The Clemson Insider

By William Qualkinbush.

In this edition of Qualk Talk we review the 23-17 win over Louisville in Death Valley.

First of all, if the goal was to be incredibly loud—and I believe it was—then the goal was achieved. It began with the first series of the game. The noise was more noticeable than usual, both in the stadium and on the broadcast.
Typically, a punt return for a touchdown involves a combination of poor coverage and good vision. Such was the case with Adam Humphries’ touchdown in the first half. The first two defenders in the picture bailed out on their coverage lanes, then Humphries navigated what was left, breaking four tackles in the process.
James Quick was effective as a receiver against the Clemson secondary, but he missed perhaps his biggest opportunity of the day. He beat Mackensie Alexander deep in cover 1, which involves man-to-man coverage outside. The ball was well placed by Reggie Bonnafon, but Quick dropped it right in his hands.
Speaking of drops, both Germone Hopper and Mike Williams dropped potential touchdowns in the game. Hopper’s came early on a vertical route from Deshaun Watson, while Williams’ came later on what looked to be a post pattern from Cole Stoudt.
Bonnafon had one of the best playaction fakes you’ll ever see on a third down play in Clemson territory in the first quarter. There were three tight ends and a back in the formation, so a ton of defensive personnel was devoted to the box. Unfortunately for him, the Clemson secondary stayed home and there was nowhere to throw the football.
Ben Boulware’s banner day started early. He made a pair of tackles on the first two drives against the run right at the line of scrimmage. Boulware was flying all over the field from the outset, a fact reflected in his ten tackles.
Watson struggled during his time in the game, and the struggles weren’t confined to one specific area. He had problems with the pass rush and the coverage, and both issues converged on his interception. Lorenzo Mauldin’s edge rush forced Watson to drop his eyes, then when he stepped up into the pocket, he lost his bearings on coverage. He never saw the safety lurking in front of Hopper downfield.
When Watson got hurt, he remained in the game for two more plays favoring his right hand. Finally, after the screen pass to Wayne Gallman, he checked himself out of the game in a deflating sign of submission.
Cole Stoudt’s first two plays were a near-interception and an unnecessary sack. That’s not exactly the way to inspire confidence, although we now know he was ill-prepared for a reason.
Bradley Pinion has been great for Clemson this season, but his shanked punt was abysmal. It was a designed rugby kick, which is puzzling considering the success he’s had with more traditional punts this season.
On that next possession, the Tigers were still getting the defensive play call when the Cardinals quick-snapped the ball. Obviously, several players were out of position, including Boulware. His man, tailback Dominique Brown, ran a wheel route down the sideline and would have scored had the pass not forced him to dive.
Stoudt threw a ton of passes that were nearly picked off in the game. I counted NINE TIMES a defender either had a clear chance at an interception or an actual one. Many of those passes were thrown because Stoudt simply didn’t see defenders in coverage or didn’t read their adjustments. Part of that was due to Louisville’s propensity to shift coverage looks at the last minute, but it was mostly due to poor vision and recognition by Stoudt.
Still, Stoudt was victimized by poor protection at points in the first half. On one sack, Wayne Gallman ignored a blitzer on Stoudt’s right side, opting instead to slip out into the pattern. As a result, Stoudt got destroyed, as he did several times early in the game.
As good as Quick was at receiver, he was bad returning punts. As far as I’m concerned, his fumble was Bobby Petrino’s fault. He had already muffed one and almost muffed another one when he fumbled in the second quarter. That’s inexcusable.
I was proud to see Shaq Lawson and DeShawn Williams combine on a tackle. Daniel High School, represent!
The Garry Peters strip sack was yet another example of Brent Venables dialing up the right pressure at the right time. Venables recognized the protection issues Louisville had up front, so he showed blitz all night long on the opposite side from where the blitz actually came. The supposed blitzers from the Tigers’ linebacking corps bluffed on the right side of the offensive formation, then they retreated. But the protection rolled right, leaving a couple of guys blocking air as Peters raced untouched on Bonnafon. Grady Jarrett ended up with the recovery in the end zone.
We know Bonnafon has a weak left hand because he threw an overhand pass on a triple option play in the first half. It was weird, but he attempted to do it again on the Vic Beasley record-breaking sack on the next snap.
Neither team displayed intelligent clock management before halftime. Louisville used two timeouts against Clemson so it could get the ball back…and run it three times before punting. I didn’t get that whatsoever.
