It's the battle of undefeated ranked teams this coming weekend at Clemson Memorial Stadium down in South Carolina, as the No. 5 Clemson Tigers and the No. 14 Syracuse Orange clash in what is essentially a matchup of two of the best ACC teams right now. With that said, it's time to take a look at three predictions we have for Clemson football in Week 8 of the 2022 college football season.
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3. Tigers bottle up Garrett Shrader
Clemson is quite familiar with Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader. After all, the Tigers faced him a year ago when they defeated the Orange on the road, 17-14. Shrader has gotten better since, though, and he is now a bigger threat to the Tigers' defense than he was to them in 2021. Last season, Shrader passed for 1,445 yards and nine touchdowns against four interceptions across 12 games. He's already bested those numbers in just six games this season.
After six appearances in 2022, Shrader has accumulated 1,427 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. The picks will most likely surpass the four he threw in 2021, but his efficiency has taken a big leap, making him one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. In fact, Shrader is third in the conference so far this season with a 171.09 rating. This is why he is going to be a big challenge for Clemson's pass defense which needs to make a strong statement after its struggles last week against Florida State.
Following the conclusion of Clemson's win over the Seminoles, Kirk Herbstreit said on the broadcast (h/t Gavid Olver of The Clemson Insider) that the Tigers still have some things to learn, especially on how the team's defense can keep consistent energy from start to finish regardless of the score.
“I think he (Swinney) saw what you and I saw – he saw a Florida State team that didn’t give up when they were down 20,” Herbstreit, ESPN’s lead college football analyst, said to play-by-play man Chris Fowler. “He said my defense was playing to the scoreboard. I think he was right a little bit there. So you get a win, 34 to 28, and yet you can still walk away and go to the film room and say guys, second half, what’s going on here? So, you can keep your team hungry, you can keep your team motivated to get ready for that next game against Syracuse.
On the season, Clemson football is 85th nationally with 255.2 passing yards allowed per game. In Week 7, the Tigers let Jordan Travis of Florida State pass for 254 passing yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions on 24-of-42 completions.
2. Syracuse football gets limited by Clemson to its fewest rushing yards output this season
While Shrader has shown massive improvement for Syracuse, it might be Orange sophomore running back Sean Tucker that Clemson football is most worried about. For one, Tucker has already torched Clemson's defense before.
In last year's meeting with Clemson football, Tucker's freshman season, he bullied the Tigers' stop unit for 157 rushing yards on 22 carries. He was not able to find the end zone, but he did have a 54-yard run. This season, Tucker is second in the ACC with 107.33 rushing yards per game. He is one of only two players in the league averaging at least 100 yards on the ground per contest.
Moreover, Tucker is averaging 5.19 yards per carry for Syracuse, which is rushing the ball more (55.9 percent rushing play rate). Clemson's defense against the run is still one of the stingiest in the nation, as it is top 10 in both rushing yards allowed and in rushing yards per carry, but it has also just been punched in the mouth by Florida State which racked up over 200 rushing yards with two rushing scores in Week 7. Clemson football has the perfect opportunity to restore its pride and confidence in its rushing defense by taking the wheels off Tucker and the Tigers' ground attack.
1. Clemson football covers the spread
As of this writing, Clemson football is a 13.5-point favorite to take care of business on Saturday against Syracuse. After a “disappointing” win against Florida State, the last thing to expect of the Tigers in this upcoming matchup against the Orange is for them to be lethargic.
You can imagine Dabo Swinney reminding his players for an entire week to not take their collective foot off the pedal even when things are going right for the Tigers. Again, Clemson needs a strong statement and the Tigers can't afford to lose this game, especially since they are playing at home. Clemson is 4-3 against the spread this season and 1-2 ATS at home. Moreover, the Tigers have covered the spread in each of their last three games overall.
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