How's it going everyone.
Glanced over a few threads on this game and thought I'd post some of my thoughts and opinions to generate some discussion.
I've been watching this line closely all week waiting for it to get to 24, and finally it did exactly that. I share similar thoughts with Wahoo as well, my gut has been telling me Clemson 1st H, Syracuse 2nd H/FG all week.
Aside from the numbers aspect, this is my line of thinking regarding what will transpire tonight.
Do I think Clemson is one of the best teams in the country? Yes. In fact, I believe they're one of the top two teams in the country. Problem is, I can't bump them to the number one slot. Simply put, their offence has been rather lackluster. It seems they've been far less aggressive than in years past. No problem, it's seems to have worked well so far.
This Clemson team arguably got outplayed for the first three quarters at home to Boston College as a 34 point favourite. They were tied 7-7 going into the fourth quarter, all this considering Boston College completely blew multiple red zone opportunities. Regardless, Clemson locked it down and managed to pile it on late.
That game didn't really have any effect on my decision making, just interesting to note again the lack of offensive output from Clemson. Last week is one of the keys to this wager.
Wake Forest managed to keep the game relatively competitive through three quarters. They simply didn't have enough fire power form the back up QB.
The key is when Dabo decided to pull the starters. This Clemson defence has been banged up, more specifically in the secondary. Starters were pulled after they went up 28-0 with 11:30 left in the fourth quarter. At that point, Wake Forest had scored 0 points and gained 200 yards of total offence through 48:30; once the starters came out Wake Forest managed two straight TD drives, putting up 14 points and gaining 136 yards of total offence. They managed to put up 40% of their total offence in less than a quarter against the back ups.
This is the key. I simply don't see many scenarios where Clemson is leading this game by 28+, and if they are, it would be early 4th quarter and the starters would be coming out.
I could be wrong, I have been many times before, but I see a 17-3 1st H, 27-6 at the end of 3 and a 34-20 final.
Again, I could be way off, but based on Dabo's willingness to preserve his starters, and the injuries that have been piling on the defence, I don't really see Clemson blowing this game wide open.
Also going to sprinkle some on the ML.
All comments, discussion and opposing arguments are welcome.