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Rex Brown

Clemson's Cullen Harper (10) is sacked by Georgia Tech's Philip Wheeler and Darryl Richard during a game last season at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

CLEMSON — It looked almost too easy. On the first 8 plays of Monday’s scrimmage at Clemson’s Death Valley, the Tiger offense manhandled the defense.

Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper completed passes of 12, 16, 17 and 31 yards as the offense scored on the 31-yard pass from Harper to wide receiver Aaron Kelly. Harper barley felt any pressure at all from the defensive front.

For a little while it looked as if the offensive line, which had struggled at times this spring, had turned the corner. But that was before the coaching staff decided to mix things up.

“Today we opened up with five guys, and we drove all the way down the field and scored,” Clemson center Thomas Austin said.

But the offense did little scoring after that. For the most part, the defense dominated the 90-minute scrimmage, which was made up after Saturday’s cancellation due to inclement weather.

Most of the problems offensively Monday came after Clemson coach Tommy Bowden pulled most of his starters on both sides of the ball. Running back C.J. Spiller did not play again after the second drive of the day, while Harper, Kelly and Tyler Grisham played sparingly after that.

Bowden said he used the scrimmage as an opportunity to test his team’s depth both offensively and defensively.

“We wanted to see if other guys could step up if we got an injury,” he said. “What kind of team are we with key guys missing? It looks like it affected us a lot more on offense than it did on defense.”

It especially affected the offensive line, which struggled to give the quarterbacks any time to throw the ball, and seldom opened up holes for the running backs.

“When you start mixing guys up, some of the continuity breaks down a little bit… there are different faces in there and different guys playing different positions so it is kind of hard to get that rhythm going,” Austin said.

What the rising junior said the team found out Monday was that it still has a long way to go to become that cohesive unit it needs to be in order for the Tigers to win an ACC Championship.

“Luckily, we have a couple of months before we have to play Alabama,” Austin said.

At one point in the scrimmage, the young line allowed second-string quarterback Willy Korn to be sacked three times in four plays.

Overall, the defense sacked Korn five times, though keep in mind quarterbacks can’t be touched in practice, thus all sacks were recorded by just touching the passer.

“I wasn’t expecting a lot of continuity simply because we were changing a lot of guys, but I would have liked to have seen more of what we had,” Bowden said of his offensive line’s production.

Bowden isn’t totally down on the line. He thinks some of the issues might just be technique or missed assignments, especially considering freshmen like David Smith, Mason Cloy, Wilson Norris and Landon Walker are working with the first and second teams this spring.

“Those are things we can correct,” Bowden said.

Though the defense held the upper hand in the scrimmage, the offense did have its moments. Harper found freshman Marquan Jones for a 15-yard touchdown pass, as did third-team quarterback Michael Wade with a 24-yard score.

Jones also had a 50-yard completion from Korn, in which he caught the ball on a sideline rout and then used his speed to break off a long catch-and-run. He finished the afternoon with 7 catches for 117 yards.

“Once we get him locked into a location and he gets consistent reps, I think he is going to be able to help us this year,” Bowden said.

The defense recorded three interceptions from Kourtnei Brown, Chris Chancellor and Coty Sensabaugh with Brown’s interception coming after Da’Quan Bowers deflected a Korn pass at the line of scrimmage.

Clemson will practice again Wednesday before concluding the spring with the annual Orange & White Game this Saturday (1 p.m.) in Death Valley.