Some thoughtson the game

[JasonB]

Just finished watching the video...

- Any game where Sutton has less than 10 targets and less than 5 over 20 yards I have to scratch my head a little.

- Zone read is not really a factor in our offense right now. That is surprising. Davis I think may be more banged up than we think.

- First "wrongly" burned redshirt this year was the punter. Koonce punted much better today.

- Once Yenga was tossed, we were essentially playing with what started the year as our second string LB unit (11, 48, 44). I know, technically star isn't a LB but roll with me here. They did a MUCH better job until the mobile QB came in. Lots of hustle to the ball. The three of them made more plays in the first quarter than I think the previous starting group had in 3 games. Horton didn't play MLB at all from what I saw, he was special teams only. 48 struggled a little in coverage, Tui struggles a lot in coverage. But 48 is the one LB we have that I think at least has the instinct to try and make a play. 40 showed that a bit later in the game.

- Our side-to-side movement at LB is okay. But we fall apart with power runs up the middle. I don't know if it is an experience thing, a lack of instinct thing, or bad coaching, but it seems like our two interior linebackers basically just guess where the hole is going to be and hit it as hard as they can, getting close to the line. If they guess wrong, the RB runs free. I'm not sure why we do that - maybe we don't think we can beat a block at the point of attack, so we are trying to be the first person there. Whatever it is, it is failing miserably.

- We backed off on rotating the front 7 today. Bad time not to have any time of possession. Part of it was probably a result of the suspensions, but I wonder if the plan was always to shorten the rotation once we got to practice? The Front 7 wore out as the game went on, that was obvious. Tired plays where you are standing way too upright and making it easy to get under pads and push you back in the second half.

- We have massive problems with assignment football. Up until they put in the running QB, our defense was flying around, making plays. LBs and the safeties were very involved in the running game. They put in the running QB, and guys continued to fly straight to the RB. The first 3 zone reads, everyone went to the RB, so it was clear the first time the QB kept it there would be huge gains. The Safeties stopped being involved in the running game at that point.

- The OL really got beat today for the first time. Lots of blown assignments where people were running free. Barns played at LG and really got beat badly a couple of times. Weeks got beat at least twice. 71 didn't play much, but when he did he was really slow and was beat for a sack. Lasecki got absolutely abused on two plays. Not a pretty day. What is obvious though is that none of our linemen to this point have the ability to dominate at the point of attack. They aren't winning their battles, they are getting a neutral grade for most of the game and then getting beat a couple of times per game.

- The DL really wore down in the second half. High pads, easily pushed around. Again, for the most part the DL, when fresh, are playing neutral. Not getting pushed back, but not getting a huge push forward. We lack the "playmaker". I do think this is a case where if you had just one "plus" player in that line, it would transform the whole group, because each individual isn't bad. I think Wood isn't a "plus" player, but he is good enough that it isolates Lawler when he is in the game. I think there is no coincidence that Lawler's impact has decreased with the absence of Wood. Being down 3 DL in a game where we didn't have a lot of possession really hurt.

- The last point and biggest... Davis really struggled today and I think our shutout in the second half is more on him than the OL. He got hit early on a scramble - I'm not sure how much that impacted him. But even in the beginning of the game, he bailed on every single throw. He was throwing off the back foot or side stepping his throws constantly, even when he had a good pocket early. The passes were still accurate early even with the bad mechanics, but he was way off the rest of the game. A lot of uncatchable balls, especially on the deep throws. It was because he was bailing on every throw and the accuracy was awful. No "let Sutton go get it" throws. He was looking at the line too early. There were also times when a gap opened that he could have easily scrambled through and pick up 8 yards, but instead he would try to run around the tackle. He walked straight into multiple sacks that way. As stated above, the OL didn't have a great day, but I thought Davis really, really struggled. Honestly, I would have pulled him in the third quarter, I thought he was that poor. At least get Colbert in there and go back to a zone read focus and deep ball. Matt is never going to be most effective dropping back and hitting intermediate range passes. We don't have enough consistency in our game to rely on that to get us down the field. We need to get players in space and try and make big plays. If he is too banged up to run the zone read, I don't think he is effective enough as a pure passer to have him perform behind a mediocre offensive line.

[vielsiehorsepower]

Just finished watching the video...

