FIlm Study - Offense vs UNC

Boomergump

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Wow. That was a hard film to watch, not because we executed poorly, well, not as poorly as we have been, but rather, because we had sooo many chances to steer the outcome in our favor. In general, I would say we did a much better job of executing the basics and looked more like a cohesive team. We just left some plays out on the field that would have won the game for us.

I would say UNC was the third best defense we have faced so far. They presented a worthy challenge, but we just aren't ready as an offense to capitalize on everything that was there. They played pretty vanilla 4-3 with the deep MLB, pretty much like we would see from VT or last week at DUKE. They kept it simple and just ran a lot of the normal stuff. I think they made it a priority to force us to get the ball to the edge, where we might be a little short athletically. I saw some A-Gap blitz and fake blitz. I saw some cross charge and actually a fake cross charge where the LB ran at the dive (forcing the keep) and then just ran right past Skov to the QB, surprising him and blowing up the play. Pretty risky, but it worked. Had the read been missed and the give happened, Skov might still be running. They fired CBs a couple times, but not a lot. This was the safe defense that was content to slow us down. There were no players that "stood out" to me like the last couple of weeks. Maybe #10 at MLB. He flowed pretty quickly some times and was a good tackler.

I'll start with the ABs. The guys we have out there starting right now are the guys who are most ready to play. They are, but they are just not athletic enough to be the guys carrying the load against big and fast teams. The lack of speed at the position yesterday was palpable and prevented some big gains or explosion plays. I have been tough on IW, especially for his blocking recently. I have to give the kid props. He played his best game to date. He timed his blocks better and got better angles while helping many plays succeed. With the ball in his hands he was just a step slow to get a corner or take it to the house up the seam like BS, TM, or QS would have. He made respectable gains on several plays. The problem was, there was more to get, if you know what I mean. CL is another, who played well yesterday. He is developing, but he is also not an "explosive" player who the defenses fear. He gets the job done. We need weapons at this position but we are just getting it done. MLD was a breath of fresh air and second-hand smoke all at the same time. He obviously is the best athlete on the field for us at AB yesterday. He needs to keep playing, but he left some blocks out there and made some bad choices. There were some really good blocks too. Don't get me wrong. It was just a mixed bag. Clearly, he is a guy we need to get going to give us a lift. LG made his debut there. That was a surprise. However, there really wasn't enough snaps to form any kind of opinion.

At BB, things are not progressing the way I really expected. I like the way Skov protects the ball and runs physically, but there is really no vision or cutting to his game just yet. I still have vivid memory of a play in the south RZ where we went unbalanced left and pulled TB on the play. We had the entire left side of the field sealed off. The handoff lead PS right towards Trey's back. If he cuts outside off the handoff, like I believe a seasoned BB would have (we saw it from SD last year) that play scores. Instead, it went straight into the teeth of the defense. It just seems to me that we aren't actually finding the creases or the weak points in the D enough on the dive plays. MA made a couple of nice vision related cuts when he was in. However, there weren't enough carries to amount to anything. I understand we have to get moving forward fast at the position, but we just have to be able to put a foot in the ground sometimes and change direction.

It is really hard for me to comment on the WRs. The broadcast was so zoomed in all the time that they out of the screen unless the ball came to them. It appeared they got shucked by defenders a little less. I only saw one screw up communication-wise between WRs and ABs on who to take. It blew a play up, but it was a single play.

I felt like the OL played better. I really do. We got to the second level better and disrupted things out there better. We dumped some guys on their heads or at least nudged them off their path with greater frequency. For the most part we made good blocks on the interior. SD looked better scooping back side and both OTs had a better game IMHO. If it was a situation where the DL wasn't worried about getting low, I think we got the best of them. In goal line, we let them get under us again, plus I am not so sure we executed those plays right. If we can't do the QB follow any better than that, a straight sneak or FB dive would be better. We need a good bit of practice time coming up devoted to goal line IMHO. It aint working. We are not the lower team up front and we are not timing the plays right.

