I can't emphasize enough how ready these guys were compared to most teams we go against. For example, when we would run counter option the "supposed" play side LBs and safeties would flow with the fake motion, but the "supposed" back side guy would fire to the "real playside" LOS immediately without hesitation as if he knew the counter was coming. I haven't really seen this yet. If you wonder why we didn't run a lot of counter, this is why.
Have not reviewed tape, so this is from memory, but it seemed like the counter worked when we used a variation of it. We ran it left and I think had an extra receiver on that side for blocking. We also flowed right with the A back stopping dead in his tracks and then running back to the left. The pitch, if I remember, came early and was in lieu of a hand off as in a more traditional counter. We had the numbers each time we ran this and got decent yards.
He didn't get going up field enough to force commits and he didn't dive forward for 2 yards when it was there, preferring to do the HS play where you run around and keep things alive hoping to break free. ND is a fast defense and they weren't going to be outflanked like that, but they could have been out executed if we played right.
Saw this early and often and it frustrated the heck out of me.
At BB Skov continues to play hard. He had some brain cramps at times too. I have to remind myself that he is a rookie here. When he ran on the wrong side of JT on that midline in the RZ I felt like throwing my fist through the wall.
Poor guy. He was the best player on the field for most of the day but because everybody else screwed up at one time or another (some times often) we needed him to be perfect. I still think we needed to run him more early in the game and just keep pounding. We still would have had several three and outs but his value is in loosening up the defense for later in the game. It felt like we were really not patient early in the game.
I am sure CPJ feels bad about this loss, maybe more than some other losses because we weren't really ready in a lot of ways, whether schematically or frame of mind. I could see we were tight when the game started. I could see we were a little confused.
I would be curious about why we came to the line and got under center with 8 seconds left on the play clock. I have heard several explanations for this including the fact that the refs did not take their hand off the ball for extended periods because they had to wait for the Notre Dame substitutions. Since we basically substitute every play the opposing team has to be given time to make their substitution. Was CPJ just out coached at this point? Anyway, what ever was going on I have never seen Tech so slow to get to the line, take so long on reads and be so indecisive looking. I would be curious if you picked up anything on the film review.
