My Take

[Xanadu]

Sometimes. I think generalities in this case are misleading.

Dino is smarter than any of us on this stuff. You’ll forgive me for giving him the benefit of the doubt after coming with a whisker of beating at top 5 team in one of the hardest venues to play.

Like Dino said, he could have done one of two things. He picked one and the chips fell where they did. That’s going to happen in sports and life. With hindsight, I think he knows what he left on the table by not picking the other option.

 

[721Comstock]

The best way to protect a lead is to keep doing what you did to build it.

Except... when the D has adjusted to take away what you were doing prior, and it’s no longer working.

Venables is a defensive genius, and makes insane $ for a D-Coordinator for a reason.
Well, 2 reasons:
He’s worth it.
Clemson can afford it.

It’s remarkably easy to Monday Morning QB after we’ve seen how certain things played out.

We did enough right to win that game exactly as it played out.

If Dungey doesn’t bounce that screen pass to Nykeim, it would have been a big gainer, and kept that drive alive.
If Butler looks for that pass, maybe it’s not an INT. Or if Dungey put a little air under it, could have been a big completion.

And the ineligible receiver call on 4th down.
Ugh.

It’s overly simplistic to say “keep doing what you were doing” - when the other team is also trying to do things to win the game.

 

[shu 49]

Ok my question is what counter was he talking about. Did they run jet fly behind qb and then run 4 gap or did they call the offset fullback as a counter player cause he never got the ball. Weak side should cover counter and strong side should be downhill stepping to hole after they doubled Slayton. Holes were gigantic and no downhill lb to be Seen unless we blitzed. I’m sorry but our backers neeed to stop run period. They were gassed which I also don’t understand cause of our conditioning and in fourth quarter they looked slow. I have stated this often and it bothers me more and more. Rpo is tough on the safety in my opinion but shouldn’t be on the backers. In this defense who covers counter cause it shouldn’t be backers should it. Slayton should have c gap going to his side slb should have A gap and WSL should be over the top into b gap. That’s my guess. What’s su philosophy on it

 

[Fat tire 13]

the catch on the 3rd and long by Refrow was the play of the game IMHO. Gave them life and kept our D on the field. I too think that our O went into a shell in the 2nd half, for good reason maybe as their D was imposing it's will.

That was a huge catch. It was a bad throw and the WR made a great play. An average WR could never have reeled that in like that. I remember the announcers commenting it would be a confidence booster, and they were right. Who knows if they could have made that 4th down conversion if that play was a drop.

It is tough to get over this one. It came down to just a handful of plays (Refrow, the ineligible penalty, and the 4th down converstion). Sure you can say that about many close games. Just very frustrating to know we had a legit shot. It would have been one of the 5-10 best regular season games of all time if it happened

 

[cuse309]

If all you are doing is running up the middle, you will run into the arms of those guys.

Oh. Yes, I agree. But you have to run, and when they did, they had more success running into those guys. Those speedy lbs were too fast sideline to sideline.

 

[Chip]

The best way to protect a lead is to keep doing what you did to build it.

Rainmaking punts that land at the 10 yard line?

Your premise assumes defenses don’t adjust.

 

[Newhouser]

I can't recall but when we slowed our pace down in the 2nd half with the lead were we burning the play clock down the whole time? We got conservative and I thought I remember saying during the game that we were leaving time on the play clock. A little thing but those seconds add up in close games with a tiring D.

 

[SWC75]

Except... when the D has adjusted to take away what you were doing prior, and it’s no longer working.

Venables is a defensive genius, and makes insane $ for a D-Coordinator for a reason.
Well, 2 reasons:
He’s worth it.
Clemson can afford it.

It’s remarkably easy to Monday Morning QB after we’ve seen how certain things played out.

We did enough right to win that game exactly as it played out.

If Dungey doesn’t bounce that screen pass to Nykeim, it would have been a big gainer, and kept that drive alive.
If Butler looks for that pass, maybe it’s not an INT. Or if Dungey put a little air under it, could have been a big completion.

And the ineligible receiver call on 4th down.
Ugh.

It’s overly simplistic to say “keep doing what you were doing” - when the other team is also trying to do things to win the game.

Their offense wore out defense out just as our offense had done to their defense the year before. Our draining the clock kept their defense fresh this year.

