Game observations....

[statelinejacket]

I just got home from the game and all I can say is don't use this game as a barometer for just about anything.

Troy was slow on offense, the quarterback doesn't have a real good arm......rarely, if never, have I seen a offense that throws so many dink passes.

Troy's defense has lots of speed but not much of a pass rush or dicipline. Tech burned Troy 3 times with reverses because no one for the Trojans stayed at home to defend against the prospect. I mean no one was within 15-20 yards of being in position for Troy.....it was laughable but hard to imagine another defense being as irresponsible.

It was the damndest thing that the game was tied going into the 4th quarter. There the Trojans collasped and Tech threw up 3 touchdowns with little resistance to put the game away.

Oh yes, The 'pooch' kickoffs returned, crowd was pissed. Troy uses a goofy looking punt formation and it is surprising that we didn't block a kick, though we came very close.

Reggie's throw that was intercepted in the endzone was terrible. It was suppose to be a lob to C. Johnson but Reggie lined it over there instead. Johnson tried to keep the ball from being intercepted but the defensive back managed to hold on to it. Many fans around me openly ripped Gailey and Nix for not giving the offense the challenge of running the ball into the endzone.

Reggie's play was basically what you expect....lots of draws and bootlegs.....but Tech did put in a few passing plays.....maybe 5?......over the middle.

When Reggie does get it on target the recievers need to catch the ball. Everyone was guilty except for Greg Smith........C. Johnson, J. Johnson, Mike Cox, Chris Dunlap.....all dropped at least one pass. Smith made a great effort with one catch...dragging half the Trojan defense with him before going down.

Running game, offensive line.....I don't see how they can mesh with 80-90 percent of the plays coming out of the shotgun and one of the best blocking running backs in the nation....Mike Cox....on the bench. Tashard Choice needs to attack the holes instead of 'tap dancing' to the line......not my description originally but I heard it in the crowd. Rashaun Grant.....he seems a step slower with the additional weight but that is just my opinion. Jamaal Evans came in and looked good for his brief minutes.

Tyler Evans came in and replaced Pat Clark after Clark let a punt roll.....Evans did a good job.

The defensive backs had their worst game of the year! They literally lost their man on several occasions but only a couple of times was the Troy quarterback able to hit his reciever! Once the reciever fell down at the 2 yardline and the ball fell right beside him.....the DB was at least 2 steps behind. I'll bet Jon Tenuta will be shaking up his personnel this week!

Refs sucked! The personal foul call against either Michael Johnson or Darrel Robertson was ridiculous.....Troy quarterback was hit with the shoulder pad and not the helmet. The second quarter was especially slow because of the refs throwing flags everywhere.

All and all Tech basically wore down Troy. Troy played hard but they have limited ability and how they stayed close to FSU confounds me.

EDIT: Lots of sunshine and loads of pretty girls on campus today. Things sure are looking nice on the Flats......big smile!

 

[golftango18yankeejuliet]

Okay, but I disagree with three things.

"Reggie's play was basically what you expect"

Reggie broke a 28 year old record for rushing yards by a quarterback.

"It was suppose to be a lob to C. Johnson but Reggie lined it over there instead."

It didn't look any different to me than any of the others that we have thrown up for Calvin and it certainly wasn't a line drive.

"Many fans around me openly ripped Gailey and Nix for not giving the offense the challenge of running the ball into the endzone."

Are these some of the same fans who have fussed after several games because we didn't throw it up to Calvin?

 

[statelinejacket]

GolfTango: The pass intercepted didn't look any different to you than any you seen before? Then how was the corner able to make the play without having to leap? I'll lay you 5 to 1 when fans not there see the replay they will see the difference between your and my observations. The pass was not lobbed so that Calvin Johnson could take a leap and make a play on. The defensive back caught the ball near his gut and with Calvin on his back trying to break it up......call it a 'soft' liner if you want, thats what it was. No doubt, Reggie meant to lobbed the ball.....it just didn't turn out that way.

