Freddie: We're confused

Akinji07

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http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/college/clemson-confuses-techs-blockers/nnzQc/?icmp=ajc_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

Though he said Clemson played Georgia Tech the same way as other opponents, center Freddie Burden said the offensive line was often confused by what the Tigers did in Saturday’s 43-24 loss.

The Yellow Jackets rushed for a program-low 71 yards under coach Paul Johnson against a tough Clemson defense.

“They did a good job blitzing us and kind of keeping us out of our game,” Burden said. “We got pretty confused out there. It was obvious.”

In addition to blitzing, Clemson’s defensive linemen would shift right before the snap. The combination proved successful. The Tigers had 11 tackles for loss.

“Things like that, our calls get confused,” Burden said. “It kind of messes up everybody. That’s kind of what’s going on.”

It’s not the first time this season that Burden referenced the line being confused. He said some of the linemen were “cloudy” during a key short-yardage play at Duke a few weeks ago that the Jackets couldn’t convert.

It sounds like everybody read Beej's blueprint of what VT defense does against us and they're all replicating it this year. That's really the only explanation I have for it at this point.
 
And we couldn't adjust. The center is supposed to do that and he had no clue. We're screwed and we don't learn.

To me it sounds like an ongoing problem. The bigger problem is CPJ saying oh they lined up the same way as everyone else or that the OL needs to play better. They need to figure out these defensive change ups before the snap and how to respond to it because if Duke and North Carolina can do it, anybody can do it.
 
Or go hurry up and don't give the D time to shift. Yes it's a quick read, but sheesh.
 
I can't believe that in all the time he's run this offense, CPJ hasn't seen this before. If this were all it takes to blow up the TO, this offense would never have been so successful.
 
I can't believe an OL that returns 4 of 5 starters, has a ton of playing time, is confused? WTF. did paul change the O or something over the offseason? LOL Nope...

what is going on????
 
I can't believe an OL that returns 4 of 5 starters, has a ton of playing time, is confused? WTF. did paul change the O or something over the offseason? LOL Nope...

what is going on????

I've heard locker room issues...but I don't think that rumor comes from anyone in the know, just what the hell else could it be?
 
This year is the first time that I have seen our opponents, be so aggressive in their blitz packages to stop the option. When you have 8 defenders coming at you and we only have 5 to 7 blockers, you are out manned even if everyone makes their block. AGAIN, our offense needs to adapt and CPJ is just too stubborn to do it!!
 
This year is the first time that I have seen our opponents, be so aggressive in their blitz packages to stop the option. When you have 8 defenders coming at you and we only have 5 to 7 blockers, you are out manned even if everyone makes their block. AGAIN, our offense needs to adapt and CPJ is just too stubborn to do it!!

Every pass route we run is a slow developing route and the defense knows this. They know they can blitz everybody and get to the quarterback before our routes develop.
 
Thanks for posting this. I read the same comments after the loss on Saturday and then Paul's conflicting statement that teams aren't doing anything different. To me if your best OL with the experience Freddie has is saying the OL is confused then something big is going on.

I think we all knew going into the season there might be issues with edge blocking with new Abacks and WRs, but the real issue is the total collapse from T to T. I would agree with Freddie's comment that Ds are bringing new looks and schemes and neither Paul or Sewak have made any adjustments to the blocking scheme.

My thought is the biggest change is with Strong Safety. Everybody knows that our WRs run all of their routes outside of the hashes and so a CB only needs to play outside leverage and use the sideline as extra help. Other than a slant route to Stewart I can't remember another route run by a WR that wasn't a post or sideline comeback. Then add to that we don't have a WR that puts fear into any secondary and so you load the box with 8 maybe 9 and it becomes a numbers game much the way Paul typically flips the concept and we play numbers against defenses.

Teams right now are willing to give up the 3 to 4 long pass plays a game to control the 5 to 8 yard space at the line for the other 70+ plays. How many long passes have we hit on the last 4 weeks, 3 maybe 4 so Ds are playing the odds and winning.

