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Saturday, October 21, 2006

Clemson Dances on Tech's Ball

Notes from the Clemson / Georgia Tech game: Purple on purple for the first time since 1939…certainly a statement…certainly despised by ESPN.com’s Uni-Watch columnist Paul Lucas. Paul likes the Cardinals’ pitcher’s stripes stirrups, as do I. ESPN seemed to be in on the uniforms…earlier GT’s radio play by play announcer Wes talked about the Tigers wearing purple pants and orange shirts in the warmups. At the opening ESPN’s Mike Patrick retells the story of Howard’s Rock - and the story is retold later in the first quarter as the AFLAC trivia question.

Penalties came early and often…Clemson seems to have shaken the penalty bug after jumping offsides three times in the first quarter…including on the 42 yard field goal try. Tech’s penalties continue throughout the game…two holding calls in the first half, and offsides on the bad Clemson punt, which allowed for a rekick. Then a personal foul in the 4th quarter didn’t help. The refs blew the interference call on the punt play.

ESPN has made such a big deal about Clemson shutting down Calvin Johnson, but fail to make the connection with Reggie Ball having such a bad game, mostly due to being so banged up. They also failed to remember the 15 yard interference play on the first play from scrimmage. This would be the week SI features Johnson in an “unstoppable” article…as well as the Austin Murphy Heisman article.

Ball had the big game on the road at Virginia Tech, but has laid an egg against Clemson. Nice that Todd Blackledge calls Reggie out for throwing off his back foot, throwing backing away, for not throwing to Johnson when he was wide open. When he finally throws to Johnson, Ball threw behind him. I'm not the only Tech fan that won’t miss him next year. Mercifully Gailey replaced him at the end of the game.

Davis has run well despite obvious pain from his shoulder injury. Had he not been hurt he might’ve gone all the way on the two long runs that he has broken so far. His play is finally winning me over after a year and a half. Davis is especially nimble at picking his way through the line of scrimmage. Tech needs to get lots of helmets on him to wear him down. Up 24 - 7 he broke off another long one and got thrown down on his shoulder, and stayed in the game. The way Tech's offense is struggling, it might be time to rest him. Perhaps there's a little Herschel in him, though Walker would never show up wearing a number one jersey.

Clemson has had lots of injuries, but Tech failed to take advantage.

Tech’s defense hasn’t played that bad, but they’re getting more and more tired. There have been a few missed tackles, including on the early TD run. Nice early INT, but had the Tech defender dropped the fourth down pass, Tech would’ve picked up several yards…not that it mattered. They have kept good pressure on the QB, but it was only a matter of time before Clemson was able to break off a big play. Then two more missed tackles, turning the short pass into a 50 yard TD. Afterwards you could see the fatigue and defeat on the GT defender’s faces, and Clemson quickly scored again.

How a D1 kicker can miss a 36 yard field goal, be 4 – 9 for the year, and still have his job. For a few minutes Bell's FG miss looked like it might loom large. Then he almost flubbed the PAT in a similar fashion. At least the punter is having a good night…a graduate of my high school in Macon.

Tech came out passing in the second half, with little improvement. They often went without a running back in the backfield. Down ten nothing they should’ve continued to mix the passing with the running…they still should keep a back in for an occasional run when down 17 – 0. When 89 breaks open long, he lets up…Ball didn’t overthrow him…the receiver just didn’t give his all. At least he redeemed himself with the nice TD catch. The DB tried to knock the ball straight down, but swung and missed…giving James Johnson the second chance.

Hopefully Tech will be able to rebound next week against Miami…certainly not an automatic win. Hopefully the beat up Ball will be able to rebound, and not go into a funk. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out for both teams…will Clemson be able to fight off BC to win the division, and will GT be able to win out on their side.

NOTE: Albert Pujols’ goatee looks like it was colored on with a Sharpee.

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