Clemson and Penn State met today in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. When I told my wife what bowl game we were playing in she said “What the hell is that?” and I laughed hard. How far we have fallen. Both teams had high hopes at the beginning of the season, but things just […]
Clemson and Penn State met today in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. When I told my wife what bowl game we were playing in she said “What the hell is that?” and I laughed hard. How far we have fallen. Both teams had high hopes at the beginning of the season, but things just didn’t go well for either. The Nittany Lions were strongly favored in this game and, as expected, the game turned out to be mostly a defensive battle. The PSU offense came alive in the 2nd half and pulled away from the Tigers to get a 22-10 win. The Tiger offense was mostly MIA today.
Clemson got the ball first but went 3 & out when Tyler Brown dropped what should have been an easy catch in the flat on 3rd down. To compound the error, the Tigers went with a fake punt from their 32 and it wasn’t even close. It looked like the receiver didn’t even know that a fake had been called. The Tiger defense, down several starters, held their ground and forced PSU to settle for a FG at 8:32 in the first quarter.
The Tigers responded with another 3 & out as Adam Randall was dragged down a yard short on 3rd & 2. On the Nittany Lion drive, the Tiger defense was aided by a holding call that negated a 30-yard catch. PSU ended up punting and Clemson took over at their 13. At this point in the game, PSU’s run game was having a lot of success against the Tiger defense, which wasn’t surprising given the multiple starting defensive linemen like Peter Woods and T.J. Parker who declined to play in the game as they prepared to head to the NFL. The quarter ended with PSU up 3-0.
The Clemson offense got off to a better start on their next drive, but then started dropping passes left and right. After a 27-yard punt, PSU took over at their 36. Clemson’s defense held the Nittany Lions again, forcing a turnover on downs at the Tiger 46.
The Tiger offense continued their inept play and the possession ended when Cade Klubnik took a completely unnecessary 15 -yard sack instead of throwing the ball away. It’s really surprising how much he has regressed this year. The Tiger defense continued to play well and forced another Nittany Lion punt that gave the Tigers the ball at their 22.
The next Tiger drive started well with a 10-yard jet sweep by Brown and a few plays later he caught a 6-yard pass to move the chains. The drive continued with a 42-yard pass to T.J. Moore on a Klubnik scramble. The Tigers had the ball at the PSU 15. But, they returned to their inept ways and got nowhere after that. They even missed the short FG attempt. At this point I had pretty much decided that the Garrett Riley experiment was a failure. I can’t say I know why, but clearly Clemson’s offense has not performed anywhere near as well as it should have.
The next Tiger drive seemed to start in the same slow way but a 3rd & 10 catch for 13 yards by Moore followed by a 13-yard scramble by Klubnik seemed to get the blood flowing. Gideon Davidson also produced some nice runs on the drive and had a nice catch and run to get the Tigers into FG range. Nolan Hauser sent the ball right down the middle to tie the game 3-3 with under a minute left in the half. PSU got a good drive going, working the sidelines. They ended up hitting a 49-yard FG as time expired. At halftime, PSU led 6-3.
The Nittany Lions came out running the ball in the 2nd half. They drove down to the Tiger 29 and went for it on 4th & 4 but couldn’t connect on a screen pass. Clemson also came out running and moved the chains. Then they tried throwing the ball and if not for a pass interference penalty, the drive would have ended there. PSU’s pass rush was putting a lot of pressure on Klubnik. They ended up having to punt anyway because the Tiger passing game was completely ineffective.
PSU continued with the run game but successfully mixed in some effective passes to drive down into Clemson territory. The Tiger defense forced them to settle for a 43-yard FG to make it 9-3 at the start of the 4th quarter. Randall had a nice 31-yard return on the kickoff. But the possession was, again, a 3 & out dud.
PSU scored a TD on their next possession with a 73-yard pass that saw two Tiger defenders miss the tackle at the point of the catch at the PSU 44. Clemson’s offense finally came alive and drove down the field to score on a 1-yard run by Randall. With 8:47 left, the Nittany Lions led 15-10.
PSU got their passing game going on their next drive and drove down the field to score. On the TD, the Tiger defense completely whiffed on the read of a TE lined up as an eligible tackle. Clemson’s offense showed signs of life, moving out past midfield but then they froze up and fell apart.
This game seemed like the appropriate ending for this season. The offense was anemic while the defense was mostly effective but still had some weaknesses in the tackling department. Dabo has some big decisions to make. Moving on from Riley seems to be a no-brainer. Three years in and the offense is no better than it was when he arrived. The defense had some warts this year, but I’m willing to give Tom Allen time to build the defense the way he wants it. What would you like to see the Tigers do in the offseason? Let’s discuss it below. Thanks for stopping by and we hope to see you here next year.
Category: General Sports