 

[SoBristol]

To an extent, this is true. They were co-OCs, but let’s be real on this. Lewis was the innovator, the mad scientist, and the spark on the sideline for the offense. Lynch was the manager of the game. You can tell in the play calling. Can we be successful with Lynch? Absolutely. Will we be more consistent? Maybe. Is our ceiling lower? I think so. I also believe better talent is currently masking playcalling that has found very little rhythm for the style of play this offense requires to work. There’s a reason the offense has stalled during large periods of every game. I believe that is also the window into why the offense tends to stall when TD gets in there as well.

Interesting take.
Lewis certainly provided some fire/energy on the sidelines -- not sure how much play-calling came from the booth or how much the do-OCs shared game planning. Do you know?
But here is a consideration. We don't have the veteran receiver talent we had last year in Ishmael & Phillips. Those two were always on the field. This season, Lynch is rotating new receivers into the mix in every series, and was introducing a new TE with Pierce injured. He is also working with 3 RBs, reducing the role of Strickland (who is the best at calling the OL blocking). So -- lots of factors in the slight slowing of the pace.

The offense has in fact racked up points in bunches (WMU, while Dungey was in the game) and the point average is way up. Sure there have been struggles (TD against WMU; the entire offense against a great Clemson defense), but you are reaching in trying to blame Lynch.

 

[tbonezone]

travis etienne was doing the damage, career best for him. arrete ettienne sil vous plait. backup qb non factor.
replay on espn now. great effort by the cuse and nothing to hang their heads about. clemson knows this.
you can bet clemson now fears us. they don't look past the orange anymore.

 

[Xanadu]

Interesting take.
Lewis certainly provided some fire/energy on the sidelines -- not sure how much play-calling came from the booth or how much the do-OCs shared game planning. Do you know?
But here is a consideration. We don't have the veteran receiver talent we had last year in Ishmael & Phillips. Those two were always on the field. This season, Lynch is rotating new receivers into the mix in every series, and was introducing a new TE with Pierce injured. He is also working with 3 RBs, reducing the role of Strickland (who is the best at calling the OL blocking). So -- lots of factors in the slight slowing of the pace.

The offense has in fact racked up points in bunches (WMU, while Dungey was in the game) and the point average is way up. Sure there have been struggles (TD against WMU; the entire offense against a great Clemson defense), but you are reaching in trying to blame Lynch.

1) Lewis was the primary play caller while Lynch was the primary organizer of personnel and doing the analytics on adjustments. From what I understand.

2) I think the freshmen getting run at WR and TE is a good point on the slow down. I think that’s a factor, but not the main one.

3) Indeed, we have scored a lot, but we have also left a lot of the table. There have been entire portions of games in which the O has stalled (WMU tail end of first Dungey stretch and TD stretch, second quarters in general have been low producing for us, and then Clemson). I’m not saying Lynch is to blame for not being good. I’m saying the offense isn’t running as soundly as it should and I think the transition from Lewis to Lynch has something to do with it.

 

[baggerbob]

Having a solid running back who can move the pile, and break a few tackles will help. After Pitt we get the bye week, and a chance to get Howard closer to game speed. Dino said he would like to give someone 20-25 carries a game. Needs to be Howard.

 

[dollarbill44]

Like Dino said, he could have done one of two things. He picked one and the chips fell where they did. That’s going to happen in sports and life. With hindsight, I think he knows what he left on the table by not picking the other option.

You're assuming that one option would work if the other didn't. I don't think Dino knows what he left on the table because there is no guarantee option 2 would have worked either. If there was better execution, we might be talking about what a great decision he made.

 

[TheCusian]

To an extent, this is true. They were co-OCs, but let’s be real on this. Lewis was the innovator, the mad scientist, and the spark on the sideline for the offense. Lynch was the manager of the game. You can tell in the play calling. Can we be successful with Lynch? Absolutely. Will we be more consistent? Maybe. Is our ceiling lower? I think so. I also believe better talent is currently masking playcalling that has found very little rhythm for the style of play this offense requires to work. There’s a reason the offense has stalled during large periods of every game. I believe that is also the window into why the offense tends to stall when TD gets in there as well.

Is any of this verifiable? Do we know this for sure?

Also, the offense stalled during large portions of the game the last two seasons.