What Virginia saw in Clemson’s defense that Ohio State could try to exploit
Virginia’s offense wasn’t exactly running up and down the field against Clemson’s defense in the ACC Championship game, but the Cavaliers did have more success than any opponent has all season against the Tigers.
Virginia scored the second-most points against Clemson all year with 17 and became the first opponent to top the 300-yard mark against the Tigers, finishing with 387. Again, not exactly numbers to write home about, but when you consider what Clemson was allowing entering the game (10 ppg and 233 ypg) they are impressive.
So what did the Cavaliers see on film that allowed them to have some success, particularly early, against Clemson’s defense led by defensive coordinator Brent Venables?
“We knew their safeties weren’t big cover guys,” Virginia senior wideout Hasise Dubois said. “They were just more so good against the run. We tried to get anybody on them. We tried to just make them play man-to-man.”
That strategy worked early on.
Virginia’s first two drives went 63 yards in six plays and 78 yards in 12 plays, with the second ending in a touchdown after Dubois beat Tigers safety Tanner Muse for a score. The Cavaliers finished with 167 yards of offense in the first quarter. UVA had five pass plays of at least 10 yards in the first quarter, and Clemson safeties were in coverage on four of them.
“Honestly, I feel like we didn’t do anything special,” Duboise said. “They were playing man-to-man in the beginning of the game. We just tried to attack and it worked out.”
Of course that strategy didn’t work the entire game as Clemson made adjustments.
The Tigers shut down Virginia’s offense in the second quarter, helping Clemson pull away for an easy 62-17 victory on its way to a fifth consecutive ACC title.
The Tigers subbed Nolan Turner in for Muse after the first couple of series and mixed in more zone. Virginia had some success with short pass plays as it found some holes in Clemson’s zone, but overall the Tigers did a nice job. UVA quarterback Bryce Perkins finished 27-for-43 passing for 266 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 58 yards.
“We put our guys in some tough positions probably at times. Wanted to take his feet away,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “Watching tape all week you wondered how they didn’t score 50 a game... Those guys that can do both (run and pass) are hard.”
Clemson will face another guy that can run and pass in the Fiesta Bowl in Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
The Heisman finalist has 2,953 passing yards, with 40 touchdowns and one interception so far this season. He has also rushed for 471 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Ohio State, a team that leads the nation in scoring averaging 48.7 points per game, could try to do some similar things schematically as Virginia as far as getting Clemson’s safeties in one-on-one matchups and finding holes in the Tigers’ zone.
“I think Clemson struggled to stop us consistently. We certainly stopped ourselves a couple of times. But we moved the ball probably better than maybe anyone has against them this year,” Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “That doesn’t mean that that’s a moral victory, but I thought our plan was good. I thought our execution for the most part was sound, and then we missed some opportunities.”
