BarrelORum
Mediocre Poster
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2002
- Messages
- 16,266
Well, I'm a little hungover (as most of you who chatted with me last night in the chat room can attest) BUT, I've had sometime to digest the product on the field last night. Here goes.....
Where do you start? I'll start with everything I saw that sucked last night.
1.) Offensive Playcalling: Absolutely the most disappointing aspect of last nights game. First off, I can understand trying to break in a True Freshman QB slowly with some plays that will build his confidence, BUT there were several aspects of Chan's playcalling that were terrible. I really want Chan to succeed, but he's not giving me much ammo for supporting him with last nights calls.
First, we ran out of a 1 back 3 receiver formation ALL NIGHT LONG! No I-formation, no T formation, no change of looks at all. We could have still run the same basic plays out of multiple formations, but we did not do that. We gave them the same looks ALL NIGHT! We did not use the FB at all as a lead blocker. This was something i thought we'd see from al the talk over preseason.
Second, if I have a True Freshman QB, with speed, my game plan is to allow him to get on the corners of the pocket, so that if he wanted to run, he could. The only running Reggie did was from the QB draw. There were no attempts at running the option. We didn't even roll Reggie out all that much. Had Reggie been able to get on the corners, we would probably be able to sustain more drives. The game plan in the 3rd and 4th quarter should be roll Reggie right, roll Reggie left.
Third, Once Reggie showed that he could play and make plays. Gailey did not open up the playbook. He still kept him on a tight leash. We didn't throw over the middle until we were in desperation time. I realize you want to protect your True Frosh QB, not set him up to make mistakes, and give him confidence, but at the risk of losing the game???
2.) Offensive Play: EXCEPT Reggie Ball (Who probably wished he was playing with his high school teammates than his GT teammates) the entire team was sloppy. I can sum this up in two words:
Turnovers and Penalties. Two things that won't win games.
I thought PJ looked pretty good, but he only ran the toss sweep behind RT how many times??? The run blocking was weak too. We also didn't see the other backs out there all that much, and when we did in the form of our FB, he fumbles the ball. I figured we'd run behind LT all night long. We didn't do that. Don't know why, but the Left side of the line did not dominate like i thought they would.
3.) Defense was on the field entirely TOO long. The offense could not sustain drives to keep them off the field but our defense come the 3rd quarter looked winded. This probably had to do with the elevation factor, but still. It's hard to be critical on the defense because there are just too many factors.
4.) In order to get pressure on the QB we HAD to blitz the LB's all night long. Unfortunately if you do this, you HAVE to play zone defense in the secondary unless you got the best DB's in the world. BYU dinked us to death. They'd hit the guy under the coverage all night long. That;s how you win against the blitz. If we don't blitz, we give him all day in the pocket, if we do blitz, were leaving a man open. That simple. BYU found the open man.
5.) Defensive Backs..... I thought this was a strong point for us? I want Kenny Scott to start alongside Reuben Houston at corners. Houston was the only one of the DB's who played solid. The safeties need to start playing. The 4th and 3 TD pass over Butler was ridiculous. How in the hell do you let that happen? We got toasted all night long. However, some of this was due to the LB's blitzing and leaving BYU wide receivers open underneath the coverage. The Passes over Landry in the 4th, over Butler in the 1st, and over Cox's head I don't know HOW many times, were crushing, and the DB's got to play better.
6.) The LB play was not a strong point. The tackled great but the LB coverage stunk at times. We have to improve our underneath coverage in the zone.
7.) Carol Moore. When you take away 3 Dlineman (one all conference caliber), a Heisman candidate RB, a strong back up RB and A quick LB... this is what happens. Thank you Mrs. Moore. Someone please fire this lady now. She has been an absolute cancer to that school since I was there and having dealt with her personally when I was at Tech, I can tell you right now, she has NO BUSINESS anywhere near a school of higher learning. I blame her and Braine for not having the weapons to compete to our highest level. Thank you very much!
Ok, so about now you might be wondering what, if anything I saw on TV last night was good. Well, actually I found several things that I thought were GREAT!!!
1.) Reggie Ball. People, we finally got a QB. He'll take his licks and he's got much to learn, but if you weren't impressed with him last night I don't know what will impress you. For a guy 3 months removed from Highschool to play in front of 61,000 opposing fans and do the things he did, was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! He had a better game than Joe Ham did his whole freshman year. I think we have a LOT to look forward to and on top of that I think we might actually surprise some people this year if we can get the Offense rolling.
