{"id":23444,"date":"2018-11-25T11:48:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T16:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/?p=23444"},"modified":"2018-11-25T11:53:01","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T16:53:01","slug":"how-concerned-should-clemson-be-after-its-defensive-struggles-against-south-carolina-answered-by-mattzemek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/2018\/11\/25\/how-concerned-should-clemson-be-after-its-defensive-struggles-against-south-carolina-answered-by-mattzemek\/","title":{"rendered":"How concerned should Clemson be after its defensive struggles against South Carolina? | answered by @MattZemek"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"23448\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/2018\/11\/25\/how-concerned-should-clemson-be-after-its-defensive-struggles-against-south-carolina-answered-by-mattzemek\/dabo-swinney-credit-19\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1920,1080\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Dabo Swinney credit\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?fit=590%2C332&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-23448\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?resize=300%2C169\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?w=1180 1180w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Dabo-Swinney-credit-1.jpg?w=1770 1770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Give\u00a0<span class=\"username u-dir\" dir=\"ltr\"><a class=\"ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MattZemek\">@MattZemek<\/a>\u00a0a twitter follow and check out his additional mus<\/span><span class=\"username u-dir\" dir=\"ltr\">ings on college football at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/Zemek\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/Zemek<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>QUESTION: How concerned should Clemson be after its defensive struggles against South Carolina?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is really a two-part answer instead of one blanket statement.<\/p>\n<p>The first part: No. Not at all.<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley had been playing well the past month. He and Gamecock receiver Deebo Samuel are very talented players. Clemson played a poor first half but tightened up in the second half. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables was understandably angry. One should fully expect him to get things right against a Pittsburgh Panther passing attack which is not very formidable at all. The ACC Championship Game should not be a tough test for the Tigers. Then they would get four weeks off before a likely playoff semifinal against Notre Dame, which simply doesn&#8217;t have the high-end athleticism of either Oklahoma or Ohio State, two teams which would pose a lot more matchup problems for Clemson.<\/p>\n<p>This leads to the second part of the answer: HELL YES.<\/p>\n<p>This second part of the answer refers to a possible (some would say likely) national championship game against Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Clemson locks down Notre Dame in the semis (assuming, of course, that&#8217;s the matchup), the Crimson Tide and Tua Tagovailoa would present an entirely different level of difficulty in Santa Clara, California. That&#8217;s when Clemson might not have enough answers.<\/p>\n<p>Pitt and Notre Dame? That shouldn&#8217;t be hard to handle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Make sure you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/allsportsdacc\">@AllSportsDACC<\/a>\u00a0and please like our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/All-Sports-Discussion\/184935911533629?fref=ts\">Facebook Page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<br>\n<center>\n\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- Bottom_Post -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:468px;height:60px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1227879969298088\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1445137322\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n<br>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- Horizontal_6 -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:468px;height:60px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1227879969298088\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"4619304738\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n\n\n<\/center>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Give\u00a0@MattZemek\u00a0a twitter follow and check out his additional musings on college football at\u00a0https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/Zemek.\u00a0 QUESTION: How concerned should Clemson be after its defensive struggles against South Carolina? This is really a two-part answer instead of one blanket statement. The first part: No. Not at all. South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley had been playing well the past &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link block-button\" href=\"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/2018\/11\/25\/how-concerned-should-clemson-be-after-its-defensive-struggles-against-south-carolina-answered-by-mattzemek\/\">Continue reading &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc","category-college-football"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Ih8i-668","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23444"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23450,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23444\/revisions\/23450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allsportsdiscussion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}