The Clemson Tiger football travels to the Carrier Dome Friday night to take on the Syracuse Orangemen. It will be interesting to see how the time off for these Tigers affects this road trip.
The Tigers are coming off a hard-earned victory over Boston College. While Clemson won the game, injuries took its toll and the week off helped tremendously.
Offensively, the Tigers put up over 200 yards rushing last week against BC and looks to continue that trend against Syracuse. QB DJ Uiagalelei has yet to live up to the preseason hype and didn’t have a particularly good day stats wise. While only completing 13 of 28 passes, DJ was seen on the field after the BC game, going through progressions on what he did wrong in the passing game. He is committed and look for things to get better. He was more involved in the run game which is going to give him a better feel for the game. The Clemson offense with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence went through the same growing pains. The quarterback run is an integral part of the Clemson offense.
Injuries kept several key Clemson players out of the lineup last week and you can bet DJ will be happy to get back a few WRs. Frank Ladson, EJ Williams and Justyn Ross look to be ready to go this week and the Tigers have got to start stretching the field. Something has got to give. Justyn Ross is the ONLY Clemson wide receiver with a touchdown reception. I don’t care who you are, that is not Clemson football. After 5 games, ONE WR has a TD reception. This will change Friday night.
Kobe Pace and Phil Mafah make a good one-two punch in the backfield. Both are hard runners and both had good games against a BC defense that had given up less than a 100 yards a game rushing in their first four games. The Syracuse defense has been abused the last two weeks against FSU and Wake Forest. There is no reason why this Tiger team won’t follow suit.
Defensively, the Tigers should be healthier this week, and could see a surprise player back on the field. Big Demonte Capehart, all 6-5 310 of him, was back at practice this week and will most certainly be a welcome sight on the defensive line. Considering that starters Tyler Davis and Bryan Bresee are out of the lineup, Capehart’s return is big. CBs Andrew Booth and Sheridon Jones played every snap on defense last week. Mario Goodrich and Malcolm Greene were both nicked up last week and both should be ready to go this week.
Syracuse has scored 67 points the last two weeks in two close losses. The problem is, they have given up 73 points. QB Garrett Shrader is the key to this Syracuse offense. He threw for 160 yards against Wake Forest, but ran for 178 yards an a touchdown. RB Sean Tucker tacked on 155 yards with two touchdowns. Syracuse loves to send everybody deep and then run their quarterback out of the pocket, so the Clemson defense needs to be disciplined. Against Florida State, Shrader passed for 151 yards, and ran for 143 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tucker added 104 yards rushing and another touchdown. See a pattern here? For Clemson to come out with a win, the Tiger defense has to keep Shrader from running wild.
Going into this game, Clemson is allowing 102 yards per game on the ground and 203 yards through the air to rank 20th in the country in total defense. The Tiger defense is going to have ti’s hands full with Shrader and Tucker.
On the flip side, Syracuse is only allowing 308 yards per game. Looking a little closer, however, they allowed FSU 378 total yards (including 247 on the ground) and 426 total yards (330 passing) against Wake Forest. Which Syracuse defense is going to show up? Which Clemson team is going to show up.
Last week, the Tigers found a semblance of a running game. This week, DJ Uiagalelei and the offense will find their passing game.
Tigers win. Clemson 37 Syracuse 20.
