Tigers are still a work in progress
LOUISVILLE, KY—The No. 2/4 Clemson Tigers put together their second impressive performance in the last two games last Saturday, as the Tigers defeated the Louisville Cardinals by a final score of 45-10.
"I thought our OL and our offense with Travis Etienne really settled us in. We handled the adversity early and didn’t let it effect us," head coach Dabo Swinney said. "Trevor (Lawrence) obviously didn’t have a good first quarter but wow just a tremendous finish finishing 20-29, three touchdowns, almost 70 percent completions with a really bad first quarter there. Just some missed opportunities and a couple of bad decisions. I am really pleased with our offense.
"That is back to back 500 plus yard games. We rushed the ball for 8.1 a carry and almost 300 yards there. We came back and did a good job on third down, especially in the second half. We finished right at 45 percent which is our goal. We spread the ball around. A bunch of guys touched it. Six guys scored touchdowns."
The Tigers offensive explosion over the last two games, that has seen them outscore the opposition by a combined score of 90-24, has been led by the reemergence of running back Travis Etienne.
Over the last two games, Etienne has amassed 319 yards after gaining only 204 yards in the previous three games.
"Travis Etienne just another huge game," Swinney said. "Fifteen touches and didn’t play in the fourth quarter there but averaged 14 yards per carry and did a nice job in the pass game with four catches and finished with 227 yards all purpose. Probably the biggest thing back to back weeks is the amount of yards after contact. He had 118 yards after contact so I am just really proud of Travis."
Even with the Tigers recent offensive outburst, there is still a lot that they can improve on.
"But still a lot of things we can do better. We came out of the game winning 45-10 and on the outside it may look good but to use we still have a lot of details and precision that we can improve on," Swinney said. "We have some individuals that we have to get better. We had a couple of penalties. We missed a couple of plays. We didn’t execute at wide out very well in the screen game. We mishandled our clock situation right before the half. We should not have had any subbing going on there. But all in all just a great job."
According to Swinney, the Tigers will have to nail down some of the errors that have plagued their slow-starts in the first quarter of games.
This season, the Tigers rank 21st in first quarter scoring, averaging only 8.9 points per game in the opening quarter. But more shocking is over the last three games the Tigers are averaging only 5.7 points per game, also ranking 21st in the nation.
Swinney believes that the key to improving the Tigers' offensive success is focusing on the little things.
"Just details. We probably would have had a touchdown on a screen with Travis but did not block the guy well at all on what was kind of a crack," Swinney said. "You can't have a better call, a better design, but we didn't execute on that one play. Travis would have creased it. It would have been a huge play. We should have had a good one with Justyn Ross, but his technique was poor. He was way too deep. It threw the timing off.
"We just have to clean that up. We had another one where the tight end didn't do well at blocking the spot. We'll go back and coach that up this week. The margin for error gets smaller as we get on down the road. We need to be more precise in some of these details."
However, it is not only the offense that has room to improve.
The Tigers' defense ranks fifth in the nation in total defense, only Ohio State ranks better at No. 2. LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma all rank outside of the top 20 in total defense at No. 24, 26 and 28 respectively.
The Tigers also rank eighth in scoring defense, only Ohio State ranking better at No. 2. Alabama ranks 13th, Oklahoma ranks 22nd and LSU 26. But even with these impressive numbers, Swinney believes the Tigers can get even better.
"The same thing on defense," Swinney said. "We had the offsides. We had pass interference. We missed probably the most tackles that we have missed in a long time. We missed a bunch of tackles, 20 something tackles. Our alignment and our fundamentals, some of those things that are showing up. We are fast and we are athletic and we overcome some of it and it may all look good on the scoreboard but we have to improve on our discipline. That same thing offensively. Just some precision in what we are doing. We let the quarterback outside a few times. We had guys in the wrong spot. Too many mental errors. Just getting everybody on the same page and doing their job."