Nix was ripped throughout the game by fans all around me......is that what you preferred to hear? The more harsher fact....This was in an area with season ticket holders so I guess they are regulars at it. Not many fans, including me want to see the shotgun formations used to run the football.

I'm sure Reggie has been near or over 100 yards rushing more than once. I'm surprised the record total was so low to begin with.....

 

[golftango18yankeejuliet]

Stateline -

Lay off the alcohol before and during the games. The ball was thrown up, there was some pushing between Calvin and the corner, the ball came down, and Calvin batted the ball while being pushed away from it by a cornerback who had no idea where the ball was. Another player came across and intercepted the ball.

Please tell me that you knew the ball was tipped and that it wasn't the corner who intercepted it.

 

[statelinejacket]

Stateline -

Lay off the alcohol before and during the games. The ball was thrown up, there was some pushing between Calvin and the corner, the ball came down, and Calvin batted the ball while being pushed away from it by a cornerback who had no idea where the ball was. Another player came across and intercepted the ball.

Please tell me that you knew the ball was tipped and that it wasn't the corner who intercepted it.

How could a lob be tipped at the line of scrimmage? It would be hard to do if the release was properly made. And as for who actually corralled the interception, Johnson likely was being shadowed by at least two DBs.....

 

[golftango18yankeejuliet]

Who said anything about it being tipped at the line of scrimmage?

If you're trying to confuse me, it's working. Let me go slug about 6 beers and dring a couple of shots of Glenmorangie. I'll come back and maybe we can discuss this on a level playing field.

 

[statelinejacket]

Who said anything about it being tipped at the line of scrimmage?

If you're trying to confuse me, it's working. Let me go slug about 6 beers and dring a couple of shots of Glenmorangie. I'll come back and maybe we can discuss this on a level playing field.

WangoTang: I think a healty dose of reality is what you need.....Where did you infer the ball was tipped? You didn't. Who is trying to confuse who and why are you trying to harp on one point of my observations? Because you can't discount any of the rest?........But let me ask you: Was the ball arced high into the air with a downward trajectory that would have Calvin leaping high to grab the ball?

 

[golftango18yankeejuliet]

Read my post again. The ball was tipped by Calvin when he went for the ball while being pushed toward the sideline. Because he was being pushed, he couldn't catch it cleanly and tipped it which gave another Troy player enough time to come over and make a diving catch which had to be reviewed because it was a diving catch.

Your inference that Reggie threw a line drive into the cornerback's gut is an alcohol induced hallucination or an out and out lie.

 

[statelinejacket]

Read my post again. The ball was tipped by Calvin when he went for the ball while being pushed toward the sideline. Because he was being pushed, he couldn't catch it cleanly and tipped it which gave another Troy player enough time to come over and make a diving catch which had to be reviewed because it was a diving catch.

Your inference that Reggie threw a line drive into the cornerback's gut is an alcohol induced hallucination or an out and out lie.

Neither. I was in the east stands Sec 224....opposite side of the play....'if'....and I mean 'if'.... I misjudged any of it from a distance it was not the trajectory of the pass. The replay showed the play from behind Calvin.....it didn't show the interference some of you claim happened and he didn't have to leap for a pass that had little or no trajectory. Was it a Roger Clemens fastball? No. But even a Hiver noted "the pass was not perfect" when commenting about the play.

'Batted' passes and 'Tipped' passes are hardly interchangable descriptions of the same incident.

 

[helluvaparamedic]

I was in section 111 and I saw the interception. There was mucho contact between the cover guy and Calvin. The other defender caught the ball off of Calvin's tip, much like in the NC State game last year. I was hoping that it would be reviewed, as there was clearly interference on the Troy defender's part. But pass interference is not reviewable.

 

[floridajacket]

1. I was right next to the endzone pass to Calvin. Reggie didn't throw a bullet or anything. It just wan't lofted high enough and as a result, it fell short. Calvin tipped it, with the defender absolutely mugging him, and some Troy goy got the ball a few inches off the ground. A bad pass, but it was a very fluke interception.

