Koenning’s defense gets a bad rap at Clemson

By Marc Hudgens  |   Thursday, November 06, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

 Clemson Tigers
Clemson’s defense has been hammered by media and by fans the past few weeks, with the point of attack being that the unit has allowed opponents to score their winning points late in games. Maryland, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech all scored go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter en route to Tiger losses, so the criticism is based in fact. Boston...
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CommentsComments: 2
 No.1
RazzMaTazz		 02:39 PM
11/06/2008
I agree. Clemson's defense hasn't been lights-out, but it's easily been good enough to win the ACC for the last few years. And Clemson would have won the Atlantic (if not the ACC) a couple times over the last few years if the offense had just put at least 21 points on the board (in regulation) each game. Clemson would have won the ACC and Bowden would still have a job if he had just hired a good OC. Spence was awful.

It's tough for Clemson's defense when Harper is turning over the ball so much. 11 picks in 8 games (including 2 cupcakes). 3 picks against BC alone? It's a miracle that Clemson's defense kept the team in some of those games.

Until the BC game, the defense suffered from injuries to key players (Jackson, Sapp, & Bowers) and youth at LB. But the defense looked great against BC now that everyone is healthy and the young LBs are playing better. Clemson's next coach will have a talented (and now experienced) group to work with.

The defense pressured and mostly contained BC's QB (Crane) all day. A key to the FSU game will be whether or not they can pressure and contain-- or better still sack-- Ponder. He's slippery like Skinner, so it'll be tough to sack him.
 No.2
RazzMaTazz		 09:03 PM
11/09/2008
Well... The defense didn't really contain Ponder. Moreover, for the first time since the Alabama game, they let FSU run all over them.
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