Half full: The team is 9-2, won the division. Can still win the state, the ACC, and a bowl game. That is a whole lot better than anyone expected. In fact, even if they don't win another it is better than most of us expected.

Half empty: That was a pitiful display of guys dressed up in Clemson costumes getting whipped up and down the field by a football team. If they do that in the remaining games, they will easily lose every one of them. The team has been regressing over the last month. Basically everyone was horrible except Hopkins, Zimmerman, and Catanzaro.

Totally unacceptable display of crap.

Well we pulled out a win, and by 24 points no less. What a turn around. Early on it looked like the game that got TB fired.

Continue reading this post »

Most people were obviously willing to give Swinney a pass when he took over in mid-year 2008.  And then another year’s grace period was acceptable, since it was his first full year of being in control. 

Now we have reached the end of season 2.  Without Spiller to save the butts of an inept offense through his superhuman athletic ability, we are 6-6.  Two of those wins came against teams that hardly count as opponents, and the rest were due mostly to the play of the defense.

The season’s signature victory is NC State.  We lost convincingly, again, to the chickens, for the first time in 40 years.

Continue reading this post »

Everyone likes to bash on Swinney and the coaching staff.  And no doubt they are to blame for many of the problems with the team this season (and in previous seasons.) 

But what about the players?  What is their accountability?  It seems we always assume that if the coaches had just done this or that, used this scheme or made that call instead, that games would have been won. 

Unfortunately the players are not inanimate chess pieces that always perform exactly as told by the person directing them.

Continue reading this post »

Well I took a week off from commentary and what did it get me? 

Another crapfest. 

This was a reprise of the UNC game.  The team really stunk it up today, and it looked like they spent Friday night out at a Hahvad Bah getting wasted, because they were lackluster, limp, and lifeless.

I'm not sure why, because with the gift from NC St on Thursday, they should have had every reason to come out fired up and take charge of the game.

Instead it looked like a blast from the not-so-distant past, when Bowden's team's repeatedly pulled this sort of crap. 

This was one of those "no reason to lose this game" kind of games that we nonetheless found a way to lose.

Continue reading this post »

More good than bad or ugly this week, as the Tigers pull out a much needed win by 24 points!  (Plus, some redemption for stinking it up against the Twerps recently.)

This was not a perfect game, but it was a victory by a significant margin over a team that we should easily beat. 

Continue reading this post »

Well...

It all seems ugly after yet another craptastic performance like that. 

But actually there were a few positives (not enough to overcome the negatives however.)

Continue reading this post »

Except it wasn't that funny.  That was a piss poor performance from the Tigers.

Continue reading this post »

It started with a complete domination, the likes of which I have not seen in some time.  Clemson, yes you heard right, Clemson, came out and blew the other team off the ball.

Sure, we have beaten up on the Sisters of the Poor from time to time, but this was a quality team and we absolutely owned them in the first half in every facet of the game.

But then...something we've seen before, once or twice...

It happened.  The inevitable 3rd quarter collapse, where, no matter how much we were crushing the opposition,  we essentially quit in the 3rd quarter and let them entirely back into the game.  Of course, it might not always be the 3rd quarter.  Sometimes we spot the opposition a quarter of play in the beginning.

Their morale was crushed, the stadium was silenced.  They went in at halftime a beaten team.  So we came out in the 3rd, and did we continue to stomp them while they were down?  Did we blow them out for another 24 points?No, we did absolutely nothing for a full quarter.  It was as if a different team put on the jerseys and just showed up for 15 minutes.

The wrap up tackles and big hits turned into arm grabs and misses.  The DL couldn't even get close enough to their QB to read his jersey.  The push from the OL was transformed into a push in the wrong direction.  We quit playing the same football, for some reason.  Maybe Auburn "made adjustments."  Do we have to wait for 24 unanswered points before we do?!?!?

But to our players' credit, they fought back in the 4th quarter.  Kyle Parker unbelievably was able to battle on, despite being crushed by an illegal spearing helmet to the back.  They battled back and took it to OT.  This in itself was a remarkable feat.  Many other Clemson teams would have gone on to lose by 30 points.

And there, even with several chances to win, there had to be the inevitable screwups. Jiggle the ball before the snap, and take the tying FG off the board.  Miss the ensuing FG.  Game over.

This game should never ever have been in OT.  We should have put it away in the 3rd quarter.  Instead we gave it away.

The positives were:

• Parker can throw, and he is a hero for toughing out this game.  He did his job.  No picks or fumbles or stupid run backward sacks.
• Ellington can seriously run.  He should be getting the carries until Harper stops playing flag football.
• Our defense is capable of getting pressure, and they are capable of tackling.
• Harper can catch a pass, and so can Dwayne Allen.
• The OC can come up with some good play calls.

The negatives were:

• Harper runs sideways and will not use his power nearly enough.  That is about as politely as I can put it.
• We for some reason abandon schemes that seem to be unstoppable.  When we are winning with power football, suddenly we go to an empty set and throw to WRs who can't catch simple passes.
• Our receivers drop too many easy balls that are in their hands.
• We stop playing for a quarter and expect beat a team?  Or maybe it's because they "made adjustments."  OK, why the hell can't we make adjustments.
• We somehow found a way to lose a game that should have been a 30-point victory.

This guy is something special.  He is capable of things beyond the ability of regular players.

Continue reading this post »