At QB, JT played better, but he made some soph slump type of mistakes too. No QB makes good throws every play, but he missed two pretty simple throws that had "big gain" written all over them. His critical fumble needed to be a pull pitch in one motion. His hesitation allowed the LB to get a hand in there. I thought he missed a couple pitch reads (needed to gett he ball out there) but did better at turning up field without dancing around as much. I don't know how the QBs are coached to run the QB follow at the goal line, but it seems to me that you can't try to run into the pile ahead of, or beside, your BB, not without a gaping hole that is. By now, that play is no surprise to defenses and they are hell bent on stuffing that gap. They are committing everything they have to each side of center and we are oblidging them. On those plays we always have a motioning AB. Why? It seems to me a pitch is pretty much always there and we NEVER take it. Yesterday, we could have faked the follow and floated a pitch out there to nothing but green grass.

We were good enough on offense yesterday to win a lot of games, just not this one. The entire game was right there on a platter for us if we just didn't shoot ourselves in the foot at critical moments. I think we controlled the game and the clock like it needed to be in order to win. Unfortunately, the defense didn't help as much yesterday, and when we needed to bail them out, we just didn't step up. That sequence of failed 3rd and 4th and goal from the 1, and the following fumble after forcing the punt from the EZ will live in infamy. If we are honest, we all knew UNC would score some. They did. However, we got the lead early and just needed to answer a few times along the way to maintain a gap. Like everybody here and the kids in the locker room, I am disappointed with the loss. However, I think the level of play on our part was better and it is something to build on. Let's just get some of our guys back on the field.
 

Jay Alexander

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271
I thought MLD could have picked up 25 yards easily on the dropped "lateral" at the end of the game. He and Brad Stewart not being able to get out of bounds on their receptions were critical mistakes.
 

bob4gt

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158
Thanks again for doing this. It is really helpful in easing the pain.
Are you going to do the defense?

Bob
 

CuseJacket

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Another good write-up Boomer.

Agree 100% on lack of speed/playmakers at AB. More obvious yesterday when they had room to work than in previous weeks. Rings true what CPJ said post-Duke game in that we can block a play well, but we don't have the horses to gash the defense. Instead of getting 20-25 yards we're getting 5-10. Really reduces our margin for error when we're running more plays to achieve the same result i.e., a TD.

Good news is, fingers crossed, we may have Snoddy and T Marshall back before the end of the season. Continued improvement from the current group should elevate the eventual rotation with those two guys in the mix. Add in Summers and we may have some weapons come November.

Additional thoughts here, posted before I saw your thread: https://gtswarm.com/threads/unc-postgame.8163/page-10#post-182693
 

Yaller Jacket

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992
For once I noticed some of the same things live as Boomer talks about. The TO looked considerably crisper this week, although I still don't think Justin is running it quite as quickly as late last year.

Skov has another issue besides not making cuts after he goes through the line, or so it seems to me. I don't think he hits the hole quick enough either. Or maybe Syngyn and Zach just spoiled me. I would like to see more of Allen and Marshall.

Justin thrre the ball well overall, but it kills me that he still misses touchdowns on mid to long throws because he throws it on a line instead of putting more air under it.

Loved the quarterback counter, I'll call it. The play where all the blockers and all the pursuit flowed one way and Justin took it the other.

Never seen our As look so good at running routes.

Cuse, I thought I heard T Marhall was gonna play this week. But he didn't. Is there no chance he or Snoddy will be ready by next Saturday? It is depressing to think of taking on Clemson without more of a big play threat from the As.
 

Lee

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841
Boomer, that play to Skov you were talking about really stood out to me as well. I saw it open up as it was happening from my seats. His first move is to put his head down it seems when he gets the ball. While I agree that is a play where Days would've put his foot in the ground and bounced it outside for a big gain/td, I don't necessarily think it has as much to do with being seasoned as it does having vision and a feel for running the ball.

@Boomergump is it just me or does it seem like Justin is not attacking the pitch read like he should be? I understand part of what I'm seeing is the lack of explosiveness with some of the current abacks, but I feel like the pitch read being able to force the pitch from JT and still get out to the aback to make the play or at least disrupt it.

Lands-Davis was impressive with the ball in his hands as well as catching the ball. Once he learns where to go, he will be a big asset moving forward.
 

gtg936g

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I really like the tight set we ran near the goal line. That was an easy TD if the BB hits the correct hole. I must admit the BB position must be much harder to learn than I thought. We had several plays where we either blocked wrong or ran to the wrong side.

