Film Study Film Study - Offense vs Duke

[Wrecking Ball]

Something else to keep in mind that PJ pointed out in the post-game presser: our skill guys aren't making plays either when they have the ball. In particular, when asked about the B-Backs he said that they aren't finding the creases that DO show up. Yes, our OL has been playing very weird. But we've also got 3 new B-Backs, one of whom is a "bull in a china shop", another who dances too much, and a third who can't stay healthy, but is possibly the best of the bunch.

I do apologize in advance for the commercial, but GT Bob does such a good job with these videos that he deserves a few bucks for his hard work.

GT Final drive vs. UGA

Despite Laskey bobbling the ball, watch how many times he cuts to find a crease. And not picking on Skov, but I get the feeling he probably would've lowered his head and just rammed into Perkins' back ... again, due to years of training to just put his head down and bull forward. By his own admission he said he is a contact-oriented runner.

But I feel this whole series demonstrates what we did so well last year vs. what we are not doing well this year.

The sequence of plays from the Laskey belly play go

Belly Left
Rocket Left
Dive Right (it's subtle, but watch his cut after he gets the ball)
Rocket Right (note the cut back inside, despite the play being designed to go outside)
Belly Right (from Heavy Right formation)

The companion play to the Belly is the Rocket Sweep. Note the last two plays go Rocket Right and Belly Right. On the Belly play Justin reverse pivots, extends his arms as if he's tossing to Perk, but gives to Laskey. Perk carries out the fake catch and the OLB and CB fire up to stop him ... except ... oops ... Laskey has the ball inside for a TD.

So why aren't we running Rocket Sweep to set up Belly? It's a good question. Maybe PJ just isn't confident enough to run it with young A-Backs and WRs. He's said that if something doesn't look good in practice he won't call it in a game (makes sense to me). Maybe in practice we look like this:

(note the whiffs by the inside WR and the A-Back on the OLB - credit to the back for outrunning guys):

Rocket Sweep almost blown up

Notre Dame certainly has the athletes on defense to bring the ball carrier down, and even Duke has upgraded its talent recently. At the level we play, I seriously doubt there's anyone in the league other than perhaps Wake Forest that we can just flat-out outrun.

tldr; our OL isn't playing well, but the skill guys aren't helping.

Growing pains. We need to play Shamire in to shape and get Burden healthy. The attitude issues addressed elsewhere concern me, and I don't know a fix for that besides a quick hook and putting in one of the 500 freshmen.

 

[Techster]

So why aren't we running Rocket Sweep to set up Belly? It's a good question. Maybe PJ just isn't confident enough to run it with young A-Backs and WRs. He's said that if something doesn't look good in practice he won't call it in a game (makes sense to me). Maybe in practice we look like this:

I thought the rocket toss was working well against Duke...the few times CPJ would actually call it. The one time it really didn't work was when Lynch for some reason stopped and tried to cut back then decided to take it up field.

The rocket toss was actually one of the few plays we got consistent good yardage out of. I wish he would have called the rocket toss on 4th and 2 to the wide side with Snoddy and let him make a play with his speed as opposed the dive into the box loaded with defenders.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

Would a players only meeting to address leadership help? Whoever smirked at CPJ needs a smacking from a player leader.

 

[MWBATL]

To me, the whole thing comes down the our second to last offensive series. We had just intercepted Duke on their 35 with something like 6 minutes left tin the game. Plenty of time, No rush. We get 7 yards on first down on a QB follow up the middle.

Then, the next three plays, we try up the middle and get all of one yard total to turn the ball over on downs. To me, that summarized the game and our offensive woes. If you watch those plays our G-C-G blocking failed each time. Yes, they overloaded the middle and expect us to run straight ahead and we obliged them. But, we were either trying to cut block them or we were being pushed down because our central linemen wound up on the ground and their interior men were stepping past us to make stops in the holes. With two of those guys back out of the three interior linemen, I would never have expected that in a million years.

Say all you want about young A backs and B backs, but to me the interior line lost this game on those three plays (Yes, I know the game consisted of many other opportunities etc etc...but that, THAT, was our chance and we messed on our own helmets there.) Lackey and Days wouldn't have been able to get anything out of those plays last year, imho. They were being met by at least two guys in the hole on each and every play.

End of story, imho.

 

[IronJacket7]

By my count there were 69 ineffective blocks in 82 offensive snaps.

