Thoughts on the game
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 10:41 pm- Remember when the JJ teams would come out and get smoked at the start of a season because we didn't hit in practice and the practice tempo was nowhere close to game tempo? That is what the first half looked like to me. Covid-avoidance induced for sure, but I was afraid of it coming in.
- I thought the offensive playcalling in the first half was pretty bad. Second half was much better, we started to open it up deep and also spread it wide. Looked more like last year. They run blitzed in the first half and our playcalling fell right into what they were doing.
- when you don't practice at full speed, it can be hard to evaluate players. One of the trademarkes of the JJ era, the fog of war, whatever you want to call it. It is a concern that the coaches couldn't see Bentley as the top RB coming out of Fall, it indicates the lack of game speed at practice. And it is a concern that they rated 13 good enough to start at safety, because Clay and Cromartie were both way better in the game. Clay looked fantastic I thought. 13 missed two plays on the first drive alone.
- we don't have the defensive players for a 3-4. In a 3-4, if you are going to have super wide splits, you better have really physical MLB. We have one. That killed us on the run and QB scramble in the first half. If you are going to pull those three in, you better have athletic LBs to play off the edge. We don't have those either. Again, not noticing this in fall camp is another indicator that they haven't been able to practice at a normal level. We have good DEs - Nbuike, Coxe, Paul, Wiley. Playing them off the line in space is playing them away from their strength. Playing Delano inside instead of outside is not playing to his strength. We finally switched to a down 4 on the last play and got a big sack instantly. If we would have played with a 4 man line, we would have mauled their oline the entire game. Instead, we just created a problem for ourselves.
- Crossley is great. I want to see some nickel.
- I mentioned in an earlier thread that I was concerned about the Fox position, and that was the big spot to keep an eye on. We got nothing from the Fox. Compare that to everything we got from Nelson last year. This is a big problem, and will keep the defense from reaching full potential unless someone really steps up.
Like I said before the game, I am happy with a win. But I would expect Sonny to get on them pretty hard and the pace of practice to really be amped up the next two weeks before UNT.
- I thought the offensive playcalling in the first half was pretty bad. Second half was much better, we started to open it up deep and also spread it wide. Looked more like last year. They run blitzed in the first half and our playcalling fell right into what they were doing.
- when you don't practice at full speed, it can be hard to evaluate players. One of the trademarkes of the JJ era, the fog of war, whatever you want to call it. It is a concern that the coaches couldn't see Bentley as the top RB coming out of Fall, it indicates the lack of game speed at practice. And it is a concern that they rated 13 good enough to start at safety, because Clay and Cromartie were both way better in the game. Clay looked fantastic I thought. 13 missed two plays on the first drive alone.
- we don't have the defensive players for a 3-4. In a 3-4, if you are going to have super wide splits, you better have really physical MLB. We have one. That killed us on the run and QB scramble in the first half. If you are going to pull those three in, you better have athletic LBs to play off the edge. We don't have those either. Again, not noticing this in fall camp is another indicator that they haven't been able to practice at a normal level. We have good DEs - Nbuike, Coxe, Paul, Wiley. Playing them off the line in space is playing them away from their strength. Playing Delano inside instead of outside is not playing to his strength. We finally switched to a down 4 on the last play and got a big sack instantly. If we would have played with a 4 man line, we would have mauled their oline the entire game. Instead, we just created a problem for ourselves.
- Crossley is great. I want to see some nickel.
- I mentioned in an earlier thread that I was concerned about the Fox position, and that was the big spot to keep an eye on. We got nothing from the Fox. Compare that to everything we got from Nelson last year. This is a big problem, and will keep the defense from reaching full potential unless someone really steps up.
Like I said before the game, I am happy with a win. But I would expect Sonny to get on them pretty hard and the pace of practice to really be amped up the next two weeks before UNT.