I like the tight set because we can use our ABs as receivers or blockers, and can run just about anything out of that set. I hope we see it more. We need to get some guys back and just continue getting better.

We are in trouble if we don't get more production out of the BB. I think Paul ran the follow plays because he trusted Justin more that Skov. We need Jordan on the field even if it is just short yardage or goal line sets. IMO. He can get those tough yards.

My honest opinion is that UNC has the least amount of talent on D on our side of the ACC. They benefitted by our lack of speed. Snoddy could have burned them on a few plays.

Who had the pink cast on their hand at the game? Was that Snoddy?
 

Lee

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We are in trouble if we don't get more production out of the BB. I think Paul ran the follow plays because he trusted Justin more that Skov. We need Jordan on the field even if it is just short yardage or goal line sets. IMO. He can get those tough yards.

This is where we miss Byerly. I don't know if I would put Jordan in that situation though. It may be because I saw him fumble a snap from the coach when they were running routes in warmups, but that's a tough spot to trust a guy that has only played a very limited number of snaps. I do agree we could use his physicality down there, I would just be worried about the exchange.

I much prefer us to just exploit the perimeter that was there for the taking.
 

Boomergump

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Oh, I forgot to mention, I am not positive, but I thought I saw (from the north stands live during the game)that we narrowed our splits up just a bit. I am not positive. On DVR from the sidleine view it is hard to tell, but the few shots from the EZ camera made it seem so to me. Anybody else have some thoughts on that?
 

alagold

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Wow. That was a hard film to watch, not because we executed poorly, well, not as poorly as we have been, but rather, because we had sooo many chances to steer the outcome in our favor. In general, I would say we did a much better job of executing the basics and looked more like a cohesive team. We just left some plays out on the field that would have won the game for us.

I would say UNC was the third best defense we have faced so far. They presented a worthy challenge, but we just aren't ready as an offense to capitalize on everything that was there. They played pretty vanilla 4-3 with the deep MLB, pretty much like we would see from VT or last week at DUKE. They kept it simple and just ran a lot of the normal stuff. I think they made it a priority to force us to get the ball to the edge, where we might be a little short athletically. I saw some A-Gap blitz and fake blitz. I saw some cross charge and actually a fake cross charge where the LB ran at the dive (forcing the keep) and then just ran right past Skov to the QB, surprising him and blowing up the play. Pretty risky, but it worked. Had the read been missed and the give happened, Skov might still be running. They fired CBs a couple times, but not a lot. This was the safe defense that was content to slow us down. There were no players that "stood out" to me like the last couple of weeks. Maybe #10 at MLB. He flowed pretty quickly some times and was a good tackler.

I'll start with the ABs. The guys we have out there starting right now are the guys who are most ready to play. They are, but they are just not athletic enough to be the guys carrying the load against big and fast teams. The lack of speed at the position yesterday was palpable and prevented some big gains or explosion plays. I have been tough on IW, especially for his blocking recently. I have to give the kid props. He played his best game to date. He timed his blocks better and got better angles while helping many plays succeed. With the ball in his hands he was just a step slow to get a corner or take it to the house up the seam like BS, TM, or QS would have. He made respectable gains on several plays. The problem was, there was more to get, if you know what I mean. CL is another, who played well yesterday. He is developing, but he is also not an "explosive" player who the defenses fear. He gets the job done. We need weapons at this position but we are just getting it done. MLD was a breath of fresh air and second-hand smoke all at the same time. He obviously is the best athlete on the field for us at AB yesterday. He needs to keep playing, but he left some blocks out there and made some bad choices. There were some really good blocks too. Don't get me wrong. It was just a mixed bag. Clearly, he is a guy we need to get going to give us a lift. LG made his debut there. That was a surprise. However, there really wasn't enough snaps to form any kind of opinion.

At BB, things are not progressing the way I really expected. I like the way Skov protects the ball and runs physically, but there is really no vision or cutting to his game just yet. I still have vivid memory of a play in the south RZ where we went unbalanced left and pulled TB on the play. We had the entire left side of the field sealed off. The handoff lead PS right towards Trey's back. If he cuts outside off the handoff, like I believe a seasoned BB would have (we saw it from SD last year) that play scores. Instead, it went straight into the teeth of the defense. It just seems to me that we aren't actually finding the creases or the weak points in the D enough on the dive plays. MA made a couple of nice vision related cuts when he was in. However, there weren't enough carries to amount to anything. I understand we have to get moving forward fast at the position, but we just have to be able to put a foot in the ground sometimes and change direction.

