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First off I want to preface the entire write up with a general observation about our opponent this week. I don't think they were particularly good on defense. In reality, they only had a couple good athletes who were nasty players. Their bigs were terrible. They had some size but there wasn't a lot of toughness or tenacity there. They are behind a lot of teams in this regard. They were bigger than Wofford, but I don't think as tough. While I do think we are blocking well, I think it was a little to easy to get their players on the ground. Whatever work they did to get ready, they sure didn't look as well prepared as a lot of teams we face in terms of defeating the cut block. It was almost as if they had never seen it. By the end of the game, they looked like a big fish that was ready to be pulled into the boat. I thought their number 20 was a good player, but they played him too deep in the middle and expected him to sprint sideline to sideline all game in 100 degrees.
Tulane lined up against us in a bit of an odd formation that wasn't really suited to their personnel. It looked like a combo of what Miami used to do with that super fast dude they had playing in the middle a couple years ago and Syracuse last year. They played 4 up front with 3 LBs behind with the MLB as deep as 9 yards off the ball. They had their safeties about the depth we are used to seeing but they were spread very wide to give support to the boundary and fill the flats quickly. This allowed the CBs to press or play back and seemingly move at will. It was a safe way to play, but it wasn't going to get them to the plays in time to make tackles on the field where they needed to. In my mind, the only way that alignment was going to work for them was if we continued handing them the ball. At times they rushed the OLBs up and attempted to blitz the A gaps like we have seen, but we handled it much better this game.
Our OL dominated their guys in the trench and generally got a ton of movement at the point of attack. Mason was good as always. Although I'm not sure Griffin played as well as last week, he was still effective. I would say the same about Burden. I like what I saw from #50 as the sub at center (Marshall?) when he wasn't pass blocking. He is definitely better coming off the ball then catching people in pass pro. The left side is a bit of a drop off, if you ask me. Braun was OK, but when you compare him to Mason he pales. Once again Chamberlain just makes me shake my head. He got subbed by Joe some and quite frankly I thought Joe looked better. Maybe he was just fresh going against hot and tired players. I was really surprised Devine didn't see any time. There must be something going on below the surface we don't know about. As far as I know Braun played the whole game. That may have impacted his effort level some (heat). As far as I know, only Marshall and Joe subbed at all, unless I missed something.
AB blocking was very effective. Bostic is the weakest, but after him, it is really happening at a high level. The group looks unselfish. Perkins is really getting it done. He whiffed one block I saw, but the rest were devastating. Hill was good and so was Zenon. Pretty much every one of them had room to run yesterday. As I said earlier, I think they drew an easy assignment today. Either that, or they have really raised the bar. There were lots of bodies on the ground.
WR blocking was really good once again. Smelter either ran his guy out of the play feigning pass or he totally controlled him with the stand up game. Messick about killed a tired guy late in the game with a chest high crack back. It reminded me of Smelter's last year in the bowl.
Justin had some good and bad going on. Obviously he puts a ton of pressure on the defense with his speed. He once again was a guy that was hard to keep up with, for BOTH teams. We have a little problem developing with timing of pitch plays. It seems we can't keep pitch relation (too close) and when he does pitch, sometimes JT puts too much mustard on it for the proximity of the pitch guy. He made good reads and we actually got some midline going, which I thought was a great call against their alignment. When he gets into space, watch out. At first viewing I thought he was awful in the pass game. He over threw one that was there, but on another throw to a wheel (I believe) he got hit in the legs stepping into the throw causing the throw to sail out of bounds. I didn't see that live. The completions were easy throws. However, it must be said that if we threw a lot Saturday, then we would just be throwing for the sake of throwing, not to beat them, because the runs were there all day. We would have been doing them a favor. Early in the game JT was maddeningly careless with the ball. That first fumble was horrible. He had the ball out there and it appeared to me he could see the guy coming who swatted it out. That second fumbled pitch was sloppy and the pick he threw was a really bad choice. I guess we should expect some of this from a young guy, but lets be clear, these were unforced errors. Without them this game was a wash in our favor, as it should have been.
