CLEMSON — It was a tale of two halves for Clemson on Saturday.
After struggling to do much over most of the first two quarters, the eighth-ranked Tigers overcame a 16-point deficit, knocking off Troy 27-16.
Clemson improves to 1-1 and will now prepare for its first road game of the season, a noon matchup against Georgia Tech to open ACC play on Saturday.
Second Half Efficiency
What a disastrous first half. Nothing went right. On the offense’s first five possessions, four of them were four plays or fewer. There were three punts and two turnovers, with one being a pick-six that put the team in a 16-0 hole.
After that, something changed. The Tigers scored on five of their final six possessions, with drives of five of those going six plays or more. And the one drive they didn’t score on was the final possession, where Clemson ran it seven straight times, chewing up the final 4:24 off the clock.
The play up front was much better in the second half, with Dabo Swinney noting some adjustments were made there at halftime. Quarterback Cade Klubnik was seeing it better, and even more importantly, Adam Randall finally had a little room to run.
While the unit still needs to be better, maybe Saturday’s second half serves as a springboard to the offense playing closer to its potential.
Need More from Offensive Line
Again, this group was much better in the second half after some adjustments, but more was expected from this offensive line coming into the season. Maybe it’s the fact that Walker Parks has barely played the first two games and Tristan Leigh is out, but Harris Sewell and Collin Sadler have played a lot of football for this team.
The Tigers have one of the best offensive line coaches in the country in Matt Luke, but so far, that has yet to translate into a lot of success up front over the first two games.
Randall Proves His Worth
That second half showed that Randall is more than capable at running back. The senior tallied 165 all-purpose yards, including a big 30-yard kickoff return that led to the Tigers’ first three points of the game. Randall just needs the big boys up front to give him some room to work. While the first-half fumble was unfortunate and came at a terrible time, he more than made up for it with that effort over the final two quarters. That’s what Clemson needs from its running game next weekend in Atlanta.
Tom Allen’s Defense
There was some good and bad on Saturday. Probably a little more good than bad, especially after the long touchdown pass on Troy’s first possession. Credit to the Trojans there, they got one of their fastest receivers matched up with linebacker Jamal Anderson. A mismatch if there ever was one. However, if you’re Clemson, that has to be recognized presnap and a timeout called. Swinney admitted as much in the postgame, noting it was missed.
Having said that, when any combination of Peter Woods, DeMonte Capehart or Stephiylan Green was on the field together, the interior of the defensive line was fairly disruptive. There was absolutely some drop off when the guys behind them rotated in, particularly on some third downs when Champ Thompson came in.
After that first 75-yard touchdown drive, Troy only had 201 yards of offense. The Trojans had less than 100 in the second half and rushed for just 16 yards over that same span. The Tigers allowed just 2.4 yards per rush attempt for the game and forced three turnovers.
Clemson Needs More from T.J. Moore
Moore was pretty much MIA in this one. He had one catch for one yard and was only targeted twice all game. While he was tagged with a drop on the other target, Klubnik probably needs to get that one out a little quicker.
The sophomore has only five catches over the first two games. He needs to be a bigger factor in the offense.
Special Teams Shine
Not only did Jack Smith have a solid day punting the ball, but Nolan Hauser hit both of his field goal attempts, and the Tigers even got the big kickoff return from Randall. Not a bad day at the office for an area of the team that faced a lot of questions coming into the season.
Photo by Bart Boatwright