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Went to bed at half time thinking this was going to be a slug fest with Alabama winning it by dominating the LOS - which they certainly did in the first half. Reading the news of a Clemson win this morning was a real surprise. A pleasant one at that.
I can't decide if I dislike Nick Saban or Dabo Sweeney more but I think Clemson beating Alabama on a last second TD is good for CFB and good for quieting the insufferable vanity of The Nick.
There are a couple of lessons here:
Power teams - and Alabama, despite the introduction by Saban of QBs like Jalen Hurts, into his pro-style offense - are not going to win shootouts against well QB'ed spread offenses (that term widely applied).
Teams like Alabama (and M for that matter) absolutely have to come up with a game plan that aggressively takes out the spread QB as a threat and limits the number of plays run by the offense - i.e., get off the filed on 3rd down. You have to live with the attempt to do that as, by its risky nature, it's going to give up some big plays. Everything I'm reading says Clemson's 84 plays wore down the great Alabama defense so that the outcome that was achieved had a fighter's chance of being achieved.
I think the success of spread teams (power or finesse) is much more highly dependent on recruiting and developing QBs like Watson and using them to move the chains and run a shit ton of plays. Clemson does not win that game with a QB like, say, jtb for example, and a game plan, like ufm frequently puts on the field, that tries to slow down and shorten the game. It's noteworthy that Clemson flat out took barrett out of osu's offense, limited plays (osu's game plan contributed) and the result, surprisingly in that game as well, was that osu was shut out. If you're going to run a spread, you optimize it by running as many plays as possible keeping the opponents D on the field for as long as possible. Clemson did that.
Highly skilled, strong WRs are emerging in spread offenses as absolutely critical. I don't think that was the case in the past. It is now. Deshaun Watson threw to 4 receivers that each had over 90y. Renfrow, had 10 catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns - including the game-winner. Mike Williams had eight catches for 94 yards and one touchdown. Jordan Leggett (seven catches for 95 yards) and Deon Cain (five catches for 94 yards).
Power offenses, like Alabama, probably USC and UW, certainly M, that want to shorten the game and keep it low scoring, are going to have to adapt to the potential for spread teams to possess the ball while at the same time running a high number of plays. They have to be flexible enough and well prepared enough to relentlessly use the passing game to control down and distance, move the chains and keep a spready opponent from doing what Clemson did to Alabama.
My view is that Alabama and M as compared to teams like USC and UW, all four of whom base out of a pro-style set, have to be much more aggressive with their passing games than any of them were in 2016. I think it is pretty apparent that in Alabama's and M's the passing game was limited due to the QB's ability to make it lethally effective at critical times in the game.
IOW, I like Don Brown going forward matched up with a JH/PH (Pep Hamilton) brand of offense that is going to look pretty old school in terms of it's strategy, but is very likely to adopt a passing game that is going to be fairly prolific in both number of plays and yards/game.
Last edited by Jeff Buchanan; January 10, 2017, 09:26 AM.
Mission to CFB's National Championship accomplished. But the shine on the NC Trophy is embarrassingly wearing off. It's M B-Ball ..... or hockey or volley ball or name your college sport favorite time ...... until next year.
Clemson is a story about an incredible QB who could make plays and lead a team. He was a good fit for what they wanted to do and the best player on the field. His stats were incredible. Especially considering how Clemson looked in the first half where I, like many, thought bama was going to dominate the 2nd and win big.
Next year, Clemson won't be this good, even running the same scheme.
It's still about execution.
Last edited by entropy; January 10, 2017, 09:31 AM.
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
People always looks for The Lesson after ever NC game and Super Bowl. Sometimes there can be one, sometimes not, but in this case your eyes are drawn to the QB stat lines.
Outside of one pass play- albeit a critical one- Hurts was 12-30 for 63 yards and 0 TDs....that's an NCAA QBR of 57.6. Non-functional, but he didn't throw any INTs so there's that.
Watson's QBR was 145, and he didn't throw any INTs either. That is a lot of differential to make up with the running game. Not impossible, but difficult.
I was actually thinking how difficult it would be to beat Alabama (or Clemson) with just a power run game. Those DL were so good that it's just not a good bet to try to manball your way through those defenses. Even Alabama couldn't do it.
You need a stud QB. Watson, as I said, is a 5* kid who met/exceeded expectations. Leggett and Williams are future NFL stars, too. They made plays that very few teams -- probably no other team -- could make. There's not much else to it. When you have a great QB with some great weapons, you're in the game against anyone.
That said, heh -- Clemson should have lost to NCS and really pulled one out against FSU to go along with their fluky loss to Pitt.
Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]? Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.
It was two things: The biggest is that Clemson forced Jalen to throw and he could not. This made for a shit ton of three and outs for the Bama offense which kept the Bama D on the field way too much and wore them down.
Secondarily, we had issues with the drag over the middle and a few well called screens.
Jalen, as a true frosh, has a glaring but common weakness for an 18-year-old playing major college ball: he is slow to read a D and go through his progs.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham Lincoln
You need a stud QB. Watson, as I said, is a 5* kid who met/exceeded expectations. Leggett and Williams are future NFL stars, too. They made plays that very few teams -- probably no other team -- could make. There's not much else to it. When you have a great QB with some great weapons, you're in the game against anyone.
I was actually thinking how difficult it would be to beat Alabama (or Clemson) with just a power run game. Those DL were so good that it's just not a good bet to try to manball your way through those defenses. Even Alabama couldn't do it.
You need a stud QB. Watson, as I said, is a 5* kid who met/exceeded expectations. Leggett and Williams are future NFL stars, too. They made plays that very few teams -- probably no other team -- could make. There's not much else to it. When you have a great QB with some great weapons, you're in the game against anyone.
That said, heh -- Clemson should have lost to NCS and really pulled one out against FSU to go along with their fluky loss to Pitt.
One also has to consider the pressure it puts on your defense as well. Tough to manball your way out of a hole, and its a lot to ask your defense to never put you in one. Same defense that shut out your Buckeyes gave up like 43 to Pitt...that's just football in today's game. You gotta be prepared for it to happen.
Not sure manball is really worth it, as an overall approach anyway. Look at Clemson from last night; 31 first downs, almost 35 minutes of possession time...despite throwing 56 passes. That is clock-control.
Really, you have to give Bammy credit...if I'd known that Clemmy was going to have 511 yards, 35 points, 31 FDs and 35min of possession, I would expected an easy win.
Last edited by Wild Hoss; January 10, 2017, 12:10 PM.
Once Clemson abandoned the run, the offense became effective. Alabama is good enough that you can't give away a play and that's what they were doing whenever they ran Gallman.
Dan Patrick: What was your reaction to [Urban Meyer being hired]? Brady Hoke: You know.....not....good.
It was two things: The biggest is that Clemson forced Jalen to throw and he could not. This made for a shit ton of three and outs for the Bama offense which kept the Bama D on the field way too much and wore them down.
Secondarily, we had issues with the drag over the middle and a few well called screens.
Jalen, as a true frosh, has a glaring but common weakness for an 18-year-old playing major college ball: he is slow to read a D and go through his progs.
The other thing that really hurt was Bo Scarbrough breaking his leg.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is sometimes hard to verify their authenticity." -Abraham Lincoln
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