has many (not including me) saying he should be named the new starter.

–There is plenty of good to take away from Saturday’s game, even if it unraveled at the end. Obviously there are some concerns, but again, few—if any— teams in the country looked better than Georgia in Week 1. The margin for error will be greater in the future, except for that trip to Tallahassee in a few weeks.

God Bless!

WQ