2. From what I've read on the Hive, this is what happened with the first drive in the second half. Apparently Kenny Scott didn't have the right pants, like they weren't covering their kneecaps or something. He went back to the Locker Room to change and looked EXTREMELY pissed about it. Jamal Lewis then switched over to CB and Blackwood came out as Safety. They were confused the entire drive and gave up a few big pass plays. After I heard this story, I felt much better about our secondary. With Kenny Scott and Djay Jones in, they should do fine.

3. Greg Smith might be our #2 after the end of the year. Even though he had some big plays today, James Johnson has really dropped too many passes and he hasn't developed as I hoped. Michael Johnson might also start at DE by the end of the year.

4. The officiating was absolutely terrible. Some of the calls reminded me of calls in those PBS high school playoff games. I wonder if this was a Sun Belt crew, because a Sun Belt crew also hosed Michigan last year against Nebraska. That's the only other game I can remember this badly called.

 

[TechGator1066]

The officiating was absolutely terrible. Some of the calls reminded me of calls in those PBS high school playoff games. I wonder if this was a Sun Belt crew, because a Sun Belt crew also hosed Michigan last year against Nebraska. That's the only other game I can remember this badly called.

Makes sense. I would imagine that referee quality equals the quality of the conference they are in. Sunbelt football sucks ass, hence the Sunbelt referees suck ass.

 

[romegajacket]

I was in section 111 and I saw the interception. There was mucho contact between the cover guy and Calvin. The other defender caught the ball off of Calvin's tip, much like in the NC State game last year. I was hoping that it would be reviewed, as there was clearly interference on the Troy defender's part. But pass interference is not reviewable.

Tis True !
much contact between CJ and def cover man. the ball is tipped and a second defender dives and catches just inches from the ground. Troy State's defense kicked our butt on that play, plain and simple.

 

[romegajacket]

Stateline,
over all I'm with you. However I thought we looked about as sloppy on offense and defense as we ever have. We left some of their receivers WIDE open way too many times.

The only reason Troy did not score at least 21 points in the the 1st half was their fault, they had the receivers wide open to do it with. Our defense did not do very well.

Troy St. will be a team to be reckoned with once they get some depth in there to work with.

From what I saw yesterday, neither team looked very good, it was just their lack of depth that got us a win.

 

[LongforDodd]

"Many fans around me openly ripped Gailey and Nix for not giving the offense the challenge of running the ball into the endzone."

Are these some of the same fans who have fussed after several games because we didn't throw it up to Calvin?[/quote]

Everyone who loves football understands that the better teams control the game with a running game. Our confidence in lining up and running the ball at will that doesn't include a QB sprint or draw is lacking, to say the least (our reliance on our QB's running skills is proof enough). We should have been running the ball more in the red zone against a team like Troy to try to bolster our confidence.

 

[BarrelORum]

I was in the chat and listened to the game on the radio. From listening to it, here are some of my observations.

1.) I was telling gnats67 at the beginning of the game that I was not a fan of Pat Clark returning punts. I just don't think he has what it takes to be a difference maker there. Someone obviously heard me because he was replaced.

2.) We have a couple of receivers that have absolutely NO BUSINESS smelling the field anymore. None. One in particular has dropped a pass in each game when it hit him perfectly. I want to see more of Greg Smith. He's done very well everytime he has touched the ball, and has sure hands. We got to find plays that get Calvin open where Reggie has a high percentage chance of hitting him. I like it when he was in the slot against ND.

3.) I have to agree with State regarding the OLine and being in Shotgun, and not utilizing the Fullback and the Power I offense. Cox is a weapon like Calvin, and we are not using him when it seems we should. We keep getting cute and throwing hm the ball in situation where he needs to be blocking for a back or running up the gut. Our offense is too cute for that matter when they need to play straight up.

4.) Point 3 brings me to point 4 which is the playcalling. Our OC in my opinion does not know how to call an offensive game. He is good at drafting plays, but calling a game is a weakness right now. There seems to be little rhyme of reason to our playcalling. I mentioned that our playcalling seems like we are picking plays out of a hat. The pass to Cox in the endzone was the dumbest call that a good athlete made a great save on.

