Going Forward

[jason72]

It seems like teams know skov is not going to beat them so they are making sure we can't get the edge. Watching last week and this week the defense was beatin us to the edge and we have know where to go. And if a teams thinks we may pass they blitz every time and we have know chance of blocking it. The last 2 weeks have been as bad as our offense has been. I would love to see JT turn the ball up field and get whatever he can and stop pitching when their is no chance for the ab to do anything if he is even able to catch the pitch.

 

[jason72]

Do we have any plays where the b-back mess is anywhere but the 2 or 3 holes. I'm just asking because I really have never paid attention to where that happens each play. But it seems if we could widen that every now and then it could possible lead to bigger plays for the b-back. Nad a different look for the defense. And we may do it I'm not sure.

 

[GTJason]

Did anyone else notice our own OL on top of each other at the end of the B back give plays? There weren't Duke DL there on the ground, just a RG on top of a RT and visa versa

 

[kg01]

It seems like teams know skov is not going to beat them so they are making sure we can't get the edge. Watching last week and this week the defense was beatin us to the edge and we have know where to go. And if a teams thinks we may pass they blitz every time and we have know chance of blocking it. The last 2 weeks have been as bad as our offense has been. I would love to see JT turn the ball up field and get whatever he can and stop pitching when their is no chance for the ab to do anything if he is even able to catch the pitch.

The point on Skov is an interesting one. He does run like a FB, not a RB. Runs to contact, not daylight. I noticed a few runs today where I was thinking, "ah man, cut there instead of stumbling into the block and maybe that's 6 ..."

While the poor perimeter blocking is probably the main reason it's looked like 13-on-11 on the edge runs the past 2 games, Skov's fullback-esque running style could exacerbate the issue going forward.

Seeing Marshall having ball security issues a few times isn't a comforting site either.

Man I'm hating the preseason pasties on the schedule. I subscribe to the notion that only steel sharpens steel. That 2-0 start was fools gold and did us no favors.

 

[iceeater1969]

Not sure about the facial expression of Chamberlain during the game. Happened to see him at fsu ga tech pep rally for acc championship. He was walking around by himself so wife and I said hi and visited - proud of u guys, is blocking for TO fun etc Kid had a smile on his face the whole time. Seemed like a good kid

 

[stingyoa$$]

Laskey should have been a RS senior this year had he not burned his freshman year returning punts. Where's the BB wheel route that was do effective the last few years. JT looks rattled. Is it because he lost everyone around him? Needs to get straight quick.

 

[Jacket0323]

The season going forward has to be on players how they want the season to progress.

 

[Declinometer]

I think maybe that JeT did not get the repetitions in the preseason, and that could be why the team is not in sync.

Agreed. Like wise he didn't get enough full contact reps

 

[Boomergump]

Not sure about the facial expression of Chamberlain during the game. Happened to see him at fsu ga tech pep rally for acc championship. He was walking around by himself so wife and I said hi and visited - proud of u guys, is blocking for TO fun etc Kid had a smile on his face the whole time. Seemed like a good kid

It wasn't Chamberlain who smirked, but he wasn't exactly soaking in the intstruction either.

 

[MWBATL]

Say what you want about this OL man or that one, about the new A backs, etc etc.

To me, this is squarely on the coaching staff. The coaching staff is responsible for who we recruited, who we have trained up, who we have decided to play and start, and the game strategies.

I think that CPJ can be delightful when his stuff works, and an arrogant a*s when it doesn't. He doesn't really seem to be willing to make the kind of changes that might lead to a different result. Line getting beat and blocking isn;t great? Let's run it into thimble until those dad gum linemen get it straight! Yeah, that's the ticket! That'll work great! NOT.

The same criticism of CPJ that I had from 2011-3 has emerged again in my mind...the absolute and complete lack of a short passing game. e don't seem to have three step drops in our playbook, or if we do we simply don't use them. CPJ can be extraordinarily frustrating to watch as he insists, INSISTS damn you, that we do it *his* way. Reminds me a whole lot of Tenuta's defenses. Worked great against lesser teams, but were always so predictable against better teams and they knew what was coming too. In those rare situations where you have the physical talent (like Shaq last year) to over-power your opponents, it is a thing of beauty. But then, I am beginning to think that the schematic advantage we thought we had with CPJ is an illusion, just as Tenuta's scheme was an illusory schematic advantage.

Our scheme isn't working and our offensive coordinator isn't willing to change things up. Two years in a row, with similar (or inferior) talent, CPJ has been schooled by Cutcliffe.

I lay the responsibility right squarely at our offensive coordinator's doorstep.