- Any game where Sutton has less than 10 targets and less than 5 over 20 yards I have to scratch my head a little.

- Zone read is not really a factor in our offense right now. That is surprising. Davis I think may be more banged up than we think.

- First "wrongly" burned redshirt this year was the punter. Koonce punted much better today.

- Once Yenga was tossed, we were essentially playing with what started the year as our second string LB unit (11, 48, 44). I know, technically star isn't a LB but roll with me here. They did a MUCH better job until the mobile QB came in. Lots of hustle to the ball. The three of them made more plays in the first quarter than I think the previous starting group had in 3 games. Horton didn't play MLB at all from what I saw, he was special teams only. 48 struggled a little in coverage, Tui struggles a lot in coverage. But 48 is the one LB we have that I think at least has the instinct to try and make a play. 40 showed that a bit later in the game.

- Our side-to-side movement at LB is okay. But we fall apart with power runs up the middle. I don't know if it is an experience thing, a lack of instinct thing, or bad coaching, but it seems like our two interior linebackers basically just guess where the hole is going to be and hit it as hard as they can, getting close to the line. If they guess wrong, the RB runs free. I'm not sure why we do that - maybe we don't think we can beat a block at the point of attack, so we are trying to be the first person there. Whatever it is, it is failing miserably.

- We backed off on rotating the front 7 today. Bad time not to have any time of possession. Part of it was probably a result of the suspensions, but I wonder if the plan was always to shorten the rotation once we got to practice? The Front 7 wore out as the game went on, that was obvious. Tired plays where you are standing way too upright and making it easy to get under pads and push you back in the second half.

- We have massive problems with assignment football. Up until they put in the running QB, our defense was flying around, making plays. LBs and the safeties were very involved in the running game. They put in the running QB, and guys continued to fly straight to the RB. The first 3 zone reads, everyone went to the RB, so it was clear the first time the QB kept it there would be huge gains. The Safeties stopped being involved in the running game at that point.

- The OL really got beat today for the first time. Lots of blown assignments where people were running free. Barns played at LG and really got beat badly a couple of times. Weeks got beat at least twice. 71 didn't play much, but when he did he was really slow and was beat for a sack. Lasecki got absolutely abused on two plays. Not a pretty day. What is obvious though is that none of our linemen to this point have the ability to dominate at the point of attack. They aren't winning their battles, they are getting a neutral grade for most of the game and then getting beat a couple of times per game.

- The DL really wore down in the second half. High pads, easily pushed around. Again, for the most part the DL, when fresh, are playing neutral. Not getting pushed back, but not getting a huge push forward. We lack the "playmaker". I do think this is a case where if you had just one "plus" player in that line, it would transform the whole group, because each individual isn't bad. I think Wood isn't a "plus" player, but he is good enough that it isolates Lawler when he is in the game. I think there is no coincidence that Lawler's impact has decreased with the absence of Wood. Being down 3 DL in a game where we didn't have a lot of possession really hurt.

- The last point and biggest... Davis really struggled today and I think our shutout in the second half is more on him than the OL. He got hit early on a scramble - I'm not sure how much that impacted him. But even in the beginning of the game, he bailed on every single throw. He was throwing off the back foot or side stepping his throws constantly, even when he had a good pocket early. The passes were still accurate early even with the bad mechanics, but he was way off the rest of the game. A lot of uncatchable balls, especially on the deep throws. It was because he was bailing on every throw and the accuracy was awful. No "let Sutton go get it" throws. He was looking at the line too early. There were also times when a gap opened that he could have easily scrambled through and pick up 8 yards, but instead he would try to run around the tackle. He walked straight into multiple sacks that way. As stated above, the OL didn't have a great day, but I thought Davis really, really struggled. Honestly, I would have pulled him in the third quarter, I thought he was that poor. At least get Colbert in there and go back to a zone read focus and deep ball. Matt is never going to be most effective dropping back and hitting intermediate range passes. We don't have enough consistency in our game to rely on that to get us down the field. We need to get players in space and try and make big plays. If he is too banged up to run the zone read, I don't think he is effective enough as a pure passer to have him perform behind a mediocre offensive line.

