Quarterback Deshaun Watson is hoping this one will also be a growth experience.
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That Clemson offense scored 38.5 points per game last season, with some of the main players still in place this year.
When Venables heard Auburn may use the wing-T, he immediately took to the internet searching for a way to stop the old-school offense.
But the Tigers from the SEC came out with fight, and you could tell early on that we were going to have ourselves quite the ballgame. He never gave any of the guys enough time to get settled into the game, and every time it felt like a guy was finding the slightest groove, Malzahn quickly yanked him. Malzahn said that strategy may continue; it was something he knew the Tigers would do heading into the game.
-Auburn’s defense was pretty good.
Freshman defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence made seven tackles, including a sack, in the first action of his career. “They hang their hat on running it and the first thing you have to be able to do is handle all the shifts and all the motions they give you”. If the Clemson star struggles, takes a step back or falls in the draft, perhaps this is the first step toward the Giants considering taking him to groom as the long-term quarterback solution in NY.
“There are a lot of unknowns”, Swinney said. “Holding those guys to 19 points I thought was really unbelievable”.
“Offensively, obviously in the first half was a big struggle”, was the statement made by Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn about the Tigers’ inability to find the end zone in the first half. “In the second half we started moving the football”.
Venables prepared for an offense that he hadn’t seen in his time as a defensive coordinator. He was targeted 14 times, 10 times more than anyone else on the team, and was a matchup nightmare for Auburn.
AUBURN: Auburn’s offensive problems continued from last season, with three quarterbacks attempting passes on the first six plays.
Williams feels he still needs to work on “everything” going into Clemson’s second game against Troy, but his teammates and coaches were impressed with his play. The offense couldn’t ever get in a rhythm, and it took almost three and three-fourths of the game to lead a touchdown-scoring drive. Auburn has produced eight 1,000-yard rushers since 2010, most among FBS teams.
2Q: 7:34, Clemson’s W. Gallman scores a touchdown on a 1-yard run. Watson, instead, passed for 248 yards.
Before the game was even over, Clemson-Auburn had a very similar feel to Clemson-Louisville from a year ago.
Clemson faced a critical third-and-8 at its own 37 with under two minutes left when Watson connected with Mike Williams for a 20-yard gain on a back-shoulder throw. Auburn would get the ball back again, but would still be down, 13-3 at the end of the third quarter. Clemson then missed the PAT to lead 19-6.
White hit passes of eight yards to Stanton Truitt, 16 to Tony Stevens and 21 to Marcus Davis to move to the Clemson 40-yard line.
Worth Noting, Part 1: Including Chandler Cox and Johnson, five different Tigers lined up at quarterback for the home team. By one estimate, Malzahn switched quarterbacks roughly 30 times in the loss.
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Sometimes all you can ask for is a chance, and that’s exactly what the Auburn Tigers had in the last few seconds of their loss to No. 2 Clemson on Saturday night.
