Duke Postgame

[grandpa jacket]

Re: the D, it's a problem.

For those who think it's athletes, please explain how Wake Forest, Northwestern, UVA and Army produced far better results in their games vs. Duke.

I don't know what's being taught vs. executed, however there were clear breakdowns at an unacceptable level before the snaps even happened. CPJ said it, Corey Griffin said it, in the postgame presser.

Yeah, we could look at that Wake DC

 

[BuzzStone]

Will Vandy let us steal their HC for a new DC? I would love that

 

[MWBATL]

After reflection on yesterday's game, I have no issue with our offense. Duke played a gimmicky defense designed to attack us in certain ways to disrupt our normal offense. It left open certain things. It left open the passing game big time, and we were able to take advantage of that. It also left open our skill players in space against their LB's and DB's IF we could find a way to get into position, and we did with JT. They took everything else away and made JT beat us. Other teams haven't done that, but Duke may have thought JT had lost a step with his hamstring problems, or that he had lost confidence with a year and a half of getting drubbed by defenses, so they bet the house of stopping other aspects of our offense and making JT beat them and ....he did!!

I do worry though about our ability to play that way every week. I think defenses more and more are using those "gimmicky" approaches to force our offense out of its comfort zone. We made Duke pay, but can we do that every week? We need much better defensive play to compete the rest of the way...our offense can win games, but not if they HAVE to be a top 10 offense every single game.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

Yeah, we could look at that Wake DC

It's been reported that he was in the running when Roof was hired.

 

[InsideLB]

Observations:

Offense:

The good
JT....'nuff said.
WRs with a good showing. No drops, tricky routes, winning balls. Jeune is evolving into a beast. Stewart is a vacuum cleaner in tight quarters with his hands.
Clinton Lynch being Clinton Lynch
Pass protection was pretty good. Duke is a good pass rushing team
Able to make Duke pay for (1) using gimmicks on D/being fancy

The bad
Never got in rhythm
Couldn't run it between the tackles

The ugly
The offense has struggled vs Pitt, Duke, and others in doing what should be our bread and butter: getting short yardage first downs. We are explosive and the offense is effective, but until we improve in this area we are hampered from being a dominant offense.

Defense:

The Good:
AJ Gray is coming on. He is starting to play fast and pops off the screen. Tackles with authority as well.
Brandt Mitchell is inconsistent and is sometimes in the wrong place, but when he gets it ironed out he'll be a good backer for us.
They kept fighting, and rallied a bit in the 4th quarter.
Did make some fourth down stops and force a couple of fumbles.

The Bad:
We can't defend the shotgun read option to save our arse.
Anything remotely eye-candyish destroys us.
When opponents go fast kills us
Third and long, third and short, doesn't matter. The drive will extend.
Simmons struggling against the run (hopefully learning).

The Ugly:
No pass rush. St. Amour had one sack when the whole world knew they were throwing. Beyond that barely a hurry. We made that Duke QB look like Dan Marino.
Very rare to see a DL win an individual battle on either runs or passes. We just do not get off blocks. There is no disruption of what the other team is trying to do.

STs

The Good
Specialists I thought had a good game. Rodwell with some nice punts, Butker hit the endzone reliably

The Bad
Other than the quick kick Duke didn't punt that I recall. Either stopped by turnovers or fourth down stops.

The Ugly
Kick returners either dancing around or not taking a touch back. I love JJ and hate that he got hurt but IMO if he hits it up in there hard, dives forward, and just gets what he can he likely doesn't fumble/get hurt.
Austin just stopped and danced around on the 10 yard line.
I understand that our KR unit doesn't block at all, so yes it's tough to be a return man in those circumstances. Coaches need to coach those guys to take a knee or fly forward in a straight line and get down.
And, if our defense is going to be this ineffective and we are going to have so many returns we need to fix this. Offense continually starting between the 10-15 yard line is just terrible.
I don't care how many starters you put on the unit, it is absolutely killing us. Coaches need to get this fixed. Is glaring.

Notes:
Adams doesn't play because when he's in there teams go fast so the D can't sub. If he's only good for 2 plays he's gassed and becomes a liability.

Regarding Roof and coaching vs talent:

I agree that in the final analysis that Roof ain't getting it done.

