Clemson has struggled with this in recent years, including Saturday. They held the ball for nearly 40 minutes, destroying the effect of our up tempo offense. When we played them several years ago in the ACC Championship game there was not a single punt the entire game. If a team is not ready for them they will march down the field and wear out your defense. There are two well documented ways of supplanting this, and my secret 3rd strategy.1) Have the ball last and keep scoring. This is what we tried in the ACC Championship game a few years ago. Last person to score wins.
2) Train up your defense to stop the triple option. Easier said than done. Teams have managed it before, Clemson was able to do it for one amazing half of a game in 2009, Iowa did it expertly a few years ago in the Orange Bowl, others have managed it as well.
3) With an offense that thrives on time of possession and tends to score every single drive why not directly attack their strategy. This is going to sound bold, perhaps crazy. But I say onside kick it to these guys every single kickoff. If they are scoring every time anyway giving them a short field will just mean that your defense is only on the field for 5 minutes instead of 10. Georgia Tech leads the nation in long plays, giving them a short field just makes your safeties need to cover less ground. The onside kicks potentially get you an extra 2-3 possessions a game while tiring out their defense.
I know it is crazy, but I honestly think it is crazy enough to work.
Clemson is not an elite team, I knew that before Saturday, but they do what they do very well. I just hope they can at least start acting like an ACC Championship team and pull things together for the rest of the season. There is a lot of young talent out there. I hope we can get em up to championship caliber for next year.
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