Offense Leans Towards The Pass
This is the facet that scares me the most. Cade Klubik is an experienced quarterback who could dice up FSU’s secondary if he’s given time. If FSU runs the spot dropping zone coverage they’ve been running, the plays that didn’t get made last week against an inept Wake Forest offense will get made by Klubnik.
Now, on the flip side, Klubnik doesn’t play well under pressure and will give the defense opportunities to take the ball away. Clemson does a good job of keeping him upright; they’ve only allowed 12 sacks and 29 QB hurries. That is a sack or QB hurry allowed on 13.7 percent of their pass attempts.
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Clemson gets rid of the ball early with a lot of screens or passes to the running backs out of the backfield. It’s almost like they use those short passes as an extension of the running game.
Clemson throws the ball about 55 percent of the time, and they throw the ball on first down (43 percent of their passes) more than any other down.
FSU will need to tackle well in space when Clemson goes to their bunch formations for the screen game. Klubnik loves to hit slant routes over the middle, and we'll probably see a lot of mesh concepts from their receivers over the middle.