Countless of times in the 2nd and 3rd quarter we passed on 1st down putting ourselves in further passing situations because we werent throwing high percentage plays. The running game was there all day long, and 4 times on first down alone in the 3rd quarter, we passed. No sense in that.

Our offense is not like in years past but it has one quality that is like years past.... NO IDENTITY. Are we a power I? Are we shotgun? Are we single back three wide? I like the multiple looks, but none of them have utlilized effectively two of our best players in Mike Cox and Calvin Johnson.

5.) Our offensive line from how it sounded played poorly and the Runningbacks made plays. That's a tough comment considering we racked up 300 yards rushing, but listening to the game it sounded like they made too many mistakes and often times put the Runningbacks in a situation where they were all by themselves. I was not a fan of Coach D, until last year when I felt that he did a good job with a very small and inexperienced line. This year the line is not a strength yet.

 

[statelinejacket]

1. I was right next to the endzone pass to Calvin. Reggie didn't throw a bullet or anything. It just wan't lofted high enough and as a result, it fell short. Calvin tipped it, with the defender absolutely mugging him, and some Troy goy got the ball a few inches off the ground. A bad pass, but it was a very fluke interception.

Is it possible the 'mugging' occurred because C. Johnson tried to come back for a ball thrown short......creating incidental contact.....with the refs don't call interference. No one in my section voiced displeasure with the refs on the play......and we found plenty of times to do that. the ball was thrown very short......straight lined, rag armmed, or whatever.....certainly it was very poor in comparison to the lobs we usually see thrown to Johnson.

 

[statelinejacket]

Barrel: I want to see more of Greg Smith also! His effort after one catch.....it took half the Troy team to get him down as he moved the pile about 5 yards.....his effort was tremendous. Also, I was very happy to see Pat Clark relieved of returning punts. Overall the offense looks very disjointed. The reverses worked great and hopefully we will see them again.....I wouldn't count on that much success though.

Rome: Yes, the offense, defense, and special teams was very sloppy at times. Especially after we got up 14-0. But there was some good licks put on the Trojans.....no pun intended.....Gary Guyton, Michael Johnson, Darrell Robertson, etc. delivered some damn good hits.

Guys, overall I can see plenty of speed and quickness on offense but not enough quick hitting plays to take advantage of it. Our run game suffers not from the offensive linemen doing poorly but from the schemes themselves and coaching......too much reading and not enough attacking the holes. I'd love to see more Jamaal Evans. Likewise our offense sure could use more quick hitting slants with the likes of C. Johnson and Greg Smith. And whoever is out there must catch the ball.

Special teams, more Tyler Evans or Andrew Smith(injured) returning punts. And more 1st teamers on the kickoff crew.

 

[beej67]

You really should have gone to the game, BOR. You probably would have formed different opinions.

1.) I was telling gnats67 at the beginning of the game that I was not a fan of Pat Clark returning punts.

Clark is done returning punts. The little white guy did great after they pulled Clark. Recall they pulled Clark halfway through the last game too.

2.) We have a couple of receivers that have absolutely NO BUSINESS smelling the field anymore. None. One in particular has dropped a pass in each game when it hit him perfectly. I want to see more of Greg Smith. He's done very well everytime he has touched the ball, and has sure hands. We got to find plays that get Calvin open where Reggie has a high percentage chance of hitting him. I like it when he was in the slot against ND.

We had too many drops, but you can't complain about us not spreading the ball around, and you definitely can't complain about us not throwing to our backs. We had 3 backs that caught passes.

I have to agree with State regarding the OLine and being in Shotgun, and not utilizing the Fullback and the Power I offense. Cox is a weapon like Calvin, and we are not using him when it seems we should.

Yeah, you shoulda been there. We did use regular I (not power I) and Cox was utilized. Did you forget about his TD reception? He was out in the pattern a lot.

