Clemson ready to defend Lamar Jackson hurdle
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Just like Westry, if you keep your head up (and your eyes open) no runner should be able to hurdle you.
I hope they lay his *** out a few times exactly like Westry did to that hapless gamecock.
Jackson not easy to hit but the Tigers with their defense have confidence and swagger-(the same with the Louisville Defense)...opened as a 3 Point Underdog...Now according to Bovada Louisville is the 3 Point Road Favorite...going to be a great game...
Clemson is about to taken to the proverbial woodshed.
C
Clemson ain't losing at home. Write it down. Dirty birds get taken to the woodshed.
Louisville should have beaten them there two years ago but didn't. I don't think anyone gets taken to the woodshed in this game..
I guess we will find out tomorrow but my money is on the home team in a close one.
The immortal words of that great 20th century philosopher Mike Tyson: everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.
Louisville is going to be hard to stop but I think for the first time this year you'll see a D Coach do what others have failed to and that is make Jackson the priority on every play.
Boggles my mind to see teams (including us last year) over and over and over again play the read options 50/50 instead of leaning at least 90/10 to playing Jackson instead of the pitch or fake.
Goal number one on every set is to treat him as the ball carrier ever time and let other beat you. I know they have other weapons who are pretty good and I know it's not always east to stop Jackson even when you are keying on him, but I do know for sure that's a better approach than the other way. At least this way you are dictating some of what happens. I yelled at the TV last year for an hour watching our guys continually be in position and then hesitate on a fake handoff or pitch only to watch him run by us for 20 yards and not once did we correct that.
Boggles my mind to see teams (including us last year) over and over and over again play the read options 50/50 instead of leaning at least 90/10 to playing Jackson instead of the pitch or fake.
Goal number one on every set is to treat him as the ball carrier ever time and let other beat you. I know they have other weapons who are pretty good and I know it's not always east to stop Jackson even when you are keying on him, but I do know for sure that's a better approach than the other way. At least this way you are dictating some of what happens. I yelled at the TV last year for an hour watching our guys continually be in position and then hesitate on a fake handoff or pitch only to watch him run by us for 20 yards and not once did we correct that.
Both QB will get hit...both Louisville and Clemson have ferocious pass rushers
The problem with playing to Jackson instead of the fake is two fold...first off he's very good at reading the defenses and if you play him instead of the pitch then he's going to pitch to Brandon Radcliff who is currently leading all of CFB in YPC and is actually having a better statistical season than Christian Mcaffrey. The second problem is, go watch the FSU game...the defense guessed right and he flat out beat the defense even though they were in the right position to stop him because of Lamar's ability to chance direction with very little loss in speed. This is mostly because Lamar's ability is impossible to replicate in practice and the defense has no idea what they're going up against until its time for live action.
The problem in defending ULs offense is that Petrino keeps you off balance and stressed. He stretches you sideline to sideline and then runs it up the gut or he compacts the field, fakes the pitch and burns you deep with Jamari Staples or James Quick or if you leave the safeties back to protect against the deep ball he burns you with quick strikes to the middle of the field with the TEs.
Its just like Marshall's DC described it in the CBS article today...its a minefield when playing Petrino and Lamar...you can avoid it for a while but eventually you're going to step on one.
I addressed and acknowledged both of those problems in my post EKY but my point you have to pick one or the other and go that way hard. Sitting in the middle and trying to play it down the middle is sure death so pick an emphasis and go at it hard. In other words the D ends come at Jackson without hesitation and put him on the ground pitch or no pitch, hand of or no handoff and dictate to him what you want him to do then adjust to that as much as you can to cover the other option. At least that way your getting hits on him and limiting the most dangerous guy on the field.
Everybody is ready BEFORE the storm. How many fighters thought they were ready for Ali or Tyson in their prime? How many defenders were going to make their names shutting down Jordan?