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UVA has a good defense. I just want to throw that out there in the beginning of this writing. You have to give Tenuta a lot of credit. He had those guys ready to play an aggressive scheme and they have the athletes to get it done. They executed well, for the most part, but got burned a couple times when two LBs scraped on the same play etc. The sad part for UVA was that we just have too many ways to beat them right now, even against a good attacking defense. They created some negative plays with their pressure, but we are not the same team as years past when caught behind the sticks.
They came out lining up much like the other recent opponents with 4 up front and 3 LBs with the middle guy fairly deep. Safeties were shallow and flowing very aggressively with motion, essentially removing themselves from the pass defense, except for certain down and distance situations. For the vast majority of plays they wanted that play side DE running up field and at the QB as quickly as possible to force an immediate decision if he kept after the MESH. From there, they rotated responsibility for the dive between the MLB and the OLB. Appropriately, they took turns scraping to the outside. Consequently, there were a lot of give reads on the MESH for the day, probably more than we actually gave. Days had a lot of carries, but it could have been more, as their defense was all about forcing the early pitch and getting to the edge with the back guys. They also mixed in some 5 man front as a change up after being gashed some early in the other alignment. Personally, I thought they were more disruptive in that alignment.
Remember the days of offensive futility when a team pinned their ears back and dared us to pass? Well, you have now witnessed the development of our offense beyond that one dimension. We have a QB who keeps plays alive and throws to the right guy and we have WRs who are extremely tough to stop in single coverage. We just put up 35 (could have been more if we wanted to at the end) against a really good D by using an entire arsenal of weapons. We don't drop many passes any more and plays are getting funneled to the right guys. My confidence in this offense could not be higher than it is right now. We are poised to have substantial success against any team we face so long as we hang on to the ball and play with focused energy. There might be a couple better defensive teams in the land, but their aren't many.
I thought CPJ was masterful with the play calling yesterday. He took advantage of everything they were doing and called the right plays at the right times. When the smoke route was there, he used it to move the sticks. When he had Smelter isolated he used him on some back shoulder type throws and a good post when safeties had crashed the run. He jump balled to Waller. He sprung different blocking schemes several times on plays that were successfully stopped just moments ago. I loved the Hill TD where we ran the same play again but this time with Smelter cracking the safety (leveled that guy) and the play side AB kicking out the CB.
JT had his moments of confusion under duress. He hesitated in the backfield and even blindly turned back once to the side that his OG and OT had both just pulled from. I don't know what he thought could possibly be there, after all that entire side of the DL would be left unblocked on the play. He also missed some give reads too. But you know what, he made a lot of plays too and got the ball where it needed to go. He drew a tough assignment today and I think he will grow from the experience.
Synjyn was a horse. We all know it. Mentioning his name is certainly not a surprise I am sure. He is a tough guy to bring down and he found some creases with decisive cuts for a couple big runs too. The added weight may have slowed him down a half step from when he first got here, but he knows how to use it. The debate can rage on about who should be starting between ZL and SD, but I think we can all agree that there won't be a backwards step either way. He protected the football and he was devastating. He gave shots and he took shots. It was a heavy weight battle on the interior. Synjyn makes us more physical in there, Zach makes us quicker.
I think the OL blocked well, but I also think they faced one of their toughest assignments too. UVA has a good interior presence. We didn't dominate the way we have at times this year, but we didn't get run over either. The only real meaningful observations I have from the DVR personnel-wise, is that I think Griffin is struggling physically. I don't know his status in terms of health, but he seems to be favoring something. His hands aren't quite as aggressive and he isn't engaging opponents with the same ferocity. I think Devine is growing in confidence. His body language shows it. He is our best pass protector and I trust him completely to handle the guy in front of him if he doesn't have to chase too much or scoop. Our G-C-G play is above our OT play, but the tackles are improving. Chamberlain is a better player than last year (still room for growth) and Joe is more than adequate. JT is better in the pocket than Vad was, but he is also getting more help too.
Snoddy is growing in confidence too. I love watching the guy when he gets a chance to turn up field. On that long run he had, the separation he got from the people around him when he got the ball was breathtaking. In general, the edge didn't open up for us much yesterday and the ABs didn't do much in the blocking department to force it to happen either. There were a lot of blue and orange uniforms out there and there weren't many on the ground.