 

[jason72]

I would like to know how we get to the point of having only a couple of a-backs with experience. You would think we would have 3 or 4 per class.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

I like Jayson's point that teams are deciding that they would rather give up a few yards in the middle to make sure they don't give up big yards on the edge. Somehow or another they are getting pursuit to the edge faster than we can get there. I also like Boomer's point that the talent is there on the line. It's mostly the same people who were all world at the end of the year. And Inside's point that it might take a number of games before the whole offense comes together.

I think the Duke factor plays in too. Last year it looked to me that we didn't have much energy against Duke. No amount of success can convince the players down deep that Duke is a good team and they need to play with full intensity. I don't think they thought they could lose to Duke last year. This year, they go up to that high school stadium not even half full, and despite everything, I think they still started the game thinking they couldn't lose to Duke.

The hope is next week playing at home and with their backs to the wall we'll at least see an all out effort. Boomer's point is how I'm gonna try to take it now -- no thought of how many wins, which bowl, championships, etc, just "let's get a win next week" and again and again.

 

[bke1984]

Look at it this way. Last week we played pretty bad against a really good team. Turning the ball over and having a bad day on special teams with missing FGs and punting terribly. We give up a few big plays that solidified the outcome of the game. We make those very makable FGs and don't get that holding call on the TD and we're in good shape dispite being anemic on offense.

This week we pretty much gave them 21 points off of special teams, PITIFUL. The offense was pretty much anemic again not being able to block on the perimeter again is killing us but we still were in this game despite being stopped on 4th down a couple of times and turning the ball over twice.

The past two weeks we have played as bad as I've seen in a couple of years, but if we take care of business on special teams and we are in a great position to be 4-0. We need a confidence boost this week where we are playing with the lead and not behind the 8 ball the whole game. We have had nothing but momentum killers the past two games whether it be a turnovers or getting pushed off of on 3rd and 20 for a TD or giving up a HUGE play on special teams. The backfield we'll get better as the year goes on, we can't just beat ourselves while they are in the process.

Agree. Have to see how the team responds though...in 2012 we responded to two tough losses by losing to MTSU...

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

We are hurting big time not having Laskey or Days right now. Skov isn't a RB, he is FB and doesn't how to run in open space. I would like to see Bryan play more since we burned his shirt. Some of those Lineman clearly didn't want it today.

Skov made it possible for Marshall and Allen to continue to develop. The fact that he is still playing significant minutes tells me the two youngsters are dinged or slow learners, or both. I can't imagine even one football player for Georgia Tech not giving 100% effort. I am not saying it isn't so, but it is just difficult to grasp that there would be a lack of motivation. If that truly is the case, it would seem to be unfixable.

 

[GTonTop88]

Laskey should have been a RS senior this year had he not burned his freshman year returning punts. Where's the BB wheel route that was do effective the last few years. JT looks rattled. Is it because he lost everyone around him? Needs to get straight quick.

Hate to say it but JT is known as a quiet leader, I say there is no such a thing. Last year everyone done everything right so he didn't have to step up and get onto the guys for not doing the right things. Now when his backs aren't doing what they are suppose to he just try's to make really risky plays and they are killing us most of the time.

 

[bke1984]

Say what you want about this OL man or that one, about the new A backs, etc etc.

To me, this is squarely on the coaching staff. The coaching staff is responsible for who we recruited, who we have trained up, who we have decided to play and start, and the game strategies.

I think that CPJ can be delightful when his stuff works, and an arrogant a*s when it doesn't. He doesn't really seem to be willing to make the kind of changes that might lead to a different result. Line getting beat and blocking isn;t great? Let's run it into thimble until those dad gum linemen get it straight! Yeah, that's the ticket! That'll work great! NOT.

The same criticism of CPJ that I had from 2011-3 has emerged again in my mind...the absolute and complete lack of a short passing game. e don't seem to have three step drops in our playbook, or if we do we simply don't use them. CPJ can be extraordinarily frustrating to watch as he insists, INSISTS damn you, that we do it *his* way. Reminds me a whole lot of Tenuta's defenses. Worked great against lesser teams, but were always so predictable against better teams and they knew what was coming too. In those rare situations where you have the physical talent (like Shaq last year) to over-power your opponents, it is a thing of beauty. But then, I am beginning to think that the schematic advantage we thought we had with CPJ is an illusion, just as Tenuta's scheme was an illusory schematic advantage.

Our scheme isn't working and our offensive coordinator isn't willing to change things up. Two years in a row, with similar (or inferior) talent, CPJ has been schooled by Cutcliffe.

I lay the responsibility right squarely at our offensive coordinator's doorstep.

I agree with some of this...

The players need to execute better, and some of that responsibility does lie on the coaches...but there's very little that they can do to correct this once the game starts. Repeating the same thing that fails 10 times in the game and expecting different results is just crazy. I don't think many teams just magically start executing better during the middle of a game. That sort of thing may change from week to week, but not from play to play. I guess CPJ's point is that if they don't get reps they won't get it right, but at some point you gotta say, "hey, we need to win this game, and this play ain't gonna work...let's try a different play and work on this later."