In summary, it is hard to know what to take away from this game other than we played sloppy and were still able to beat an inferior opponent. I have every expectation that Tulane will finish near the bottom of their league. We have to play better. There is some good stuff going on, but the unforced errors have to stop. Soon teams will be forcing enough errors on their own without us helping.
Tulane lined up against us in a bit of an odd formation that wasn't really suited to their personnel. It looked like a combo of what Miami used to do with that super fast dude they had playing in the middle a couple years ago and Syracuse last year. They played 4 up front with 3 LBs behind with the MLB as deep as 9 yards off the ball. They had their safeties about the depth we are used to seeing but they were spread very wide to give support to the boundary and fill the flats quickly. This allowed the CBs to press or play back and seemingly move at will. It was a safe way to play, but it wasn't going to get them to the plays in time to make tackles on the field where they needed to. In my mind, the only way that alignment was going to work for them was if we continued handing them the ball. At times they rushed the OLBs up and attempted to blitz the A gaps like we have seen, but we handled it much better this game.
Our OL dominated their guys in the trench and generally got a ton of movement at the point of attack. Mason was good as always. Although I'm not sure Griffin played as well as last week, he was still effective. I would say the same about Burden. I like what I saw from #50 as the sub at center (Marshall?) when he wasn't pass blocking. He is definitely better coming off the ball then catching people in pass pro. The left side is a bit of a drop off, if you ask me. Braun was OK, but when you compare him to Mason he pales. Once again Chamberlain just makes me shake my head. He got subbed by Joe some and quite frankly I thought Joe looked better. Maybe he was just fresh going against hot and tired players. I was really surprised Devine didn't see any time. There must be something going on below the surface we don't know about. As far as I know Braun played the whole game. That may have impacted his effort level some (heat). As far as I know, only Marshall and Joe subbed at all, unless I missed something.
AB blocking was very effective. Bostic is the weakest, but after him, it is really happening at a high level. The group looks unselfish. Perkins is really getting it done. He whiffed one block I saw, but the rest were devastating. Hill was good and so was Zenon. Pretty much every one of them had room to run yesterday. As I said earlier, I think they drew an easy assignment today. Either that, or they have really raised the bar. There were lots of bodies on the ground.
WR blocking was really good once again. Smelter either ran his guy out of the play feigning pass or he totally controlled him with the stand up game. Messick about killed a tired guy late in the game with a chest high crack back. It reminded me of Smelter's last year in the bowl.
Justin had some good and bad going on. Obviously he puts a ton of pressure on the defense with his speed. He once again was a guy that was hard to keep up with, for BOTH teams. We have a little problem developing with timing of pitch plays. It seems we can't keep pitch relation (too close) and when he does pitch, sometimes JT puts too much mustard on it for the proximity of the pitch guy. He made good reads and we actually got some midline going, which I thought was a great call against their alignment. When he gets into space, watch out. At first viewing I thought he was awful in the pass game. He over threw one that was there, but on another throw to a wheel (I believe) he got hit in the legs stepping into the throw causing the throw to sail out of bounds. I didn't see that live. The completions were easy throws. However, it must be said that if we threw a lot Saturday, then we would just be throwing for the sake of throwing, not to beat them, because the runs were there all day. We would have been doing them a favor. Early in the game JT was maddeningly careless with the ball. That first fumble was horrible. He had the ball out there and it appeared to me he could see the guy coming who swatted it out. That second fumbled pitch was sloppy and the pick he threw was a really bad choice. I guess we should expect some of this from a young guy, but lets be clear, these were unforced errors. Without them this game was a wash in our favor, as it should have been.
In summary, it is hard to know what to take away from this game other than we played sloppy and were still able to beat an inferior opponent. I have every expectation that Tulane will finish near the bottom of their league. We have to play better. There is some good stuff going on, but the unforced errors have to stop. Soon teams will be forcing enough errors on their own without us helping.