I still have no idea what Stoudt was doing right before the half. First of all, Williams was wide open in the end zone in Stoudt’s line of sight. Second, he has to know to throw the ball away if nobody gets open. It’s a designed rollout, so it’s not that difficult, and I’m sure it was pounded into his head on the sideline. Diving at the one-yard-line isn’t an option.
Boulware’s big third-down sack near the start of the third quarter was an issue of protection once again. Boulware showed blitz, but the protection shifted to take away the appearance of an overload blitz on the opposite side. The left guard shifted toward the middle of the formation, giving Boulware a clear shot at the quarterback.
On the infamous shotgun snap fourth down play, Louisville had nine men in the box against eight blockers. The odds didn’t favor Clemson, especially given Stoudt’s hesitation that cost him a second or two in the backfield and the fact that one Louisville defensive lineman took out three blockers by himself. Plus, a straight handoff to Choice netted almost a yard the play before. It seems like that might have worked better, but the staff chose otherwise. Also, the decision to go for it was puzzling given the way the defense was playing, but I understand why Dabo Swinney and Chad Morris did what they did there. I disagree, but I get it.
The first third down conversion of the game came with 6:20 left in the third quarter. That’s absurd. It also led to a touchdown two plays later. The score came on a post route that split cover 2—right after a big gain underneath the safeties on third down with a similar route combination. That’s great offense by Petrino.
The Tigers almost moved the chains on their next third down attempt, but a pass to Hopper was ruled incomplete. It looked like Hopper may have had control as he went out of bounds, but it was impossible to be sure with the camera angle available.
Ammon Lakip was magnificent in the game. His two kicks from 40-plus yards weren’t gimmes. It also felt like he earned the second one, when he doinked one off the post to end the third quarter.
Jayron Kearse nearly had a pick-six on the first drive of the fourth quarter. He had a clear path if he could’ve hauled in a screen pass, but it went into the book as a PBU.
Simply put, James Burgess’ interception was just a bad choice by Stoudt. He missed linebackers dropping into deep middle coverage multiple times in the game, and that was the most costly example.
Louisville absolutely killed itself with deadball penalties. There were a handful of delay of games or false starts for the Cardinals, including two in the same set of downs early in the fourth quarter. Because of deadball penalties, the Cardinals got nothing off of the interception, coming up about a yard short on a fourth down. Grady Jarrett and Boulware completely blew up that short-yardage conversion attempt, by the way.
I don’t think any defender can be faked out any worse than B.J. Goodson was on first down with about nine minutes left. He got caught out of position in the backfield and allowed Will Gardner to get free on a rollout.
There were a couple of instances when Adam Choice chose to seek out contact rather than running toward open space. Sometimes, I wonder if Clemson’s tailbacks do that on purpose or if they just don’t recognize the better option available.
Given the injuries and attrition that have wreaked havoc on the offensive line, it’s worthwhile to note how well that unit seemed to play. On the final drive of the game, Choice and the line just flat out wore down Louisville’s front. That allowed Clemson to take almost all of the time off the clock.
I have no idea why, but Louisville continued to give six or eight yards of cushion to Clemson’s receivers. They even did it late in the game, when Artavis Scott’s ability to do damage in the screen game became painfully obvious to all observers.
Kearse said he was misaligned on his touchdown-saving tackle, which he was. In fact, if Gardner had looked, a receiver on the far side of the field was wide open in the half of the field Kearse was supposed to be defending. Instead, Kearse was positioned in the middle of the deep coverage, which allowed him to catch Quick after the 73-yard gain.
The decision to spike the ball on third down by Petrino was puzzling, but he says he was confident in his team’s fourth down play to score there. Still, it made the defense’s job easier by giving only three plays to defend.
Also, why Louisville came off the field to huddle after spiking the ball is a mystery to me. Seriously, what the heck were they thinking? Clearly it wasn’t a timeout. But it took the officials a little while to figure out exactly what to do.
On the final play, Eli Rogers was the intended receiver. He ran a little in-and-out route and was supposed to sit down inside the defensive zone to catch the ball. There was contact (initiated by Rogers) and he fell down. As he tried to get up, Gardner threw, but the ball was batted down by Williams and never got close to Rogers. It was a nice defensive play all-around by the Clemson defense.

God Bless!