I do think if Roof's scheme were crap and this was the problem then PSU's D would have nose-dived when he took over instead of staying a top 35 D. You can say PSU's guys were already coached up so they stayed effective. That would point to a problem with teaching and developing our guys, or possibly putting them into a scheme where they can't succeed. You can argue the scheme he wants to run is not suited to our talent. I MIGHT buy that.

But I am not sure what would be suited for our talent when guys are not getting off blocks and running to the football. There is only so much you can do with smoke and mirrors. The falling for eye candy thing is troubling, but then again you have young, inexperienced guys playing behing a non-disruptive DL. You can't claim Roof's scheme is too complicated because it's been pretty vanilla. Probably to suit current personnel.

AJ Gray is the only player I can think of on our defense who is an impact, 1-8 type player, and he is just now developing. PJ Davis is productive, but has some limitations with respect to size and pass coverage. Plus he's been out the last two weeks. Corey Griffin, Pat Gamble, K-Free, and Rook play hard and will rise up at times and make a play. But overall for our D it's just too infrequent. Young talent running around in the secondary...I like 'em but with no pass rush they aren't going to look great.

On passing downs QBs mostly don't even have to hurry. On runs we don't win the LOS often enough. I don't see a Gotsis, Attaochu, senior year Dieke or Cummings, Michael Johnson, etc. I don't see a Keith Brooking, Wheeler, etc. Sure some of our guys could develop into NFL linemen. But who is first, second, or third team all-ACC RIGHT NOW.

I looked at who we had on paper before the season and said unless some guys develop into impact guys we aren't going to be a good defense. It's not suprising to me that it has come to pass.

 

[dubjacket]

If JJ is out for a while then we have to put someone else back to return kicks.

We just aren't that athletic on defense up front and at linebacker. Our dbs are decent athletes. I would like to see us play more bump and run and make teams beat us over the top instead of dinking and dunking their way down the field.

Our WR are playing really well! Seem to get more separation these past few games.

 

[Yella-Britches]

Just watched a recording of the game. Here's my thoughts. Would love to see others.

1. Because of Duke's spread offense, we went to a traditional nickel package, most of the game.
2. Despite the fact that Duke (all season ) threw slants and used their TE as a weapon, we were not ready.
3. Our LBs showed the blitz way too early, therefore, allowing Duke the opportunity to change the call. Most of the time, the D ran the same blitz, afterwards.
4. We did not press up and play bump and run. This gave WRs free breaks, not bothering Duke's QB, with timing.
5. Despite the fact, our offense runs and option, our D struggles at stopping it.
6. Our D fails to control the LOS.
7. When we do blitz, our people seem to find an O lineman.
8. Our KR game is based solely on JJ Green. K
9. JT is still an electric player. His passing game is better than most think.
10. The offense showed up, big time. They were able to do, just enough to win.
11. I feel UNC and (maybe) VT, will light us up on the score board. VT is hot or cold on offense. Let's hope we catch them on a cold day.

Go Jackets!

Oh the mutts loss, so even better!

Let's hear your thoughts and concerns.

This - When we do blitz, our people seem to find an O lineman.
On TV looks like our defenders are LOOKING for blockers to hit.

VT is hot or cold on offense. Let's hope we catch them on a cold day.
Don't know what it is with the turkeys, but they seem to always bring their best when we play...very frustrating. I'd love to finally get them on a cold day - not holding my breath / we need to bring our very best against them!
Go JACKETS!!
THWG!!!

 

[4shotB]

If JJ is out for a while then we have to put someone else back to return kicks.


Our WR are playing really well! Seem to get more separation these past few games.

I would instruct the returners to never bring the ball out of the end zone. You really cannot tell from the TV angle but it looks like no one is getting blocked at all. Every return attempt from inside the EZ appears to result in a (minimum) 5 yard loss of field position.

 

[Lurkerjack]

Good points from the OP. Earlier in the week CPJ said if bringing five doesn't work bring six , ifsix doesn't work bring seven. The good news was we blitzed an awful lot. The bad news was how ineffective it was - only a handful that pressured the QB. Very frustrating.

We have been killed by the TE or short pass to the RB for years. Yesterday it was the TE. We just do not have the athletes at LB that can run with these guys. Listening to the stats on the post game show, it was literally First string TE with X catches for Y yards, second string TE X catches for Y yards, third string TE X catches for a Y yards. We were laughing, how many TEs do they have? Bucky Hodges's is licking his chops.

