Notre Dame vs Clemson: First Half Analysis

Notre Dame missed too many opportunities to stay in the game with Clemson after the first two quarters. Clemson leads 24-3 after a sloppy first half by the Irish.

OFFENSE

The Irish controlled action early, taking each of its first three drives into Clemson territory. On the first drive, quarterback Ian Book failed to take a one-on-one corner shot to wideout Javon McKinley and was sacked, which forced a 51-yard field goal attempt that was made.

With a 3-0 lead, Notre Dame drove all the way down to the 6-yard line, but on third-and-goal Book again was unwilling to make a one-on-one throw, this time to tight end Michael Mayer, who had a step on a corner throw. The ball needed to be thrown on time and high so Mayer could go up and make a play, but instead Book scrambled and threw the ball away.

Jonathan Doerer hit the upright and missed an attempt from 24 yards out. Instead of it being 10-0 the Irish gave Clemson the ball back, and the lead quickly went away.

Notre Dame again got into Clemson territory after two great calls by OC Tommy Rees (jet sweep that went for 18, bootleg that went for 30), but Book was late with his initial read, scrambled and then missed a wide open Avery Davis on a drag route that gave Clemson the football. Notre Dame should have been up double figures at that time but instead trailed.

That was the story of the half for Book. He took multiple bad sacks, and his unwillingness to make tight window throws killed the offense. Another example is a 3rd-and-11 play where Rees called a curl-flat concept that got wideout Ben Skowronek wide open on the curl, but Book was unwilling to make the throw and instead scrambled, forcing another punt.

The offensive line gave Book the time he needed, but his reads were far too rushed. He was good on the opening drive, but after falling behind he started to really work too fast through his reads and he started getting his eyes down on the rush instead of keeping them downfield.

Up front, the big issue was center Joshua Lugg, who was beat on multiple snaps by the Clemson front seven, linebackers and linemen.

DEFENSE

The Irish defense did well early, forcing Clemson into an interception on its opening drive thanks to a great pass drop and tip by LB Drew White.

Clemson found a matchup it liked on series two and it went with it until Notre Dame stopped it, which never happened. On the third play of series two, Notre Dame was in a Cover 1 look with Kyle Hamilton playing the deep middle and safety Shaun Crawford in a one-on-one with Clemson's top receiver, Amari Rodgers. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence wisely looked Lawrence off to the right of the offense, and as soon as Hamilton bit the Clemson QB came backside on a post throw to Rodgers, who smoked Crawford on a post route.

Clemson went back to that matchup multiple times in the first half, and Rodgers finished the first half with 109 yards on four catches. DC Clark Lea had no answers for that matchup. As Notre Dame started getting beat on the perimeter it started to soften things up, and that is when the run game was able to take over late in the first half.

The decision to keep Shayne Simon in the lineup also hurt Lea, as Simon executed a very poor zone drop, and Lawrence stepped up and threw it behind Simon for a 33-yard score that put the Tigers up 14-3.

Poor tackling on the final drive did the Irish in, as Travis Etienne ripped off a 44-yard touchdown to make it 24-3. Prior to that series the Tigers were not getting much room to work in the run, but as I stated above, the perimeter success eventually opened up the middle.

To comment below be sure to sign up for a FREE Disqus account, which you can get HERE.

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter