Clemson Breakdown

There is a reason that the Clemson Tigers have won two out of three of the past three national championships and joined Alabama as the premier football programs in college football the last few years.  They were one of the two most complete teams we will see all year and their talent level will only be matched by the Crimson Tide.  It was going to be a good litmus test to see where the Aggies were at in year two under Jimbo Fisher and to be honest, it was really a wakeup call for us.  As I was at the game and up in the third deck of the visiting section, I didn’t get the luxury of my normal viewing positions and have replays, so today will be more of an overview of the game and less analytical for certain plays.

The Bad

We must start here with the passing offense.  The leader of any Jimbo Fisher offense will be the signal caller and to be frank, Kellen Mond put forth one of his worst performances since his freshman year. His 23.8 quarterback rating was his lowest since November of 2017.  His stat line was skewed by the final drive in which he completed several passes and threw the only touchdown on the day.  Overall, his completion percentage was at 57% when he went 24 of 42 for 236 yards.  Like I said, not terrible, but definitely looks better than his actual performance. 

Mond came out and didn’t look comfortable from the start yesterday as his high throws and inaccuracy showed.  He started out with only five of his first 14 passing attempts being completed.  He even looked hesitant to run when the chances were there early and fumbled in a crucial spot in the game when he did decide to run. His first throw of the game was dropped and then his second throw was overthrown to a streaking Cam Buckley that had broken free on a seam route over the middle.  It was going to be a touchdown and would have stretched the defense from the get-go and was a huge missed opportunity.  The Aggies went three and out on the first drive after shooting themselves in the foot and that was a premonition of things to come as it was a long afternoon for the Aggies offense.

When your quarterback is struggling on the road against the defending national champions, it would be nice for one of the veteran receivers to step up and make a play to help his quarterback get on track.  Instead, they dropped several passes that never allowed for Mond to get into a rhythm.  The inability for this receiver corps to get separation and beat man coverage was evident again Saturday afternoon.  Combine that with no real vertical threat that can stretch the defense and it allowed Brent Venables and the Clemson defense to put the clamps down.  Only averaging 2.2 yards per carry didn’t allow for Jimbo to set up his play action schemes. Several times they had three safeties over the top, and they just kept everything in front of them and forced Mond to be accurate on his underneath throws, which he was unable to do. 

The two other factors that jumped out to me was a couple of the intangibles that championship level teams are able to do, but the Aggies were not.  When you’re playing a team that is elite, you have to do the little things right.  The Aggies committed too many penalties yesterday that either extended drives for the Tigers or knocked our drives off track.  The turning point in the game for me was the second quarter, where the Aggies gave up 17 points, only possessed the ball for four minutes, and gained 18 total yards of offense.  In the final drive before half, Trevor Lawrence led the Tigers on a drive of 90+ yards that really broke the back of the Aggie defense.  He was helped out with a bone-headed roughing the passer penalty when Justin Madubuike hit him late and gave up a free 15 yards.  When you are facing an offense as explosive as Clemson’s you cannot afford to help them out and give them extra yardage.  On the offensive side of the ball, a couple of false starts in that second quarter really made some medium range third downs become third and long.  I said in my game preview that the Aggies would need to win the turnover battle by +2, but Kellen Mond coughed up a fumble early and threw an interception late. Senior Roney Elam was able to pick off Trevor Lawrence late in the fourth quarter, but that is all the mistakes the Aggies were able to force.  The second issue is redzone scoring as the Tigers were able to turn four trips in the redzone into three touchdowns and a field goal and the Aggies only managed one touchdown at the end of the game in three trips into the redzone.  When you get down inside the 20s the field condenses so much and you have to be that much sharper on offense.  This lack of execution has plagued the Aggies since last season and needs to be fixed very quickly with still four top 10 opponents on the schedule. We could not afford to make a difficult task harder, and that’s exactly what we did with too many penalties and losing the turnover battle. 

The Good

I would be remised to not mention the solid effort put forth by the Aggie defense.  Holding Clemson to 389 yards (140 yards below their season average from a year ago) was great.  If you would have told me before the game that the Aggies would limit the most explosive offense in college football to just 24 points, their lowest total since their 2017 college football playoff game, I would have definitely signed up for that.  Travis Etienne was dangerous in space, as evidenced by his 52 yards receiving, but he was held in check with 53 yards rushing on 16 carries.  After he was able to get 17+ yards per carry in the opener, the front seven limited him to an average of 3.3 in this one.  The defensive line was able to win the battle at the line of scrimmage more often than not by bringing pressure and making Trevor Lawrence uncomfortable. They seemed to get a little tired later in the game as lots of injuries along the defensive front began to take their toll but overall not a bad effort from Mike Elko and the defense. 

Jashaun Corbin showed some real tough running at the beginning as he was able to keep the offense fairly balanced early in the game.  It was tough sledding, but I thought he and Isaiah Spiller looked pretty impressive with limited carries given the caliber of competition they faced.  Ultimately, their stats don’t reflect their performance as once it was evident that we could not connect on anything more than 15 yards down the field, the Clemson defense was able to stack the box and really sell out and play aggressive. 

Some true freshman and young guys got some great experience in a hostile environment as right guard Kenyon Green held his own on the offensive line.  Safety Demani Richardson was the team’s leading tackler with eight.  Defensive lineman Adarious Jones and Derrick Hunter got some valuable playing time going up against an elite offensive line.  Throw in Andre White at linebacker and Jalen Wydermyer catching his first touchdown in his career and that is five true freshman that played significant snaps against the best team in college football.  Hopefully this will help us build depth and pay dividends later in the year. 

Another positive from my own personal viewpoint was how amazing it was to travel to Death Valley in Clemson.  While walking through campus yesterday, so many Clemson fans were complimenting us on how our fans treated them last year when they visited Kyle Field and were impressed with the number of fans in maroon at the game.  It made me proud to wear the Aggie ring and was a trip worth taking to see their atmosphere.

What’s Next

I was disappointed in the performance of the A&M team yesterday.  When you are taking on the #1 ranked team and defending national champions at their place, you must put forth your best efforts across the board and that did not happen yesterday.  Even with a bad effort, the Aggies played Clemson to a 14-point margin of victory, which was their closest in the last 12 games.  I know Jimbo is not satisfied with the effort just like us fans.  Lots of improvements need to be made quickly as top 10 ranked Auburn will be coming to Kyle Field in two weeks so there is no time to sulk and dwell on the dismal effort this weekend.