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A quick disclaimer: I have some things planned for this afternoon so I watched in great detail for slightly more than a half and then FFWD to the last drive to save some time. I had seen what I needed to by that point in the game anyway.
The very first thing I need to do is give recognition to the Defensive Coordinator of BC and all of their defensive players. They played what I firmly believe to be the best game against us I have seen yet since starting these weekly film reviews several years ago. Additionally, I think #13 played as good an individual game as ever has been played against us during that time as well. That kid is NFL ready right now, like about 5 of his teammates, and he is smart. He plays with tremendous energy, is really really fast, and pretty much never takes a false step. #97, #93, #94, #8, and #9 are all special players at their positions. For many reasons, this was a tough tough assignment for our kids. If you are wondering if BC just isn't that good, and we are no better than 2015, just stop. They ARE that good. They were really tough to block on the interior and they had the speed and tackling ability to chase to the boundary at very shallow angles and not get passed. BC made the most of all the prep time that they boasted about. I was doubting the validity or the effectiveness of it, to be truthful. I am doubting no more. They threw a ton of looks at us and knew our tendencies even better than Bud Foster's groups over the years. They executed what they wanted to run and read our plays quicker than we could seemingly run them at times. I blinked at the tv screen on the first counter we ran, where our AB ran one way and the second level of their defense, without hesitation ran the other (in the actual direction of the play). They can't steal our signs, so I know they must see something. Much of the day they essentially had 9 in the box, feeling very confident that their talented CBs could play our guys alone. They have really good safeties and they played shallow and active in support of the run. I don't know the names of their alignments, but I saw these kinds of variations thrown at us on the fly:
A 5-2 with the odd man to the field side, shallow LBs and safeties at 7 yards aligned in the pitch lanes whether we have a player lined up their or not.
A 3-4 with a safety jumping in and out of the box.
A 3-3-1 underneath the safeties (which I have never seen)
A 4-3 with deep MLB (defense commonly played against us)
They had a LB making presnap reads and waving guys in and out of the box. I have no idea what they were reading because often, we were lined up the same way. We didn't throw a ton of formations at them.
So, with all this said, what do we make out of our performance? Honestly, I am proud of our kids. It was a sloppy track and a tough day to execute and they had their hands full with the guys in front of them. We had some execution errors (which I will highlight), but most of all, it was just a slobberknocking battle in there.
Obviously 2015 was a tough year for the OL. At this point, given the nature of the contest we just finished, you may be worried about 2016. Honestly, I came away from this viewing way more impressed and confident than I thought I would after seeing the game live. We had a tougher opponent, that was immediately palpable. With that said, we just looked better. We came off the ball faster and lower with more energy. Many times we had 4 really good blocks and one of their guys just made a great play, which is what great defenses do. I felt like we executed much better, with fewer errors for the most part. We did turn a few guys loose with disastrous results, but it wasn't continual. To my eye, several of our players have made steep gains since last year. Most noticeable to me were Klock and Devine, but in different ways. Klock played a solid game in my mind and established himself with physical play and quick feet. Shamire is doing more of the things we ask him to do better. He had some whiffs, but he got into space better and never got beat low like he had before. He seemed to have energy the entire game and, quite honestly, a little fire in his belly. Burden looked about like you would have hoped. He was once again getting held on his way to the second level continually. Why does this never get called? I mean, sometimes his shirt was stretching out 3 feet from behind his body and no call. It doesn't get more obvious than that. Bryan had a so so game IMHO but he does look bigger and up to the challenge of playing on the inside. Some of the stuff that happened to him was just bad luck, like getting tripped up and stuff. Fromayan is a different player. His pass protect was good and he did some good things. One of the things I liked was seeing us winning the battle of low on some short yardage situations against really good DLs. A couple of plays, Shamire got so much movement it was remeniscient of his predecessor. So, the short story is that there is some stuff to work on, but I really think we look better, significantly so. We shall see.
I am most worried and disappointed by the AB position. We just didn't get it done in the blocking phase and I mean nobody. There was ugly, like Ike and MLD (at WR) taking the same guy by mistake and MLD tackling him for a hold. Then there was also just ineffectual where we didn't get people on the ground, mis-timed our blocks, or just plain whiffed. They were really talented players we were going against, but jeeesh! This has to get better. I feel like we knew where to go, we just didn't do much when we got there. If ABs don't disrupt the flow, we are sunk. Green looks good as a runner, but I don't think he did much blocking before getting here. He is physical enough to supplant some people as a starter but he has to improve at this phase. Kudos to Qua for getting loose a couple times.
I like what I saw out of Mills. He blocks better than MM. That is the bottom line. Sometimes I felt like screaming at MM you are supposed to get in their way, not ours. Mills has a feel for the game and is tough to put on the ground. He pass protected well, but then also released looking for the ball after defenders got by him. Stuff like that.
I couldn't tell what was going on with WRs. They were never in the screen.
Justin missed some reads that cost us a few times, especially earlier in the game, but man, those plays he made in the last drive will be remembered for the ages. The spin out of the hands and chuck out of bounds to save time and 15 or so yards was crazy. The throw on 4th and 19. The fake throw, juke and run to the sideline for a positive gain and the crucial mid-line where he made the correct read and then juked the DL out of his jock and cut it up the middle for 8 were all H.U.G.E.
CPJ? That bunch formation BB toss play was huge. It was the only thing we could seem to get them sealed off with. Both TD's were on the same play. It worked when it busted. It worked when it didn't bust.
To sum it all up, I think we are a better offensive team than many might think. We have some stuff to work on, but we are fighters. The talk about conditioning in the offseason all looks true to me. I like what we have for the most part. I want to see some ABs step up and grab the job. We need better.
