Clemson's Dline

@TylerDawgden Being very serious here. Can you hit me with an article that talks about Clemson's front 7 and how it's a strength? Thanks.
— dawgontap (@dawgontap) August 27, 2013

Since what @dawgontap is asking is something I've had rolling around in my head for some time, I thought I'd tackle it.

First, their Dline is their deepest position. They have returning starters Grady Jarrett, Corey Crawford, and Josh Watson on the line. Their fourth starter in the 4-3 upfront is Vic Beasley, who led Clemson in sacks last season as a passing situation specialist. Their defense is predicated on the line disrupting rushing lanes on typical rushing plays. They don't have to dominate our offensive line to be effective. They just have to stretch plays out and make RBs try to bounce outside more than getting into the second level in the middle of the field.

When you add in the three starters at LB, who are their best athletes on defense, I worry that they can get us to play to them, instead of forcing them playing to us. Part of my concern is a lack of faith Bobo might have in making the play calls early to put those seven off balance, in an effort to set up the run, allowing Clemson to create disruptive plays in the backfield.

Yes, I know our offensive line is a potential strength. We should be much better at picking up assignments and with our size advantage, dominating Clemson's line. However, Clemson's LBs and Dline looks a lot like Boise State's. Quick. Plays smart and makes bigger teams do things too vanilla, just because the fancy stuff gets blown up.  They force teams to hurry up after the snap using that speed. That starts with quick linemen and LBs, which Clemson definitely has.

That is why I am worried about their defensive front. Will this happen? Will we lose if this happens? I don't know about either. But he wanted to know why I think their line is a strength.

TD

Ok, so this will be my last downer post.

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