So I know I sound like a broken record here, but we 100% need a short passing game to help out when we can't get the run going. I have felt this way since 2008, but it's easy to dismiss when the offense looks as efficient as it did at the end of last year. We've seen flashes every once in a while (screens to Dwyer, flat passes to Skov, smoke routes to Bebe and Smelter), but it seems like it disappears from our arsenal at times. Our deep passes work very well when we are able to run the ball because it draws up the safeties and the corners and we can play action over the top. When we aren't able to run the ball we just have long 7-step drops where we throw jump balls. It works OK when we have receivers that are NFL ready, but not so well when we have younger, less experienced guys out there. What makes it even worse is when our pass protection is bad. Right now opposing defenses are blitzing us hard on third and long and putting a ton of pressure on Justin. He has no time to complete these intermediate to long passes, but he could easily get the ball out quickly to an A back in the flats, a B back on a swing, or a receiver on a drag or a slant...and if he connected, those guys would be in space with a chance to make a play. I'm not at all saying we need to throw the ball 20+ times a game...I just think on the 10-15 times we throw, sometimes it would help us drive if we could connect on shorter routes. Never know...it might cause the defense to change their approach and open back up the run.

I disagree with what you're saying about Tenuta's defenses. That guy was a great D coordinator and we flat out shut down some very good teams when he was here with a ton of NFL talent: Auburn twice, Notre Dame twice (#3 one of those times), #3 Miami, Georgia, VT. We didn't win several of the games I'm thinking of, but it's because we couldn't score more than 14 points most of the time.

The offense will get better this year and we will probably win some more football games, but this is definitely a disappointing start. This loss put us in a pretty big hole and now the team has to face some adversity. Let's see how they respond.

 

[Buzz776g]

The point on Skov is an interesting one. He does run like a FB, not a RB. Runs to contact, not daylight. I noticed a few runs today where I was thinking, "ah man, cut there instead of stumbling into the block and maybe that's 6 ..."

While the poor perimeter blocking is probably the main reason it's looked like 13-on-11 on the edge runs the past 2 games, Skov's fullback-esque running style could exacerbate the issue going forward.

Seeing Marshall having ball security issues a few times isn't a comforting site either.

Man I'm hating the preseason pasties on the schedule. I subscribe to the notion that only steel sharpens steel. That 2-0 start was fools gold and did us no favors.

Somewhere (I can't remember where) I read that one of the things the coaching staff wanted Patrick Skov to learn when he came here was to simply put his head down and run, full out, into the line where the play was designed for him to go and to trust that the hole would be made for him.

Okay, so, so far the holes haven't been made but for the moment, for the purposes of my question that's beside the point. If what I read is right (does anyone else remember this? Did I dream it?), Skov is doing exactly what he has been coached to do. ??

Now we want him to keep his head up and to adjust to where the hole is, not where he has been trained to go on faith that it will be made. That's not an unreasonable request but it might be difficult for him to do since he's been working since June on blasting through where the play says to go with his head down, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

@stylee and those who understand the offense better than me (that's all of you ), opinions?

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Depends on the play a bit. Some are designed to hit a certain hole but things can change at the snap. No one wants him running blindly into a spot. Fwiw this may be a spot for improvement but I didn't see it as a constant, every play, problem live.

 

[zhavenor]

Somewhere (I can't remember where) I read that one of the things the coaching staff wanted Patrick Skov to learn when he came here was to simply put his head down and run, full out, into the line where the play was designed for him to go and to trust that the hole would be made for him.

Okay, so, so far the holes haven't been made but for the moment, for the purposes of my question that's beside the point. If what I read is right (does anyone else remember this? Did I dream it?), Skov is doing exactly what he has been coached to do. ??

Now we want him to keep his head up and to adjust to where the hole is, not where he has been trained to go on faith that it will be made. That's not an unreasonable request but it might be difficult for him to do since he's been working since June on blasting through where the play says to go with his head down, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

@stylee and those who understand the offense better than me (that's all of you ), opinions?

On the triple CPJ teaches the BB to read the block on the defender one player inside number one. Number one is the defender the Qb is reading as the dive read. The BB should be cutting off that block. I doubt that cook ever told him to put his head down and go forward without reading his keys. Now at some point I'm sure he needs to be physical when nothing else is there but that is another issue.

 

[Boomergump]

I have seen a couple plays where all Skov had to do was run between the fannies that were parting the waters for him and he instead ran to where the defender was being pushed. Personally, for the most part, I think Skov has played well. He has taken on the role and handled the basics and gotten the ball into the EZ. Some of the nuances aren't quite instictive yet for the kid. Give him some time.

I like what I saw out of Marcus Allen Saturday, in the limited carries he got. He was patient and picked his way after letting things develop a little. He blocked a little too.