Despite 'Tough' Night Against Georgia, Tony Elliott Says Offensive Issues Correctable

Offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said poor field position and an inability to get into any kind of rhythm severely hampered the Tigers offense in a season opening loss to Georgia.

For the first time since 2011, the Tigers have dropped back-to-back games. 

No. 3 Clemson fell to No. 5 Georgia 10-3 on Saturday night in a defensive slugfest to open the season. The Tigers never could get anything going on the offensive side of the ball, accumulating just 180 yards of total offense.

"It was tough, all the way around," offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. "Especially with seven plays in the first quarter. Think we started both drives inside the 10-yard line. So, good for the defense, man they played their butts off and battled through while we had the backed-up field position."

The offense found itself backed up deep in its own end multiple times to start the game, affecting the ability of quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei and the rest of the Clemson offense to establish any kind of rhythm early on.

"I think just a combination of field position early on, then never were really able to establish a rhythm," Elliott said. "Then you're not in rhythm, then you're just trying to figure out the best play calls to get yourself into trying and establish that rhythm."

The Tigers' running backs were held to just 24 yards rushing and Uiagalelei was under constant pressure all night long, as the Georgia defense totaled seven sacks.

"You gotta tip your hat to those guys," Elliott said. "They played hard. You know, I thought they did a couple of things early on, changed up and broke some tendencies. They're going to be up there with some of the top defenses again. They've been top stopping the run for the last two seasons. They got a lot of experience, a lot of depth, and as they continue to play throughout the course of the season, I think the secondary will continue to improve, It's a good defense."

However, while Uiagalelei and the offense struggled mightily, Elliott thinks most of the issues he saw could be fixed with coaching, something he and his quarterback will immediately get to work on in the film room.

"I think that as we as we look at the film, D.J. will easily see opportunities to be able to step up in the pocket," Elliott said. "There's gonna be some situations where he's gonna learn that he can throw the ball away just to get us to the next play, as opposed to try and extend it sometimes. So right now, things look very. very correctable."