Finding their identity

So much of the frustration Clemson fans have experienced this season stems from what unfolded Sept. 18 in Auburn.

What if Kyle Parker would've made a more accurate throw to Jaron Brown in the end zone in overtime? What if Brown would've made a great catch? What if Matt Skinner hadn't double-clutched the field-goal snap and the game had gone into a second overtime? What if the Tigers, up 17-3 at halftime, would've come out in the second half feeling less satisfied?

A lot of what-ifs in that game, a lot of reason to wonder if the first half of the season might've unfolded differently had they managed to pull it out.

I would think the most frustrating part of that game to Clemson fans is not the two or three plays the Tigers were not able to make in the end, but the false sense of security the Tigers provided about their offensive identity.

Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier have been searching lately, there's no doubt about that.

Exiting an exasperating loss at North Carolina, Swinney said it was a mistake not to feed the ball to Andre Ellington more. The run-pass balance was weighted heavily in favor of the pass in the first half, and maybe there was a desire to prove that young receivers could produce after being elevated to prominent roles.

After last week's 31-7 win over Maryland -- a game in which the Tigers totaled 213 yards -- Swinney said the Tigers probably should've passed more and taken advantage of the downfield opportunities that were available. You got the sense the staff was determined to run the ball after what happened at North Carolina (against the Terps, the Tigers finished with 94 yards rushing on 44 carries).

The offensive identity has been a back-and-forth thing, and that's due in large part to the deficiencies at receiver. When your downfield passing game doesn't strike much fear in people, you're going to run into problems.

But when you go back to Auburn and recall the first drive of the season, there was no doubt as to what this offense's identity would be. The Tigers went 76 yards in 12 plays, running the ball 10 times.

Late in the third quarter, after Auburn went up 24-17 and all the momentum in Jordan-Hare Stadium was on the host's side, the Tigers went back to the running game. They drove 77 yards in eight plays for the game-tying touchdown.

Clemson finished with 187 rushing yards that night with six carries of 10 yards or more. In the three games since, the Tigers have averaged 115 yards a game while totaling seven carries of 10 yards or more.

(Auburn, by the way, hasn't been very good at defense this season. But it should be pointed out that Auburn ranks 15th nationally in rush defense, giving up a shade over 100 yards per game on the ground.)

Maryland did some funky things on defense to stop the run. They came from all angles, blitzing on running plays to hold the Tigers to 2.13 yards per carry.

North Carolina didn't do funky things on defense. And even though Ellington certainly should've gotten the ball more in that game, 91 yards on 27 carries wasn't exactly a prolific output for the Tigers.

Miami didn't do many funky things on defense. And even though Clemson's 162 rushing yards on 40 carries was respectable against the Hurricanes' defensive front, take away a 71-yard run by Ellington and it's 91 yards on 39 carries. And when it mattered most, the Tigers couldn't get 1 yard on third and fourth down halfway through the fourth quarter with the ball deep in Miami territory.

This is the point of the 2009 season where the running game took off. Through six games last season, the Tigers were averaging 145.2 yards on the ground. They averaged 189 over the final eight games, including a 333-yard output against Georgia Tech in the ACC title game.

Before this season, offensive lineman Chris Hairston talked about the offensive philosophy being more blue-collar, more grind-it-out, more leaning on a veteran offensive line that got better as the season wore on last year.

What we've seen from the offensive line thus far has been good, but not great. The line needs to be better than what it was Saturday against Maryland.

Maybe Swinney and Napier have determined that they need to pass to set up the run. Maybe they've determined that they've become too predictable when they do run.

Whatever the problem over the last two weeks, and whatever the solution, this team needs to get back to the identity it was so bound and determined to establish that night in Auburn.

In The Post and Courier, both Swinney and Napier allude to more downfield stuff.

"We gotta cut it loose," Napier said. "We are going to try to be balanced. We are going to attack people.

"The main thing I'm seeing across the board is we have to throw and catch the football better … I think we called 44 runs in a game (vs. Maryland) where the run wasn't great, so that tells you a little bit about what we think."

"We need to open it up more," Swinney said. "We are good enough. We can do it. We'll be fine. "Maryland was obviously over-committed to (stopping the run). They did a good job of it. The frustrating thing is we had six drops, including two touchdowns."

Two years after Swinney said all this program needed was an oil change, Greg Wallace said it's not a jalopy or a Porsche. It's somewhere in between.

In The Macon Telegraph, a look back at the ACC title game and an ending the Tigers are still trying to forget.

But with 1:20 remaining in last December’s ACC championship game in Tampa, Fla., the alternate reality the Tigers had braced for but weren’t expecting to see happened. And instead of them celebrating with their fans inside of Raymond James Stadium, they were forced to look on in disbelief as a party began for those wearing white and gold.

It was a celebration Clemson fans had to witness all the way back up Interstate 75, a celebration that didn’t end until they veered off the heavily-traveled highway and back toward their South Carolina homes.

But despite the misery the close, emotional loss caused, Swinney, months later, said he was glad his team had the experience and that he couldn’t wait to see how it would motivate his players this fall.

“I don’t think there’s any question that our team is at a different place mentally right now,” the Clemson head coach said in July during the ACC Kickoff in Greensboro, N.C. “Those guys have been there, and they’ve walked off the field with oranges being thrown and they’ve had to pick themselves up."

In today's sign that the apocalypse is upon us, Titans coach Jeff Fisher says he was asked to call timeouts late in a game so the network could get in its commercial quota.

Disgusting.

And we'll close with a revelation, courtesy of Doc Saturday, that Marvin Austin was getting his Run DMC on at a rap concert.



LW