CLEMSON — Clemson will play its second consecutive road game, as the Tigers head up to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College.
While the Eagles come in at 1-4, a couple of those losses were close. They’ve been in every game they’ve lost but one. That came last week when Pitt blew BC’s doors off 48-7.
Clemson (2-3) comes in fresh off its best performance of the season, but that win came against what has turned out to be a very bad North Carolina team, so it’s hard to know exactly how much to take from that one.
It’s no coincidence that Cade Klubnik also had his best outing of the season, hitting on 22-of-24 for 254 yards, with four touchdowns. The hope is that the senior signal caller can put together solid performances in back-to-back games.
Where the Tigers need more is in the running game. Clemson rushed for less than 100 yards against the lifeless Heels, averaging just 2.9 yards per carry. Although with the passing game working so well, there wasn’t much of an effort made to establish the ground game last week. Clemson only ran the ball 12 times, while throwing it 24 times in that decisive first half.
Even Dabo Swinney wants to see a little more balance.
“As long as we are throwing for 350-plus, I will take that, but I think I would like to have a little bit more balance,” the head coach said.
With Boston College not having linebacker Daveon Crouch available, there should be some plays to be made in the running game. The Eagles are allowing more than 133 rushing yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. Pitt rushed for 172 yards against that defense last week without Crouch.
Maybe this is the week they really cuts those backs loose. Adam Randall and Gideon Davidson, who is now listed as the co-backup alongside David Eziomume, hopefully combine for at least 25 carries.
BC was also sucseptible on the backend last week. Pitt threw for more than 330 yards. Klubnik should be able to have some success, too.
One the other side, Clemson will need to slow down running back Turbo Richard, who is averaging more than five yards per carry. That means minimizing the missed tackles, something the defense did last weekend.
However, the biggest thing will be getting pressure on quarterback Dylan Lonergan. BC ranks in the Top 15 nationally in passing offense and the Tigers have had some coverage issues on the backend. Those issues have led to less blitzing so the pressure will have to come from the front four.
The Eagles are also pretty beat up. More than 20 players were listed as either out or questionable on Thursday’s injury report. Outside of OL Elyjah Thurmon being out and Trsitan Leigh still not being 100%, the Tigers are pretty healthy.
Having said all of that, one thing you can count on is that Boston College is going to play physical, something the Clemson offensive line hasn’t always handled that well this season. We’ll see how they handle it on Saturday.
If Clemson can start fast like it did against UNC, the Tigers could roll and easily cover the 12.5-point spread. If the Tigers start out slow, like they have so often this season, it could be closer than it should be.
It’s possible that the reset during the bye week actually worked but one blowout win over a terrible North Carolina team hasn’t restored my trust in this team. I still need to see more. Maybe we see that on Saturday.
Clemson 27 Boston College 13
Photo by Bart Boatwright