re: A rational look at the Clemson Tigers - can we leave emotions out of this for a minute

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Our defense vs. your offense: This is the Marquee match-up so let's start here. You guys have had a phenomenal year - setting records and scorching teams. And we won't try to stop you. We ARE going to slow you down. The question is by how much ?

I don't think that it is unreasonable to claim that Clemson has the best defense that you have faced this year. Competition adjusted statistics bear this out. So by how much can we slow y'all down?

Beyond Simmons we don't have a lot of flashy talent, but all of the guys are good and fast and they play complimentary football withing the scheme. This is where BV comes in. I think we can all agree that he is brilliant at scheming, exotic blitzing, and in game adjustments. So as a unit we are far more than the sum of our parts. OSU was convinced they had the talent edge all over the field & on paper & maybe they did. But they don't play the game on paper.

I think our DBs will come up in press and we will keep safeties over the top. Not only will this slow down your short passing game, but it will put a larger number of people in position to blitz the QB from all angles. It also frees the LBs up a bit to corral the run and the outlet pass to CEH. The other thing about our defense is that, as the field gets compressed (in the red zone) things get tighter and that frees up BV to do more things that Joe might not be expecting.

Now I know that you guys have absolute faith in your offense to overcome these things and rightfully so. But we are going to scheme and slant and grind to slow you down - to make you make mistakes - a penalty, a TFL, a turnover, a sack - something that will decrease tour chances of scoring a touchdown. And we are going to play that for 60 minutes and see if y'all can stand up to National Championship pressure without losing your focus.



On the other side - Our offense vs your defense. This is where it gets fun. I think you have some excellent players on your defense, but this offense is so varied and explosive that no matter what you take away, there is something else just waiting to be exploited. There are playmakers all over the field and just when you think you got it all covered, someone you never heard of takes advantage.

At the helm is the best QB in college football. And he is going to distribute the ball to whichever playmaker that has the best advantage. He's cool, and calm, and relentless, unless you piss him off. And then he's likely to take the game over by adding yet another weapon - his legs. So pick your poison - ETN, Tee, Ross, TL, Rogers, etc. With all of our formations and playmakers - and TL at the helm, we will find the way to score more points than y'all.

One last thing. We do this every year. We know how to prepare for this. We know about the energy, the pressure, the speed of the game. We know about having to dig down deeper than you thought you could and absolutely trusting your brothers to do the same. We are the Clemson Tigers and we are built for this.

Have a good game !!

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