CLEMSON — Nine games into the season and red zone issues continue to plague the Clemson offense.

In last weekend’s 18-13 win over Syracuse, the Tigers made three trips inside the Orange 20-yard line and had to settle for field goals all three times. Two of those came on Clemson’s first two possessions of the game. Converting just one of those into six could have created some distance against a Syracuse team that was also struggling to score points.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, there’s a number of things factoring into the struggles. In fact, offensive coordinator Chad Morris says that’s what makes it harder to fix.

“Well, I think it is a combination of a lot of things,” Morris said. “From some of the stuff I am calling, to our execution, to our penalties, to dropping touchdown passes. If it was just one or two things, obviously you could find that and say, ‘ Hey, let’s fix this and move on.”

One thing that has hampered the Tigers in the red zone is having a freshman quarterback, who has yet to fully earn the trust of the coaching staff. Add in an offensive line that is littered with youth, untimely penalties, and a failure to execute, leading to what has become downright inefficiency inside the opposing team’s 20-yard line.

“It has been a continuation of an error somewhere, or a mishap somehow,” Morris added. “Like I said, whether it is a penalty, a drop, or maybe we should have ran zone-read here instead of this — you always have a play caller kind of each game go, ‘Man, I wish I had about four or five calls back.’ That is every game.”

At times, the Tigers have been able to move the ball inside the 20s. It’s once the field gets smaller that the issues really start to arise.

Clemson has had 30 red zone opportunities this season. Only 11 times have those drives resulted in a touchdown. That is a staggering 37%, ranking the Tigers as one of the worst red zone teams in the country.

Morris gets to try and help his unit right some of those wrongs on Saturday against a Georgia Tech team in the midst of a four-game losing streak. The Yellow Jackets are allowing touchdowns on 52% of their opponents’ trips inside the red zone.

This is also a Georgia Tech team going through its own turmoil. Head coach Brent Key fired multiple staffers this week, including defensive coordinator Jason Semore. Defensive backs coach Vinnie Sunseri will take over defensive play-calling duties.

“When it gets down there, it gets magnified even more,” Morris said. “Again, it is a combination of things, and you keep pushing through and try and put these guys in the best situations possible. We just got to go make a play.”

Photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider