Syracuse Football: Clemson is a juggernaut on offense as well as defense

Syracuse football will next face a top-ranked Clemson crew that is dominant on both sides of the ball.

This coming Saturday afternoon, Syracuse football will make the trip to No. 1 Clemson to take on a Tigers team that boasts an explosive offense and also a stingy defense.

Clemson (5-0), which has captured multiple national championships in recent years and is an annual College Football Playoff participant, ranks among the best squads across the country in numerous offensive and defensive statistical categories.

Per data from NCAA.com, the Tigers are No. 3 nationally in scoring 48.4 points per contest, and they registered a whopping 73 in a demolition of Georgia Tech in their most-recent meeting. By extension, Clemson allows a mere 12.0 points a game, good for No. 5 in the sport.

That doesn’t bode well for a Syracuse football offense that often struggles to put points on the scoreboard, and an Orange defense that gave up more than 500 yards of total offense to Liberty last Saturday afternoon, when the unbeaten Flames beat the ‘Cuse (1-4) on the Hill, 38-21.

Syracuse football will have to deal with a Clemson unit that is prolific on offense as well as defense.

The Tigers junior quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, is among the nation’s best as it pertains to total passing yards accumulated so far in the 2020 campaign. He also has tallied 15 passing touchdowns, against just one interception.

Clemson senior wide receiver Amari Rodgers is a top-15 player at his position as far as receiving yards are concerned, while senior running back Travis Etienne, a top-15 RB in yards gained despite some blow-out wins for the Tigers, is a serious Heisman Trophy contender along with Lawrence.

All in all, Clemson goes for an average of 530.6 yards per affair, including 348.0 passing yards and 182.6 rushing yards, while on defense the Tigers only give up 264.6 total yards a game.

A stanza ago, Clemson fell in the national-title tilt to LSU, but the Tigers this year look every bit a favorite to claim the grand prize. Alabama, though, had a strong showing this past weekend versus highly rated Georgia, and the Big Ten Conference is preparing to get underway.

Syracuse football has had some success against Clemson, and this coming Saturday on the road the Orange will try to shock the sport by knocking off the top-ranked Tigers and thereby snapping their Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season success streak at 34 encounters, which is a league record.