My thought is the Guard position is the most important in this offense, and Freddie is our best OL. I would strongly consider moving Marshall into C and sliding Freddie out to take Devine or Bruan's spot.There we times Braun had no idea who to block this week. Until we fix the interior blocking and look at WR routes inside of the hashes expect more of the same.
 
defenses wouldn't shift if, early in the game, JT5 hiked the ball mid-shift and our OL ran them into the ground. would clear that up real quick.
 
Every pass route we run is a slow developing route and the defense knows this. They know they can blitz everybody and get to the quarterback before our routes develop.

JT5 doesn't trust the WRs and we can't block on the edge to enable the ,pitch. Why not blitz?

If I'm CPJ I spend all practice just focusing on the TO. At least get back to being the best TO team in the country.
 
Wow. This is inexplicable. And terrifying as a result. To think that the same basic ööööööö has undone a season game after game without rebuttal is horrifying.

This is the kind of thing I wish CPJ would discuss on the radio show, though I realize that's unlikely.


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Sewak isn't preparing the offensive line, plain and simple. Running is our bread and butter. Short passes, no huddle, and other techniques can help, but they won't move the ball down the field without run blocking.

Norte Dame, Duke, UNC, Clemson - they all showed us identical looks and nothing is changing in the run block.
 
It was Notre Dame that really gave the blueprint, not Virginia Tech. As we have said before on Stingtalk, if they have four down lineman who are coming hard across the line of scrimmage, two inside linebackers shooting gaps, and a DB who pinches in quickly from the outside, then throw in a safety in your backfield and your front five can't block this.

So, you either have to get to the outside quick or you have to throw the ball. We have been dared to destroy teams with passing with a few quick sweeps and QB draws thrown in. We aren't doing it. We can expect everyone to do this until we make them pay for such an aggressive approach to the running/option game. And, if we don't have the talent to make them pay, then we can just lose every week.
 
It sounds like everybody read Beej's blueprint of what VT defense does against us and they're all replicating it this year. That's really the only explanation I have for it at this point.

Clemson's been running the VT 4-3 shift-and-blitz ever since their new DC arrived.

I haven't watched the last two games, but the true "beej blueprint" is much more what ND did than what VT usually does. VT doesn't really present different fronts presnap, they just present an even front with a wide DE to the field and either don't blitz and keep it even, or blitz to odd up the front and confuse the count. ND straight out lined up in something like 3 different base formations, from the first 3 plays of the game, and kept mixing it up all game long.

One of the things Urban Meyer did when he learned from Paul Johnson was to scrap the man blocking schemes and instead try to run a simpler version of it with zone blocking so he could plug and play dumb people into a system without worry they'd be confused.

We may have finally reached our limit. In the grand game of Rock Paper Scissor that is football, we need to pull out Scissors finally. If teams are going to spend all week trying to develop constantly shifting, stunting, orbiting fronts we need to just go run-and-shoot the whole game. And, you know, pass block or whatever.
 
If teams are going to spend all week trying to develop constantly shifting, stunting, orbiting fronts we need to just go run-and-shoot the whole game. And, you know, pass block or whatever.


I'm inclined to agree, but with one major worry: even though JT may the "the best passer CPJ has had since he's been here", he's still not a GREAT passer, and our WR's haven't shown much so far..


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A common sports philosophy is, "Don't let their star athlete beat you." Right now, we only have JT as a proven big play threat. Teams will take their chances with our inexperienced receivers and poor AB blocking. So far it's working well for them, but ND, Duke, and Clemson all have defenses that can execute that strategy well. We'll see on Saturday if another team and another week of experience enables us to turn the tables.
 
ND and Duke played similar defenses with plenty of shifting and stunting. UNC played inside out, which was similar to what ND did but without the shifting. They lined up insides and then ran outside our guys picked it up for about a half before they got tired of running.

Clemson played the run 100%. They gave us the long pass all game long. We just couldn't pass block long enough to make them pay more we did.

I think they need to jumble the line and stop trying to get the best players on the field. We need to field the best line we can. We've got guys who can't play tackle. Fine, don't put that guy there. Let him back up the guards.
 
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