Clemson's disappointment in Atlanta

I was utterly disappointed, frustrated, and bewildered by the offensive performance Saturday when the 4-0 Tigers took on the 2-2 Georgia Tech Rambling Wreck.  Although Georgia Tech's defense always seems to provide a unique challenge for the Clemson offense, Clemson fans seemed to have reason to believe this year would be different. 

Not only had we easily handled N.C. State's defense the week prior to the trip to Atlanta, but last year the Clemson offense absolutely had their way with the Tech defense last year on national television.  We all knew that the game would provide new challenges for our young and efficient quarterback in Cullen Harper, but we did not know that Coach Tommy Bowden and Offensive Coordinator Rob Spence would put the entire game into his hands.

Last year's season started with one of the most explosive running games in the nation.  However, since we had focused solely on the run, we had no answer for Virginia Tech 's defensive strategy of stuffing 9 people in the box and forcing us to pass.  This strategy was then copied by our final opponents leading to our late season collapse. 

With that in mind it made all the since in the world for the Clemson offense to work on having a passing threat to assist the ground game of James Davis and C.J. Spiller.  The key word in that last sentence was "assist."

Now don’t take me wrong it was great seeing Harper gunsling from the pocket like a seasoned vet but, I guess I just assumed that when we met a defense with an above average secondary we would give it to our work horse, James Davis.

Looking at the setup for the game, one would assume that Davis was going to break loose.  Not only was he going to the stadium blocks away from his childhood home, but he had torched N.C. State's defense for 166 yards on 24 carries (roughly an average of 7 yards a carry).  As if there was not enough motivation with the game being on national TV, if you asked Spiller and Davis to point to their "breakout game" one can assume they would both point to the Tech drumming in Death Valley a year ago.  All indications pointed to a "Thunder and Lightning" show; but something surprising happened.  We forgot to give "Lightning" (Spiller) the ball with a lead blocker to the outside and simply neglected the "Thunder" (Davis). 

Rob Spence chose to give Davis the rock 12 times when he was averaging 5 yards a carry. 

Does everyone see that? 12 carries.  Let’s say we gave him the ball 24 times like the N.C. State game, that’s 120 yards and his average was increasing the longer the game lasted.  True Davis looked pitiful on his first half carries (all 5 of them for 9 yards) but he has always made it clear that he needs a good amount of carries to find his rhythm. 

It appeared that the obvious was pointed out to Spence and Bowden at half time because the third quarter started with 4 carries by Davis for 34 yards.  For the first time in the game, I was smiling because i thought, just for a minute, they had a brain.  But a fumbled snap and an incomplete later left the Clemson offense with a manageable 3rd and 4.  Guess what we did; we passed.  The incompletion left us hoping against hope that a tired Mark Buchholz could make a 50 yard kick.  He didn't, but can you truly get mad at a guy for missing a 50 yard kick by a matter of feet?  I can't.

Although we didn't get any points, I'm thinking ok, just give Davis the rock.  So of course the next drive consisted of Spiller trying desperately to get us out of the shadow of our end zone, not his strong point, for 1 yard on 2 carries.  

Next drive started with 3 first downs, the first 2 because we hopped onto the shoulders of Davis.  He had found the rhythm, 3 carries for 18 yards.  A Jacoby Ford rush for no gain, and a sack left us in a 3rd and 20 where we dumped the ball off for a gain of 8 yards to get us in "field goal range," a 48 yard kick mind you.  So the 3rd quarter ended with 2 promising drives being stalled while Davis racked up 52 yards on 7 carries. 

"O man, Davis is going to bring the rain now!"  "Keep your ears open, it's about to thunder!"  Actual statements made by Clemson fans I was watching the game with.  The fans were ready, Davis was ready, but what about Rob Spence. 

O joy! Lets add to the staggering number of times Harper has already dropped back to pass (39 with 5 min left in the third quarter) and forget the strength of our offense.  Tech's defensive line was beat up and tired.  Davis had found his stride.  

 5 incomplete passes, 1 sack, and 0 touches from Davis later the clock read 0:00 and there was no thunder to be heard or lightning to be seen.

Is it Harper's fault?  Absolutely not.  He did what he could with the play calls and he never lost his composure.  Spiller's?  Didn't play well but we didn't give him the calls that accent his strengths.  Buchholz's?  Give me a break. Expecting a kicker to make kicks of 50 and 47 yards merely hours after he played in an extremely physical soccer game against Duke was rather unrealistic.  He definitely should have made the 30 yard kick to end the half, but still.

Some will even point to the offensive line because of the unreal amount of sacks they gave up.  But everyone in the stadium knew what our plays were.  We were about as predictable as Michael Vick's next screw up.  Everyone knew exactly what was coming, yet Davis was still trucking people out of the way.

It felt like Tech's defensive coordinator met with Spence the night before and asked him to keep the ball out of Davis's hands.  I mean why else would we neglect our playmaker in the 4th quarter? 

I'm not going to call for Spence's resignation.  It's not like that.  I'm just saying that I would have considered it a trick play if we would have run the ball between the tackles every once in a while.

Now the fans are left to wonder, why Spence, who was described as an "offensive magician," didn't play to our strengths.  It's a shame too, because the Clemson defense played out of their minds.

The radar, and the several thousand who trekked down to Atlanta, were shouting for a "Thunder-storm."  Hope they have their voices for that other game this coming weekend.