Really enjoy your posts Boomer.

Question about this particular sentence. How did you come up with these numbers? What qualifies as an ineffective block? Is this for one play or multiple ineffective blocks on one play? Is what you are quantifying the same as a "loaf" or?

I love our offense and am questioning because I want to understand better what we are doing right/wrong and feel you probably know better than myself.

 

[bke1984]

JT has to settle down in the pocket some too. I feel for him bc that's easier said than done with the breakdowns we have had in pass pro. Kinda like telling a boxer to keep his gloves up when the other guy has been blasting his midsection.

He looks just like every other quarterback at every level of football that tries to throw deep down field when being pressured. You flat out can't do it. Pass protection needs to improve if we want to execute those plays. Otherwise we need to hit some quick passes to neutralize the pressure.

 

[Minawreck]

To me, the whole thing comes down the our second to last offensive series. We had just intercepted Duke on their 35 with something like 6 minutes left tin the game. Plenty of time, No rush. We get 7 yards on first down on a QB follow up the middle.

Then, the next three plays, we try up the middle and get all of one yard total to turn the ball over on downs. To me, that summarized the game and our offensive woes. If you watch those plays our G-C-G blocking failed each time. Yes, they overloaded the middle and expect us to run straight ahead and we obliged them. But, we were either trying to cut block them or we were being pushed down because our central linemen wound up on the ground and their interior men were stepping past us to make stops in the holes. With two of those guys back out of the three interior linemen, I would never have expected that in a million years.

Say all you want about young A backs and B backs, but to me the interior line lost this game on those three plays (Yes, I know the game consisted of many other opportunities etc etc...but that, THAT, was our chance and we messed on our own helmets there.) Lackey and Days wouldn't have been able to get anything out of those plays last year, imho. They were being met by at least two guys in the hole on each and every play.

End of story, imho.

I was very much in awe as to how that unfolded. I was thinking with the way the defense was going and Butker was kicking we maybe should've just tried for the long FG, but I didn't totally disagree with the call to go for it. Even the play call. I mean we HAVE to be able to push Duke off the line.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

If we can't get a couple yards up the gut, we don't deserve to win. We didn't and we didn't.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

Would a players only meeting to address leadership help? Whoever smirked at CPJ needs a smacking from a player leader.

This same thing has come to me a dozen times since Saturday. It might be time for the captains to call a meeting and do some yellin' and hollerin' about focus and so on.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I'm not so sure we're reading too much into the "smirk." When CPJ is hot, he says a lot of colorful/comical things. He may have told one guy to get his head out of his arse and another guy thought it funny, I dunno and neither does anybody else.

If somebody did, in fact, smirk as a sign of disrespect, that is a very bad sign and a team leader needs to set him straight.

 

[kg01]

This same thing has come to me a dozen times since Saturday. It might be time for the captains to call a meeting and do some yellin' and hollerin' about focus and so on.

That's something I hope happens and I hope we never hear anything about it but start seeing the results from it.

 

[JorgeJonas]

All this talk about leadership is, I think, misguided. There are very tangible reasons why we're struggling, and none of them include leadership. We need each player to, as Derrick Moore would say, "take his assignment seriously." Unless or until that happens, we could have the most leadership in the world and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

Thanks for the write-up. Perhaps a stupid question, but how can we be sure a player blew an assignment if we don't know the playcall?

 

[dressedcheeseside]

All this talk about leadership is, I think, misguided. There are very tangible reasons why we're struggling, and none of them include leadership. We need each player to, as Derrick Moore would say, "take his assignment seriously." Unless or until that happens, we could have the most leadership in the world and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

Thanks for the write-up. Perhaps a stupid question, but how can we be sure a player blew an assignment if we don't know the playcall?

In film review you can figure out the play call after a second or two most of the time. Also, you can see who our guys are trying to get on the ground because they are lunging at them and missing. Watch Longestday's film reviews and you'll learn a lot. He knows who's supposed to get who and points it out very well. He never throws guys under the bus and I appreciate that, too.

 

[JorgeJonas]

In film review you can figure out the play call after a second or two most of the time. Also, you can see who our guys are trying to get on the ground because they are lunging at them and missing. Watch Longestday's film reviews and you'll learn a lot. He knows who's supposed to get who and points it out very well. He never throws guys under the bus and I appreciate that, too.

