After Michael Clemons roughed the passer on third-and-19 in the first quarter against Buffalo, here is what they said on the Bills radio network:
“That is a terrible penalty on third and 19. He goes high – they are going to call that 10 out of 10 in the NFL,” said color analyst Eric Wood.
“He’s a hot-head, Eric,” said play-by-play man Chris Brown.
I can totally understand why Brown made the “hot-head” comment, considering the defensive end’s tunnel tiff with Bills’ offensive tackle Dion Dawkins a couple of years ago and his fight against Miami that inadvertently bloodied an official.
But you could argue that the roughing the passer hit on Josh Allen had nothing to do with losing his cool.
You could argue it happened because he’s a tightly wound athlete who doesn’t have a ton of flexibility, which is absolutely not his fault. It’s how he’s built. He’s built more like an offensive tackle than a defensive end.
Here is what NFL Network analyst Lance Zeirlein wrote about Clemons when he was coming out of college: “Tight lower body with short upfield strides; segmented movement is tough on the eyes; lack of bend.”
So he’s more of a 3-4 two-gapping end than a 4-3 end, and it was surprising that the old regime picked him to play 4-3 end. Not sure what was going on with that scouting process.
That play against Buffalo was not a temper issue, but more a body control issue.
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