2.) Henderson and Wilkerson. Henderson was almost always in the backfield and was about a half second away on several occassions from sacking BYU's QB before he made a play. Wilkerson suprised the hell out of me. He was in many plays and looked very fast and got after them. Unfortunately, they were so worn out because we have no depth to relieve them. I thought our DE's looked good. And I was pleasantly suprised with Gerris. I think him being moved to DE is a great thing. For two guys that were on the field the most due to necessity, they were awesome!
3.) Phillip Wheeler. Don't know if y'all noticed Wheeler, but he was in a a lot of plays it seemed. That's nice.
4.) The tackling was good. This is usually the #1 thing that stinks during the first game, but our guys tackled well. Even late in the game when they were tired. This often goes by unnoticed, but I thought for being on the field as long as they were, the Defense tackled GREAT. I also thought the defense swarmed pretty well to the ball. It was the coverage that sucked, and that can be fixed.
OVERALL COUCH ANAYLSIS:
Guys, I'm not going to sit here and throw in the towel yet. I don't expect good things next week as i think Auburn will shove it down our throats, wear out our thin DLine, and then pound the hell out of us in the second half. However, i still think this team and these coaches have the capability to beat some good teams this year.
BYU did not impress me that much as far as their physical talents. What did impress me was that they executed flawlessly in the second half. Like Friedgen used to do to superior talented teams, they dinked us to death. I think the Refs actually helped us out a lot too(BYU 15 penalties and a couple of calls that went our way). We turned the ball over 4 times, and 2 of them (Dixon and Curry's) might have cost us the game. We had a great first game from a TRUE FRESHMAN!!! Do you realize how big that is?? He's only going to improve from this game. We have some young talent that saw the field and did well. Our ball control was terrible, and the defense was on the field all night long and with hardly anyone to relieve them. Through it all, we still had opportunities to win this game. I don't expect us to win the next two games, but I hope that you guys at least don't allow the wheels to fall off completely.
I think we have a LOT of potential. Unlike last year where we kept losing our potential. There is no doubt in my mind, we should have beaten BYU. I think if these guys can put it together on offense, we can be a solid team.
Anyway, that's my coaching from the couch. Anyone got an Aspirin?
Where do you start? I'll start with everything I saw that sucked last night.
1.) Offensive Playcalling: Absolutely the most disappointing aspect of last nights game. First off, I can understand trying to break in a True Freshman QB slowly with some plays that will build his confidence, BUT there were several aspects of Chan's playcalling that were terrible. I really want Chan to succeed, but he's not giving me much ammo for supporting him with last nights calls.
First, we ran out of a 1 back 3 receiver formation ALL NIGHT LONG! No I-formation, no T formation, no change of looks at all. We could have still run the same basic plays out of multiple formations, but we did not do that. We gave them the same looks ALL NIGHT! We did not use the FB at all as a lead blocker. This was something i thought we'd see from al the talk over preseason.
Second, if I have a True Freshman QB, with speed, my game plan is to allow him to get on the corners of the pocket, so that if he wanted to run, he could. The only running Reggie did was from the QB draw. There were no attempts at running the option. We didn't even roll Reggie out all that much. Had Reggie been able to get on the corners, we would probably be able to sustain more drives. The game plan in the 3rd and 4th quarter should be roll Reggie right, roll Reggie left.
Third, Once Reggie showed that he could play and make plays. Gailey did not open up the playbook. He still kept him on a tight leash. We didn't throw over the middle until we were in desperation time. I realize you want to protect your True Frosh QB, not set him up to make mistakes, and give him confidence, but at the risk of losing the game???
2.) Offensive Play: EXCEPT Reggie Ball (Who probably wished he was playing with his high school teammates than his GT teammates) the entire team was sloppy. I can sum this up in two words:
Turnovers and Penalties. Two things that won't win games.
I thought PJ looked pretty good, but he only ran the toss sweep behind RT how many times??? The run blocking was weak too. We also didn't see the other backs out there all that much, and when we did in the form of our FB, he fumbles the ball. I figured we'd run behind LT all night long. We didn't do that. Don't know why, but the Left side of the line did not dominate like i thought they would.
3.) Defense was on the field entirely TOO long. The offense could not sustain drives to keep them off the field but our defense come the 3rd quarter looked winded. This probably had to do with the elevation factor, but still. It's hard to be critical on the defense because there are just too many factors.
