Review of our first offensive drive

[JasonB]

I wanted to see how we looked like, mostly on the line, so I took a look at the recording.

1st and 10: swing right to lagasse for 5 yards. Nobody on the line blocks anyone, Weeks gets a nice block on the edge. accurate pass, good catch, and Joseph a nice block out wide.

2nd and 5: Short pass to Joseph complete, sitting down. He sat in between two defenders. Throw a little low, but in a place where only the receiver gets it. Good blocking across the line even though Lasecki didn't pick anyone up.

3rd and 1 - handoff to shead for a first down. Everyone on the line blocks well, Gaines a nice block on the outside.

1st and 10: Gilber scrambles, gets horsecollered after a gain of a few yards. It was supposed to be a flair to lagasse, but the corner jumped it. Slot broke free on the right side (Gaines) if Gilbert had a little more patience. Ran before the pocket really broke down and Lasecki wasn't even really blocking anyone.

1st and 10: WR screen to Johnson. Minimal gain. Joseph blocked his guy on the outside, but Shead and Weeks couldn't seal the edge. DE and safeties held it to a 2 yard gain. Hughes nice block.

2nd and 8 - endaround to Taylor for 7 yards. Weeks loses his block, but it doesn't hurt the play other than Taylor having to bounce a little further behind the line. Hughes pulls, but chooses not to block a guy, who Lasecki can't quite catch and forces Taylor wide to slow the play down. Hughes can't quite get the next guy, who makes the tackle. Gaines with a nice block to seal the edge to get the 8 yards, and DT with a nice block downfield.

3rd and 1 - complete crossing pattern to DT for the first down. Pocket barely survives. Shead poor pickup on blitzer, pushes him a little wide but still a direct line to GG and would have sacked if he held the ball another second. Weeks barely survives a bull rush, and Rice was flattened. Gilbert had 2 seconds to throw and got the ball out just in time.

1st and 10: Shead run right guard, 9 yards. Nice fake by gilbert after the handoff. Great pull by Rice. Lasecki wiffs on his man, but Hughes seals really well. Weeks nice bump to help hughes seal, then nice getting to second level. Gots also gets to second level.

Too many in huddle, 5 yard penalty.

2nd and 6: 5 wide. Very quick out to Joseph, tackled by his hair, gain of 8. Lasecki nice pickup on delayed blitz. Rice gets beat but pass out so quick it doesn't hurt.

1st and 10. Back shoulder pass to Joseph. Lots of stunts, and the line isn't really pretty, but it works. Weeks with a nice punch to make his guy go really wide.

1st and 10: Run, Shead, right guard, gain of 2. Supposed to go off guard, really blocked well. Rice's guy falls after the pull, and Shead freaks out and instead of following blocks, cuts inside and gets only 2. if Shead follows the blocking, at least a 8 yard gain inside the red zone.

2nd and 8: Incomplete pass on slant to DT qhere he either falls down or gets pushed. Shead nice blitz pickup from outside. Weeks gets beat, but pass is too quick for GG to get killed.

3rd and 8: RG run for Shead. Pull rice again, does a great job. Lasecki misses his block, so hughes has to help, and weeks has to take Hughes' guy. That leaves the person free who hits shead and slows him down enough for the safety to hit him and force a fumple out of bounds. If Lasecki doesn't miss the block, and the other guys take who they are supposed to, that is at least a first down inside the 5 if not a TD. Taylor does a great job outside faking a route and then blocking.

Line grades (get one point if not beaten on block, perform job)
BG: perfect 13/13
Rice: 11/13
Lasecki: 10/13
Hughes: 12/13
Weeks: 9/13

The thing that pops out is that Gilbert only has a 2 second pocket a lot of times. I saw Hughes get beat a couple of times in the second quarter live, but on this drive he was pretty good. You can see it coming where if we get in 3rd and long and need to rely on longer routes, we are in trouble. I also thought it was interesting that on running plays, the line blocked a lot better than on the passing plays, given how poor the running game was for the evening as a whole. I was kind of surprised to see Lasecki struggle a bit. Kind of expected for Weeks in his first game.

Another note: Taylor and Gaines give us a real physical presence at receiver, and we will see them get significant time over the course of the season. When I was at the game, I didn't realize how much 83 played that first drive, and how well he blocked.