It is really hard for me to comment on the WRs. The broadcast was so zoomed in all the time that they out of the screen unless the ball came to them. It appeared they got shucked by defenders a little less. I only saw one screw up communication-wise between WRs and ABs on who to take. It blew a play up, but it was a single play.

I felt like the OL played better. I really do. We got to the second level better and disrupted things out there better. We dumped some guys on their heads or at least nudged them off their path with greater frequency. For the most part we made good blocks on the interior. SD looked better scooping back side and both OTs had a better game IMHO. If it was a situation where the DL wasn't worried about getting low, I think we got the best of them. In goal line, we let them get under us again, plus I am not so sure we executed those plays right. If we can't do the QB follow any better than that, a straight sneak or FB dive would be better. We need a good bit of practice time coming up devoted to goal line IMHO. It aint working. We are not the lower team up front and we are not timing the plays right.

At QB, JT played better, but he made some soph slump type of mistakes too. No QB makes good throws every play, but he missed two pretty simple throws that had "big gain" written all over them. His critical fumble needed to be a pull pitch in one motion. His hesitation allowed the LB to get a hand in there. I thought he missed a couple pitch reads (needed to gett he ball out there) but did better at turning up field without dancing around as much. I don't know how the QBs are coached to run the QB follow at the goal line, but it seems to me that you can't try to run into the pile ahead of, or beside, your BB, not without a gaping hole that is. By now, that play is no surprise to defenses and they are hell bent on stuffing that gap. They are committing everything they have to each side of center and we are oblidging them. On those plays we always have a motioning AB. Why? It seems to me a pitch is pretty much always there and we NEVER take it. Yesterday, we could have faked the follow and floated a pitch out there to nothing but green grass.

We were good enough on offense yesterday to win a lot of games, just not this one. The entire game was right there on a platter for us if we just didn't shoot ourselves in the foot at critical moments. I think we controlled the game and the clock like it needed to be in order to win. Unfortunately, the defense didn't help as much yesterday, and when we needed to bail them out, we just didn't step up. That sequence of failed 3rd and 4th and goal from the 1, and the following fumble after forcing the punt from the EZ will live in infamy. If we are honest, we all knew UNC would score some. They did. However, we got the lead early and just needed to answer a few times along the way to maintain a gap. Like everybody here and the kids in the locker room, I am disappointed with the loss. However, I think the level of play on our part was better and it is something to build on. Let's just get some of our guys back on the field.

B,
your comment on the Bback cut was exactly what I said when everybody was saying Skov was going to easily replace SHD and Laskey. BS--how many times did they make a critical and CORRECT cut off a handoff or block to be successful.There is a reason Skov was not a running back at Stanford--he is not a good runner-- AND he is not experienced enough in this Offense,even if he was.

Funny that we thought JT was a God and nothing could stop him.His stats are looking like Tevin's--lots of rushes for poor avg and erratic passing.Lots has changed.
btw-if Devine is doing so well,why are we so incapable inside even with the same guys?
 

Boomergump

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Thanks again for doing this. It is really helpful in easing the pain.
Are you going to do the defense?

Bob
The last couple weeks I have been too busy to get to it. I would start the DVR and get maybe half way through had to stop and never finished. I'll try. I really want to do it this week especially. I will say this though, I did stop and watch 3 plays from the defense while doing the offense review: Gotsis' foul, DJ's dropped picked six, and the last TD they scored on the QB keep off the option. The first two don't need any more explanation, bad call, and a play DJ makes 99 times out of 100 in that position. As far as the last play is concerned, I have no idea how we could call that defense with them running so much option off the deep snap. You simply cannot have the DE (Freeman) go with the RB if you are going to fire BOTH LBs and Golden up the middle on a blitz. Yet that is what happened. SOMEBODY has to take the QB and fill that lane. It looked like that play we ran against Two Lane when they had 9 men on the field. If I am not mistaken, they gashed us on the same play shortly before that too. Ouch.
 

ramblinvak

Ramblin' Wreck
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546
Awesome write up @Boomergump ; I got two questions for you that I would love your perespective on?