1.Sutton deep ball needs to be on every drive
2.if davis is banged up does that mean that the coaches don't trust colbert to spell him? He gets in a play here and there but it's almost always a run. If he is running out there not at full strength and they aren't subbing him out it makes me worried about what's on the bench.
3.don't worry about the punter, williams will red shirt next year. Koonce is clearly better and will start as long as it's between these two. Just a shame that he had to waste 4 years of his career on the bench

[Stallion]

we had a blocked punt and 85 yards of punt return yardage-if the ECU returner was competent it would have been 150. Only 52 yards in punt returns in first 4 games. You punt experts are driving me crazy. He out kicks his coverage on every punt and kicks to the center of the field every punt.His best punt was into the end zone-no attempts to kick it inside the 20. Zero kicks inside the 20. I don't know what you guys are watching. 29.6 net punting is the worst net punting game of the season. And the ECU returner sucked.

[Charleston Pony]

although I favor Koonce over the FR for his leg strength, I agree he was out kicking his coverage and did not have a good game. I think he had one efective punt the entire game

[mrydel]

Stallion, I completely disagree. I can go out there and punt and I guarantee you there would be zero yards in returns. That is because the punts would only go about 10 yards. The only reason the previous averages were acceptable was that the kicks were so low and short they would hit and roll. Teams would eventually adjust and catch the shorter kicks. I believe the hang time was fine but the coverage was poor.

The yardage on returns were mostly on one kick due to poor coverage. Even when the coverage was "out kicked" the net was still over 40. The block was not the kickers fault.

[gostangs]

Yeah, you are just being stubborn on this one stallion. I look forward to the memo from stallion going out informing all the other 100 plus D-1 schools that use punters who boom long kicks with nice hang times that they have it all wrong.

The punters job is not to avoid every athlete on the fiield with his kicks. It's to put up as long a kick as possible, but most importantly get enough hang time to get the coverage team down there to DO THEIR JOB. Kicking crappy kicks or shanks to avoid returns is not a strategy we need to employ.

But since we have coaches that know more than all of us combined about football, we will see who is right next week. If they switch back then you are right. If Koonce keeps the punter duties than all of us are right and I will expect a written grovelling apology.

[jimhagle]

We get smoked and some are so concerned over our punting woes-really? Koonce was ok last year and we brought in a kid who has a powerful leg but is raw-give him some more time. That is the least of our problems. Yes, Davis got creamed on one play early in the game and never seemed the same- should have not played the whole game period. Colbert is a decent back up IMO. Our lines are getting so worn down[and beat up] the rest of the season is going to be scary. Like everyone has said JJ left us with pretty much no talent on the lines where the games are won. Morris simply cannot make up for a such lack of talent-no one could. We have been patient for years and now we have to be patient for a couple of more.

[mrydel]

Please advise as to what we can and cannot discuss on this board as to not upset you. Thank you in advance.

[PonySnob]

Wonder if Morris thought it would be this bad?

[CalallenStang]

Wonder if Morris thought it would be this bad?

What is your point?

[mrydel]

I give him enough credit to know what he was walking into. He said he wanted to immediately change the culture and turn the team around. I believe he has done that. He lacks the talent to win right now which is also why he said it would take a while to see the results in wins and losses.

The question that should be asked is why anyone thought this year would be any different. Other than some true freshmen playing against much more seasoned players, we are the same team as last year. I for one am very impressed with the offensive turn around. Just imagine what we will be able to do with the other half of the playbook learned and some quality recruiting. We definitely need some defensive recruiting but I see nothing but upside while realizing this year will be painful.

[TidePony]

Yes sir!

[peruna81]

Wonder if Morris thought it would be this bad?

You dance with the girl that brung ya. Our girl is ugly this year. HCCM saw the girl, and agreed to dance.

There will be other games, and other Saturdays where SMU will compete for the length of the game. I will take the effort (outmanned or not) that this group is putting on the field to the lifeless offense and emotionless play of the last 3 years.

We will win again this year, and will win in years to come.

[gostangs]

Agree 81. I can keep hope and be a good fan when the coach is emphasizing things that will get us there in a couple of years.

[GiddyUp]

I am just surprised that it doesnt seem like we made any def adjustments. Yes our talent is not good but any team can just run right up the middle on almost any play. I would go for it on 4th and less than 5 every time.