Sure, I get that. I guess I hear Johnson a lot say "we turned a guy loose" or something to that effect and I just wonder how we account for that. Obviously, this stuff isn't perfect, so I guess it's more of a compass than a GPS. Still helpful - and cathartic - though.

 

[Techster]

If we can't get a couple yards up the gut, we don't deserve to win. We didn't and we didn't.

I hear this line often from various fans, and it's silly. It ignores the reality of math.

Duke had 8 guys in the box, against essentially 5 blockers. The ABs are non-factors blocking on a dive. If proving a point is more important than a win, well, I guess the "If we can't get so-and-so, we don't deserve it" crowd got exactly what they wanted.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I hear this line often from various fans, and it's silly. It ignores the reality of math.

Duke had 8 guys in the box, against essentially 5 blockers. The ABs are non-factors blocking on a dive. If proving a point is more important than a win, well, I guess the "If we can't get so-and-so, we don't deserve it" crowd got exactly what they wanted.

Don't we have checks when the called play is an obvious loss?

 

[Techster]

Don't we have checks when the called play is an obvious loss?

Supposedly we have "check to me" calls if the QB sees something that isn't favorable in terms of numbers and defensive alignment. Unfortunately, it looks like our offense didn't get that sheet for last week's game plan.

 

[steebu]

I hear this line often from various fans, and it's silly. It ignores the reality of math.

Duke had 8 guys in the box, against essentially 5 blockers. The ABs are non-factors blocking on a dive. If proving a point is more important than a win, well, I guess the "If we can't get so-and-so, we don't deserve it" crowd got exactly what they wanted.

Don't know that I'd say that the PSA is a non-factor blocking on the dive.

You are ignoring two key points:

1. Defenses that play us do not fly to ball.
2. Several of those eight guys have specific assignments, so even though a safety walks up he may not be assigned the B-Back; he might be assigned the pitch or just told to fill the option alley. Quite often you'll see us run the triple and guys in the box start flying wide, heading to their assignment.

Here's a video from FTRS indicating as such:



Note #1 (DE) and #2 (OLB stacked behind him); they ignore the B-Back and read their assignment. This was a clear give read and very unfortunately Justin pulled trying to make something happen. PJ referred to this very play in this post-game commentary and said Justin was pressing trying to make something happen.

There are other very bad things happening here ... and this play just embodies everything that went wrong on Saturday.

Today's correction day - so hopefully our guys get it fixed.

 

[JorgeJonas]

Don't know that I'd say that the PSA is a non-factor blocking on the dive.

You are ignoring two key points:

1. Defenses that play us do not fly to ball.
2. Several of those eight guys have specific assignments, so even though a safety walks up he may not be assigned the B-Back; he might be assigned the pitch or just told to fill the option alley. Quite often you'll see us run the triple and guys in the box start flying wide, heading to their assignment.

Here's a video from FTRS indicating as such:



Note #1 (DE) and #2 (OLB stacked behind him); they ignore the B-Back and read their assignment. This was a clear give read and very unfortunately Justin pulled trying to make something happen. PJ referred to this very play in this post-game commentary and said Justin was pressing trying to make something happen.

There are other very bad things happening here ... and this play just embodies everything that went wrong on Saturday.

Today's correction day - so hopefully our guys get it fixed.

It also suggests that the players don't know where to go. Poor Brad Stewart is trying to hit someone (anyone!) and ends up hitting two guys but not doing anything. They need to confidently go execute their blocks, irrespective of what else is going on in the play.

Also worth pointing out that the line got a really good push on the play. They're capable!

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Don't know that I'd say that the PSA is a non-factor blocking on the dive.

You are ignoring two key points:

1. Defenses that play us do not fly to ball.
2. Several of those eight guys have specific assignments, so even though a safety walks up he may not be assigned the B-Back; he might be assigned the pitch or just told to fill the option alley. Quite often you'll see us run the triple and guys in the box start flying wide, heading to their assignment.

Here's a video from FTRS indicating as such:



Note #1 (DE) and #2 (OLB stacked behind him); they ignore the B-Back and read their assignment. This was a clear give read and very unfortunately Justin pulled trying to make something happen. PJ referred to this very play in this post-game commentary and said Justin was pressing trying to make something happen.

There are other very bad things happening here ... and this play just embodies everything that went wrong on Saturday.

Today's correction day - so hopefully our guys get it fixed.

nm.