1. What was your take on the HUNH? It was cool to see since we have been working on it for over a year.
2. Would you say the crispness of the offense this week could have been attributed to the linebacker being a step slower than the LBs we faced the past two peeks prior making it easier for the blocking scheme to develop for the o-line?

Thanks!
 

Boomergump

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B,
your comment on the Bback cut was exactly what I said when everybody was saying Skov was going to easily replace SHD and Laskey. BS--how many times did they make a critical and CORRECT cut off a handoff or block to be successful.There is a reason Skov was not a running back at Stanford--he is not a good runner-- AND he is not experienced enough in this Offense,even if he was.

Funny that we thought JT was a God and nothing could stop him.His stats are looking like Tevin's--lots of rushes for poor avg and erratic passing.Lots has changed.
btw-if Devine is doing so well,why are we so incapable inside even with the same guys?
I think Devine is doing well. His weak spots are improving and his strengths are as good as anybody we have ever had. You would think he would be great in goal line but people can get under him and he is a hard guy to run around (big body). Shaq was good in this phase because he was really good at firing out low. Personally, I think we are making too much of Mason being gone (I am not referring to leadership, but rather, his play). He was THE best OL in CPJ's tenure, for sure, but you could put the best OLman in the history of the game out there and if the rest of the OL was terrible, nothing would get done. He wasn't blocking everybody. We ran behind him a fair amount and he rarely failed to deliver the big blocks when needed, but the other guys were better too. Maybe his leadership IS being missed. I have no way to know. All I know is, up until yesterday, the other 4 haven't been playing up to their standard from last year. It has been a bit of a cluster, albeit less so yesterday. Devine hasn't been perfect pulling or scooping the back side of plays (improved yesterday), but he HAS been OUTSTANDING in pass protection and on the playside blocks where he engages someone straight up. I feel sure he has the most pancakes of all our guys and it probably isn't close.

JT is passing way better than TW. He can make much stronger, longer throws, stretching the defense and he throws on the move much better. TW, in his last season, did a pretty good job of checking down and finding drags. JT has some work to do there. JT has the stronger arm, quicker release, and greater accuracy. However, with tha said, this has been a tough spell for JT. I wonder if we held him out of practice and contact too much and all that combined with fewer game reps due to weaker opponents early and you have a lot of rust to shake off.
 

Boomergump

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Awesome write up @Boomergump ; I got two questions for you that I would love your perespective on?

1. What was your take on the HUNH? It was cool to see since we have been working on it for over a year.
2. Would you say the crispness of the offense this week could have been attributed to the linebacker being a step slower than the LBs we faced the past two peeks prior making it easier for the blocking scheme to develop for the o-line?

Thanks!
Great questions! I should have addressed those.

I think the HUNH was a huge help to getting us settled down into a play. Plus, it did nothing to hurt our control of the clock. We snapped at about our usual time, but we forced the D to tip their hand a little and it slowed the attack by disrupting the defensive timing. I like it and I hope we keep it. I have no idea what our system of communication is, but I like what I saw. It may have been the sole reason we didn't screw up so many line calls. I loved the 4th and 4 or 5 play where we went through the AB motion into the wishbone routine, then back to the inverted bone, then actually ran the play.

The biggest difference I saw from UNC compared to DUKE and ND was their readiness to defeat our blocks in space. I think we did a little better at timing our blocks and getting into people's way yesterday, but I also think the perimeter defenders of UNC were not quite as tenacious either. I like their MLB #10. He was about as good as #16 for DUKE. UNC is improved on defense, but they are not of the same caliber, nor did they play as aggressive. It was a far more conservative game plan, probably because they don't trust their DBs as much as the last two teams. DUKE is tough on defense, ND is tough too, but they also have incredible speed in places on that side of the ball. That #9 is just crazy fast for his position. Just think about a 230LB Deion Sanders who likes to tackle. He was faster than our ABs, any of them. He was a little lazy in some ways, but when that dude learns to ball out on every play and use his brain and watch his keys, he is going to be dynamite. There was no other athlete like him on the field that day.

Hope this helps.
 

Nook Su Kow

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The freeze play I thought was executed well. I was damn sure we were gonna call time out since we set our line down so early in play clock to take the penalty for rodwell.
 
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