Clemson must iron out wrinkles this week to top Louisville

Four games into the season Clemson is undefeated, just as everyone expected. In order to maintain a perfect record, the fifth-ranked Tigers will have to clean up their play before facing No. 3 Louisville Saturday night.

After slow starts against Auburn and Troy, Deshaun Watson and the passing attack looked reminiscent of the record-setting unit from 2015 against S.C. State and for much of the game against Georgia Tech. But Wayne Gallman and the running game have yet to get going.

This season, Clemson’s averaging less than 160 yards per game on the ground, about 63 yards less than it averaged last year.

Gallman averaged nearly 110 yards per game in 2015, but is currently at 64. His yards per carry number has dropped from 5.4 to 4.1.

“We’ve just got to keep hammering away,” co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “Offensive line wise, we’ve got two new starters in there. They’ve got to build that chemistry. The run game is the toughest to get established. With each front, if a guy moves six inches it’s a different call.”

While the Tigers are struggling to get a push up front, the problems aren’t all on the offensive line. Elliott said he believes a lack of early success may be causing Gallman and the other running backs to press.

“We’ve got to be a little bit more disciplined, and we’ve got to understand we sometimes fall in love with the home run, but we’ve got to get the base hits,” he said. “You’ve got to be a level swinger if you want to be a great hitter. We’ve got to be comfortable taking the base hits, and then eventually things will start popping for the big plays.”

Even though Watson appears to be in sync with his receivers, communication breakdowns were apparent on a couple of plays Thursday night at Georgia Tech.

Watson’s favorite target, Mike Williams, ran a different route than Watson was expecting in the second quarter and Watson was picked off. Earlier, the two weren’t on the same page and didn’t connect on a key third down.

Clemson also allowed pressure on Watson at inopportune times and committed 10 penalties for 80 yards.

“We had a couple of offsides that were critical. We had two other potential touchdowns where we had protection issues,” coach Dabo Swinney said. “But it’s nothing that’s not correctable. Nothing major at all.”

That said, Clemson still dominated Georgia Tech on a short week, outgaining the Yellow Jackets 442 to 124 yards. But the margin of error on offense will be much lower this week with the Tigers defense facing Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson and Louisville’s host of playmakers.

All of the preseason talk in the ACC was about Florida State and Clemson, but the Cardinals have opened eyes with their play, most notably a 63-20 win over Florida State.

“When I saw that score, yeah I was surprised,” Clemson senior linebacker Ben Boulware said. “I think me and everybody else in the world was just as surprised.”

The winner of Saturday’s game will be the favorite to win the ACC and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. Clemson’s offense will need to fix some simple mistakes for the Tigers to jump into the driver’s seat.

This story was originally published September 25, 2016 at 12:47 AM with the headline "Clemson must iron out wrinkles this week to top Louisville."