The very first thing I need to do is give recognition to the Defensive Coordinator of BC and all of their defensive players. They played what I firmly believe to be the best game against us I have seen yet since starting these weekly film reviews several years ago. Additionally, I think #13 played as good an individual game as ever has been played against us during that time as well. That kid is NFL ready right now, like about 5 of his teammates, and he is smart. He plays with tremendous energy, is really really fast, and pretty much never takes a false step. #97, #93, #94, #8, and #9 are all special players at their positions. For many reasons, this was a tough tough assignment for our kids. If you are wondering if BC just isn't that good, and we are no better than 2015, just stop. They ARE that good. They were really tough to block on the interior and they had the speed and tackling ability to chase to the boundary at very shallow angles and not get passed. BC made the most of all the prep time that they boasted about. I was doubting the validity or the effectiveness of it, to be truthful. I am doubting no more. They threw a ton of looks at us and knew our tendencies even better than Bud Foster's groups over the years. They executed what they wanted to run and read our plays quicker than we could seemingly run them at times. I blinked at the tv screen on the first counter we ran, where our AB ran one way and the second level of their defense, without hesitation ran the other (in the actual direction of the play). They can't steal our signs, so I know they must see something. Much of the day they essentially had 9 in the box, feeling very confident that their talented CBs could play our guys alone. They have really good safeties and they played shallow and active in support of the run. I don't know the names of their alignments, but I saw these kinds of variations thrown at us on the fly:
A 5-2 with the odd man to the field side, shallow LBs and safeties at 7 yards aligned in the pitch lanes whether we have a player lined up their or not.
A 3-4 with a safety jumping in and out of the box.
A 3-3-1 underneath the safeties (which I have never seen)
A 4-3 with deep MLB (defense commonly played against us)
They had a LB making presnap reads and waving guys in and out of the box. I have no idea what they were reading because often, we were lined up the same way. We didn't throw a ton of formations at them.
So, with all this said, what do we make out of our performance? Honestly, I am proud of our kids. It was a sloppy track and a tough day to execute and they had their hands full with the guys in front of them. We had some execution errors (which I will highlight), but most of all, it was just a slobberknocking battle in there.
Obviously 2015 was a tough year for the OL. At this point, given the nature of the contest we just finished, you may be worried about 2016. Honestly, I came away from this viewing way more impressed and confident than I thought I would after seeing the game live. We had a tougher opponent, that was immediately palpable. With that said, we just looked better. We came off the ball faster and lower with more energy. Many times we had 4 really good blocks and one of their guys just made a great play, which is what great defenses do. I felt like we executed much better, with fewer errors for the most part. We did turn a few guys loose with disastrous results, but it wasn't continual. To my eye, several of our players have made steep gains since last year. Most noticeable to me were Klock and Devine, but in different ways. Klock played a solid game in my mind and established himself with physical play and quick feet. Shamire is doing more of the things we ask him to do better. He had some whiffs, but he got into space better and never got beat low like he had before. He seemed to have energy the entire game and, quite honestly, a little fire in his belly. Burden looked about like you would have hoped. He was once again getting held on his way to the second level continually. Why does this never get called? I mean, sometimes his shirt was stretching out 3 feet from behind his body and no call. It doesn't get more obvious than that. Bryan had a so so game IMHO but he does look bigger and up to the challenge of playing on the inside. Some of the stuff that happened to him was just bad luck, like getting tripped up and stuff. Fromayan is a different player. His pass protect was good and he did some good things. One of the things I liked was seeing us winning the battle of low on some short yardage situations against really good DLs. A couple of plays, Shamire got so much movement it was remeniscient of his predecessor. So, the short story is that there is some stuff to work on, but I really think we look better, significantly so. We shall see.
I am most worried and disappointed by the AB position. We just didn't get it done in the blocking phase and I mean nobody. There was ugly, like Ike and MLD (at WR) taking the same guy by mistake and MLD tackling him for a hold. Then there was also just ineffectual where we didn't get people on the ground, mis-timed our blocks, or just plain whiffed. They were really talented players we were going against, but jeeesh! This has to get better. I feel like we knew where to go, we just didn't do much when we got there. If ABs don't disrupt the flow, we are sunk. Green looks good as a runner, but I don't think he did much blocking before getting here. He is physical enough to supplant some people as a starter but he has to improve at this phase. Kudos to Qua for getting loose a couple times.
I like what I saw out of Mills. He blocks better than MM. That is the bottom line. Sometimes I felt like screaming at MM you are supposed to get in their way, not ours. Mills has a feel for the game and is tough to put on the ground. He pass protected well, but then also released looking for the ball after defenders got by him. Stuff like that.
I couldn't tell what was going on with WRs. They were never in the screen.
Justin missed some reads that cost us a few times, especially earlier in the game, but man, those plays he made in the last drive will be remembered for the ages. The spin out of the hands and chuck out of bounds to save time and 15 or so yards was crazy. The throw on 4th and 19. The fake throw, juke and run to the sideline for a positive gain and the crucial mid-line where he made the correct read and then juked the DL out of his jock and cut it up the middle for 8 were all H.U.G.E.
CPJ? That bunch formation BB toss play was huge. It was the only thing we could seem to get them sealed off with. Both TD's were on the same play. It worked when it busted. It worked when it didn't bust.
To sum it all up, I think we are a better offensive team than many might think. We have some stuff to work on, but we are fighters. The talk about conditioning in the offseason all looks true to me. I like what we have for the most part. I want to see some ABs step up and grab the job. We need better.
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