 

[Towaliga]

Jmonty, with all due respects, I went through your list and saw that of the 11 items you posted, 8 were negative, 1 was observational (#1) and 2 were positive. Consider this--we had more than 600 yards, JeT had a career game (I don't know if you realize it, but until we started going backwards to run out the clock, he was less than 10 yards from breaking Godsey's record for total yards by a QB in a game), we had 3 receivers average more than 25 yards per catch (and Jeune is showing signs of truly coming to life as a clutch receiver), we were playing without our # 1 running back and #1 tackler, Rodwell and Butker had good days (48.3 average with two of 3 inside the 20 and Butker had, IIRC, only one kick off not a touchback), the AJ Gray forced fumble was a thing of beauty and reminded me of Pitt a couple of years ago, and WE WON. Although I don't dispute your points, I would just suggest that you enjoy the W for a couple of days and focus on the positives. There's plenty of time before next Saturday to start being focused on the negatives.

 

[Skeptic]

The main thing I saw was a defense that wasn't prepared for the game again. Same people same poor play calling. No changes to D and more importantly no improvement. Not sure how long we can sit by and let the D just coast through the season with absolutely no improvement whatsoever.

Offense Did a fantastic job and JT made the game. He actually made a GT game exciting this year. Been missing those awesome big plays.

It seemed to me the first time since the '15 Orange Bowl that Thomas resembled that QB. That is expecting too much of him game in and game out, but that QB did seem to disappear for most of two seasons.

 

[Skeptic]

The main thing I saw was a defense that wasn't prepared for the game again. Same people same poor play calling. No changes to D and more importantly no improvement. Not sure how long we can sit by and let the D just coast through the season with absolutely no improvement whatsoever.

Offense Did a fantastic job and JT made the game. He actually made a GT game exciting this year. Been missing those awesome big plays.

Johnson on his best days seems unhappy. But his comments about the defense after the game were severe even by his standards.

 

[Skeptic]

If JJ is out for a while then we have to put someone else back to return kicks....

Okay, I am just picking at you. But ...

 

[augustabuzz]

Why would anyone blitz against a dink and dunk offense? Why not keep the DL in front of the QB and try to block/deflect his passes?

 

[Skeptic]

I would instruct the returners to never bring the ball out of the end zone. You really cannot tell from the TV angle but it looks like no one is getting blocked at all. Every return attempt from inside the EZ appears to result in a (minimum) 5 yard loss of field position.

Assuming it is a reasonable depth -- five yards or less? -- then it's worth the risk of five yards to bring it out and head north. You should have enough faith in your offense to negate that.

 

[collegeballfan]

I would instruct the returners to never bring the ball out of the end zone. You really cannot tell from the TV angle but it looks like no one is getting blocked at all. Every return attempt from inside the EZ appears to result in a (minimum) 5 yard loss of field position.

Yeah this. Getting the ball at the 25 beats heck out of getting the ball on the 20.

 

[stech81]

If JJ is out for a while then we have to put someone else back to return kicks.

We could try something like not letting the other team score so much, that would cut back on the number of KO returns.

 

[4shotB]

Assuming it is a reasonable depth -- five yards or less? -- then it's worth the risk of five yards to bring it out and head north. You should have enough faith in your offense to negate that.

allow me to be the skeptic here, but if you always (or 95% of the time) start behind the 25 (say at the 20,15 or 10) why do it? A return attempt also carries a lot of risk (fumble, injury or penalty) that a touchback doesn't.

 

[iceeater1969]

Why would anyone blitz against a dink and dunk offense? Why not keep the DL in front of the QB and try to block/deflect his passes?

Very good point for short qb and wide receiver.
Duke qb and 3TE are 6'5"ish. it looked like w tried to keep hand up as they got close to qb. He had a quick release and seemed to know which guy would be wide open. He was not accurate on long passes or it could have been worse. pretty good qb for a freshman.

 

[Longestday]

Those returns were all traditional run calls due to location of the catch right at goal line. I think after the 3rd attempt we decided to try and take a touch back. The. the guy was not sure where he was on the goal line and decided to take it out. I saw him explaining to a coach and CPJ came by and took his side.

The issue was blocking.