Smelter continues to be a force. He is an equalizer against the over aggressive run defenses. I have confidence in him beating any CB in the land in a one-on-one situation. He is so physical you can't jam him off his route and for a guy his size he controls his body really well. He gets out of his breaks in good order. Without him, this offense functions a lot differently.
They came out lining up much like the other recent opponents with 4 up front and 3 LBs with the middle guy fairly deep. Safeties were shallow and flowing very aggressively with motion, essentially removing themselves from the pass defense, except for certain down and distance situations. For the vast majority of plays they wanted that play side DE running up field and at the QB as quickly as possible to force an immediate decision if he kept after the MESH. From there, they rotated responsibility for the dive between the MLB and the OLB. Appropriately, they took turns scraping to the outside. Consequently, there were a lot of give reads on the MESH for the day, probably more than we actually gave. Days had a lot of carries, but it could have been more, as their defense was all about forcing the early pitch and getting to the edge with the back guys. They also mixed in some 5 man front as a change up after being gashed some early in the other alignment. Personally, I thought they were more disruptive in that alignment.
Remember the days of offensive futility when a team pinned their ears back and dared us to pass? Well, you have now witnessed the development of our offense beyond that one dimension. We have a QB who keeps plays alive and throws to the right guy and we have WRs who are extremely tough to stop in single coverage. We just put up 35 (could have been more if we wanted to at the end) against a really good D by using an entire arsenal of weapons. We don't drop many passes any more and plays are getting funneled to the right guys. My confidence in this offense could not be higher than it is right now. We are poised to have substantial success against any team we face so long as we hang on to the ball and play with focused energy. There might be a couple better defensive teams in the land, but their aren't many.
I thought CPJ was masterful with the play calling yesterday. He took advantage of everything they were doing and called the right plays at the right times. When the smoke route was there, he used it to move the sticks. When he had Smelter isolated he used him on some back shoulder type throws and a good post when safeties had crashed the run. He jump balled to Waller. He sprung different blocking schemes several times on plays that were successfully stopped just moments ago. I loved the Hill TD where we ran the same play again but this time with Smelter cracking the safety (leveled that guy) and the play side AB kicking out the CB.
JT had his moments of confusion under duress. He hesitated in the backfield and even blindly turned back once to the side that his OG and OT had both just pulled from. I don't know what he thought could possibly be there, after all that entire side of the DL would be left unblocked on the play. He also missed some give reads too. But you know what, he made a lot of plays too and got the ball where it needed to go. He drew a tough assignment today and I think he will grow from the experience.
Synjyn was a horse. We all know it. Mentioning his name is certainly not a surprise I am sure. He is a tough guy to bring down and he found some creases with decisive cuts for a couple big runs too. The added weight may have slowed him down a half step from when he first got here, but he knows how to use it. The debate can rage on about who should be starting between ZL and SD, but I think we can all agree that there won't be a backwards step either way. He protected the football and he was devastating. He gave shots and he took shots. It was a heavy weight battle on the interior. Synjyn makes us more physical in there, Zach makes us quicker.
I think the OL blocked well, but I also think they faced one of their toughest assignments too. UVA has a good interior presence. We didn't dominate the way we have at times this year, but we didn't get run over either. The only real meaningful observations I have from the DVR personnel-wise, is that I think Griffin is struggling physically. I don't know his status in terms of health, but he seems to be favoring something. His hands aren't quite as aggressive and he isn't engaging opponents with the same ferocity. I think Devine is growing in confidence. His body language shows it. He is our best pass protector and I trust him completely to handle the guy in front of him if he doesn't have to chase too much or scoop. Our G-C-G play is above our OT play, but the tackles are improving. Chamberlain is a better player than last year (still room for growth) and Joe is more than adequate. JT is better in the pocket than Vad was, but he is also getting more help too.
Snoddy is growing in confidence too. I love watching the guy when he gets a chance to turn up field. On that long run he had, the separation he got from the people around him when he got the ball was breathtaking. In general, the edge didn't open up for us much yesterday and the ABs didn't do much in the blocking department to force it to happen either. There were a lot of blue and orange uniforms out there and there weren't many on the ground.
Smelter continues to be a force. He is an equalizer against the over aggressive run defenses. I have confidence in him beating any CB in the land in a one-on-one situation. He is so physical you can't jam him off his route and for a guy his size he controls his body really well. He gets out of his breaks in good order. Without him, this offense functions a lot differently.
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