Also, it was blatantly obvious to everyone who saw the game in person that our runningbacks have AMAZING talent out in space, but pretty well suck in the tackle box. What we're doing is we're utilizing our weapons as best we can, and the offense looks good when it works.

We keep getting cute and throwing hm the ball in situation where he needs to be blocking for a back or running up the gut.

Blah. If we'd have run the ball on 4th and 1 we wouldn't have gotten the TD, but we threw to Cox in the flats and scored 6. You need to see the game.

Also, Doubleblah. Everyone bitches that we don't throw to the TE or FB, then we throw a TD to the FB and everyone complains that he wasn't blocking? WTF? I think you guys are just old farts fishing for something to complain about.

Our offense is too cute for that matter when they need to play straight up.

The offense looked like a real offense once it started working. Seriously. It hasn't looked like that in 4 years. Now you're begging for us to go back to the Gailey 3 yard Iso?

It's amazing that Nix has given Tech fans exactly what they've been begging for for 4 years, and they bitch and moan about it.

4.) Point 3 brings me to point 4 which is the playcalling. Our OC in my opinion does not know how to call an offensive game.

500 yards of total offense, including 2 reverses for over 30 yards each, both of which should have gone for TDs and one of which did, throws your whole comment 4 in the shitter. Seriously.

Every play that was called in that game had an opportunity to work, with the notable exception of that strongside shotgun pitch that really worked well vs Samford last week.

You needed to see the game.

Our offense is not like in years past but it has one quality that is like years past.... NO IDENTITY. Are we a power I? Are we shotgun? Are we single back three wide? I like the multiple looks, but none of them have utlilized effectively two of our best players in Mike Cox and Calvin Johnson.

Our offense definitely has identity now. Whether it turns out to be as good all year long as it was on Saturday remains to be seen, but we've totally got identity, and it's exactly the identity that people have been begging for on the Hive and Stingtalk for 4 years. Ready? Here it is:

We're a spread option offense with a really fast quarterback who doesn't throw the ball well, so we spread the field to generate mismatches and space, and we run to that space. We use loaded formations and presnap motion to generate blocking numbers advantages on one side of the field, then we QB choice to that side of the field if they don't have the numbers, or QB draw if they do, and it's a QB presnap read. If they overload the side we've overloaded, we have the speed to turn reverses into big gains, and we use our second speedy runningback in the slot for this purpose.

But we DO have an identity.

5.) Our offensive line from how it sounded played poorly and the Runningbacks made plays.

I totally agree that the OL played poorly, and I think it's just because they're not that good to begin with. The schemes above are rigged to cover up our OL deficiencies and rely on our skill players to make up the difference. A good offense hides its flaws, and that's what this Shotgun thingy Nix is doing is intended to do.

Dude, go to the games and watch them. Most of the stuff you're bitching about is pretty dumb. Look at our 2nd half drive chart:

punt
INT in the endzone
TD
TD
TD
2nd stringers

The offense looked good, for the first time in years. Like it truly had some direction.

 

[statelinejacket]

Beej: Barrel's a whole closer to the truth than you are. No one I know of that has complained about Chan Gailey's offense wants to see Pat Nix's spread option out of the shotgun!

I'm on record for it myself.

And as for Mike Cox, his time on the field was minimal for a starter and he didn't do much lead blocking. No one is complaining about the TD reception either. He made a great play to catch the ball and no one was displeased by the call. What no one understands....including myself and everyone in my section yesterday was why throw the lob on first and goal inside the 5 yardline. That is when fans wanted to see us shove it down Troy's throat.....with Cox either running or lead blocking.

Troy's defense was completely worn out from a lack of depth and a disjointed offense of their own to put up much of a fight in the 4th quarter.....thank goodness.

Reggie is not an option quarterback......basically he is a single-wing tailback in a offense that will get a helluva lot of flack by the time it is canned. Urban Meyer found out the spread option doesn't work that well down here in the south....defenses have too much speed....and has made a series of adjustments to it.