4.) In order to get pressure on the QB we HAD to blitz the LB's all night long. Unfortunately if you do this, you HAVE to play zone defense in the secondary unless you got the best DB's in the world. BYU dinked us to death. They'd hit the guy under the coverage all night long. That;s how you win against the blitz. If we don't blitz, we give him all day in the pocket, if we do blitz, were leaving a man open. That simple. BYU found the open man.
5.) Defensive Backs..... I thought this was a strong point for us? I want Kenny Scott to start alongside Reuben Houston at corners. Houston was the only one of the DB's who played solid. The safeties need to start playing. The 4th and 3 TD pass over Butler was ridiculous. How in the hell do you let that happen? We got toasted all night long. However, some of this was due to the LB's blitzing and leaving BYU wide receivers open underneath the coverage. The Passes over Landry in the 4th, over Butler in the 1st, and over Cox's head I don't know HOW many times, were crushing, and the DB's got to play better.
6.) The LB play was not a strong point. The tackled great but the LB coverage stunk at times. We have to improve our underneath coverage in the zone.
7.) Carol Moore. When you take away 3 Dlineman (one all conference caliber), a Heisman candidate RB, a strong back up RB and A quick LB... this is what happens. Thank you Mrs. Moore. Someone please fire this lady now. She has been an absolute cancer to that school since I was there and having dealt with her personally when I was at Tech, I can tell you right now, she has NO BUSINESS anywhere near a school of higher learning. I blame her and Braine for not having the weapons to compete to our highest level. Thank you very much!
Ok, so about now you might be wondering what, if anything I saw on TV last night was good. Well, actually I found several things that I thought were GREAT!!!
1.) Reggie Ball. People, we finally got a QB. He'll take his licks and he's got much to learn, but if you weren't impressed with him last night I don't know what will impress you. For a guy 3 months removed from Highschool to play in front of 61,000 opposing fans and do the things he did, was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! He had a better game than Joe Ham did his whole freshman year. I think we have a LOT to look forward to and on top of that I think we might actually surprise some people this year if we can get the Offense rolling.
2.) Henderson and Wilkerson. Henderson was almost always in the backfield and was about a half second away on several occassions from sacking BYU's QB before he made a play. Wilkerson suprised the hell out of me. He was in many plays and looked very fast and got after them. Unfortunately, they were so worn out because we have no depth to relieve them. I thought our DE's looked good. And I was pleasantly suprised with Gerris. I think him being moved to DE is a great thing. For two guys that were on the field the most due to necessity, they were awesome!
3.) Phillip Wheeler. Don't know if y'all noticed Wheeler, but he was in a a lot of plays it seemed. That's nice.
4.) The tackling was good. This is usually the #1 thing that stinks during the first game, but our guys tackled well. Even late in the game when they were tired. This often goes by unnoticed, but I thought for being on the field as long as they were, the Defense tackled GREAT. I also thought the defense swarmed pretty well to the ball. It was the coverage that sucked, and that can be fixed.
OVERALL COUCH ANAYLSIS:
Guys, I'm not going to sit here and throw in the towel yet. I don't expect good things next week as i think Auburn will shove it down our throats, wear out our thin DLine, and then pound the hell out of us in the second half. However, i still think this team and these coaches have the capability to beat some good teams this year.
BYU did not impress me that much as far as their physical talents. What did impress me was that they executed flawlessly in the second half. Like Friedgen used to do to superior talented teams, they dinked us to death. I think the Refs actually helped us out a lot too(BYU 15 penalties and a couple of calls that went our way). We turned the ball over 4 times, and 2 of them (Dixon and Curry's) might have cost us the game. We had a great first game from a TRUE FRESHMAN!!! Do you realize how big that is?? He's only going to improve from this game. We have some young talent that saw the field and did well. Our ball control was terrible, and the defense was on the field all night long and with hardly anyone to relieve them. Through it all, we still had opportunities to win this game. I don't expect us to win the next two games, but I hope that you guys at least don't allow the wheels to fall off completely.
I think we have a LOT of potential. Unlike last year where we kept losing our potential. There is no doubt in my mind, we should have beaten BYU. I think if these guys can put it together on offense, we can be a solid team.
Anyway, that's my coaching from the couch. Anyone got an Aspirin?
