NC State Preview

Clemson vs. NC State, 11/14, 12:00pm, Carter-Finley Stadium

Tigermax:

I kind of ended up rambled on about this matchup in yesterday's post. It pretty much sums up this way: our excellent defense should blunt their strength in offense and our shaky offense should have no problems scoring against a defense that's well below league-average. On top of that, State has been one of the worst teams in the country at starting field position; if the coaching staff hasn't had nightmares all week about Spiller and Ford in the Clemson return game, well...they just don't care anymore they're already "building for the future". Finally, there's been a lot of worry around the blogosphere about a "let-down" after last week's win. I'm not worried about this at all: we hired the Motivator-in-Chief himself, coach Dabo Swinney (not thinking about Maryland, not thinking about Maryland...).

So why do I feel the same as Admiral Ackbar? Why do I stubbornly rate this game as only a "lean Clemson"? It's a road game, sure, and while Raleigh isn't the friendliest place to play in the ACC it's certainly not Blacksburg or Atlanta or Tallahassee. I can't deny my analysis of any NC State game is, and always will be, colored by those three consecutive inexplicable losses to NC State from 1986-1988. But still, it doesn't add up. NC State is in the throes of a season lost to injury and unreasonable expectation. Will they score on us? Sure. They've still got a talented offense. Is that any excuse for not outscoring them? No way.

Am I basing my fears on a gut feeling? I guess that's the only explanation I can scrape together now--I think Clemson's in for a tight slog on Saturday.

Clemben:

I thought, along with everybody else, that NC State would be legit this year. Russell Wilson is our main concern. If he is having an off day we win going away, but if he gives us his best--mixing in his mobility and hurting us with his legs it will be another close game.

What we forget is that Ponder was limited running the ball last week. When he did he made the Tigers pay but Jimbo wasnt going to do that to his QB, although DeAndre ended it for him anyway. NC State loves to go to the TE down the seam of the defense, especially against Cover 2 sets. I think this could be problematic, coupled with struggling to stop the run and a bigger back.

On offense we need to "keep on, keepin on..."(more pure gold Daboisms--we need to start a collection of these things, to be preserved for future generations). I'd like to take the opportunity to say that the season has turned on the ability of Billy Napier to do his job better. After Maryland, he and Dabo got on the same page and my feeling is Billy took some more ownership with the bye week. We saw more I-formation, more TE involvement, more of a screen game. It helped that KP started executing and WR's started catching the ball...

State's defensive stats have been helped by playing two Div II powderpuffs but I think the game on offense turns on our ability to run the ball. If we have to rely on the passing game and come up with key third down conversions in the air like in the FSU game, its always less of a sure thing. I want to see Spiller rack up some rushing yards to help buoy the all-purpose and the Heisman resume. Look for special teams to help slightly break open a game that feels to close for comfort all the way to the end. Also lets hope we can kick some FG's, let alone extra points...

Clemson 31 State 21

Lets go beat up on some Wolfies!! Go Tigers!!