iceeater1969
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Pocket not right behind center , roll out, jet sweep, quick pitches. Did we do this type plays?
Louisville Post Game
- Thread starter rfjeff9
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stinger 1957
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Our kids were giggling, laughing on the sidelines near the end of the first half, I said then look out 3rd quarter. We got lots of problems, some fixable, some probably personnel recruiting problems that may take a while to fix. The inability to lockup on tackling probably bothers me more than anything else, that is fundamental coaching that obviously has not been done.
rfjeff9
Jolly Good Fellow
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Key is going to need more time. But I will say this - even though we didn't do much in the first quarter with the offense, I could already tell it is going to be fun to watch. Then it started to click in the 2nd. IDK why they either didn't or couldn't call the same plays in the second half and IDK how many runs stuffed up the middle it takes before you have to try a different tactic but we kept doing it. There were other plays available to call.
The announcers said injuries kept piling up maybe that's a factor because of our non depth.
Time to move on. Hats off to Louisville they never gave up and look pretty good. If we had to lose at least it wasn't to UNC. Solid crew I hope they win out, no hard feelings.
Next game should go our way. Maybe a few weeks off will allow some injuries to heal and we go at Ole Miss with lessons learned and at full strength. We will be there - rented a tent somewhere in the Grove. Drop by for a chat.
The announcers said injuries kept piling up maybe that's a factor because of our non depth.
Time to move on. Hats off to Louisville they never gave up and look pretty good. If we had to lose at least it wasn't to UNC. Solid crew I hope they win out, no hard feelings.
Next game should go our way. Maybe a few weeks off will allow some injuries to heal and we go at Ole Miss with lessons learned and at full strength. We will be there - rented a tent somewhere in the Grove. Drop by for a chat.
CEB
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this concerns me.
We came into the game pretty healthy. Seems like a lot of guys disappeared as the night went on.
Hopefully nothing major
grandpa jacket
Ramblin' Wreck
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Mostly agree, our QB needs to make quicker decisions and not hold the ball so long.
tmhunter52
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Really pulling for Key to right the ship and hoping he isn’t TFG in a few years.
FredJacket
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Last year at this point... we were trending in wrong direction. Trending in the correct direction now. Tough way to lose last night. Louisville is a better team (imo)... we did miss an opportunity for sure.
lv20gt
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Overall, a lot of similar issues that we've had the past couple years.
Anyways, offensively how you view it overall probably depends on how you view the second quarter. We scored 28 points, which was unbelievable production. Obviously no team is going to keep up that rate but how much of it is indicative of how we might play going forward? Well, all 4 drives were heavily influenced by big plays. The first TD went 75 yards and had a 46 yard pass. The second 72 and had a 55 yard pass. The third went 75 yards and had a 33 yard pass. The 4th went 65 yards and had a 48 yard pass. Outside of the second quarter our offense went INT, punt, punt, punt, punt, missed FG, fumble, downs, TD. For the purpose of trying to figure out how good our offense might be going forward I don't think the last TD is that meaningful. We executed well, but UL was playing prevent and using the score and time against us which won't usually be the dynamic. So based on that we were very boom or bust. Get a big play and we can score. Don't get a big play and we won't. So do we have the talent level at the skill positions for that type of offense to be successful? To me the answer is no. The guys we have might be good players for us, but I don't see them as guys like Dwyer/Thomas in 08 who could help cover the weakness in the rest of the offense (particularly the OL) based on pure ability. Rutherford and Haynes are in year 3 for us . Lane played 4 years at TAMU. Blaylock played 3 at UGA. Cooley played two at UL. There is enough experience to look at and see that it is very unlikely we have "cover for a weak OL" level of skill players. Again, they can still be very good for us, but we'll need to be significantly better at sustaining drives going forward for the offense to have consistent success, and that is worrisome after the last several years, especially with the OL play. Now, obviously you can't take away anything definitive from one game. The second quarter could just be entirely a fluke, or we could have a much more improved OL than showed in the other 3 quarters.
Defense is much more concerning thing though. We gave up 39 points, allowed a very balanced offense against us, generated little pressure, and had tackling issues. It was nice we were able to stiffen up and force 3 redzone (effectively) FGs two of which were there not because of the defense. That also does mean that the 39 could have been worse for those that like to play the "we were this close to x" game. But regardless, the defensive performance wasn't good. We kept a lot of the same defensive staff as last year, under the argument that the issues we had on defense the previous 4 years were because of Collins' micromanaging and the improvement that was made throughout the year last year. It would have been hard to justify keeping Key as head coach with our OL performance just to turn around and fire the rest of the staff anyways, but it was a questionable decision at best. Especially since both Thacker and a couple of players were on record saying that Collins was much more directly involved in the defense in the spring and summer before last year than he was his first three years so how much the improvement over the first three years last year was related to less Collins involvement is a questionable take. Regardless, I find it hard to have much hope for our defense based on the historical lack of success of the defensive staff combined with the loss of key players and this performance. My guess is Thacker and most of the defensive staff will be gone after this year or next to buy time for Key.
Special teams was meh. No huge mistakes in the punting or kick off games either way. I think there was one or two times we chose to return a KO and didn't get back to the 25 but the potential for a big return is worth the risk of a loss of 5 or so yards. Hard to blame Stewart for the 54 yard miss. Long kick. The missed chip 33 yard big time though. Overall I don't think we should really worry about him from within 40 yet, but I do think it will probably cost us points not having someone who can go 40+ where Stewart is 1-4 in his career.
Overall, there was enough good for people who were believers in Key to latch on to to maintain that, and enough bad for skeptics to remain skeptical. IMO, really hurts our chances at a bowl game though as we'll likely have to sweep SC State/BG/BC/Cuse at home and win 2 of @Wake, @Miami, UNC, UVA. Obviously upsets happen but @Ole Miss, @ Clemson, and UGA seem very unlikely. Still doable but margin of error isn't large and catching a new staffed UL early was a big opportunity for us that we let slip.
Anyways, offensively how you view it overall probably depends on how you view the second quarter. We scored 28 points, which was unbelievable production. Obviously no team is going to keep up that rate but how much of it is indicative of how we might play going forward? Well, all 4 drives were heavily influenced by big plays. The first TD went 75 yards and had a 46 yard pass. The second 72 and had a 55 yard pass. The third went 75 yards and had a 33 yard pass. The 4th went 65 yards and had a 48 yard pass. Outside of the second quarter our offense went INT, punt, punt, punt, punt, missed FG, fumble, downs, TD. For the purpose of trying to figure out how good our offense might be going forward I don't think the last TD is that meaningful. We executed well, but UL was playing prevent and using the score and time against us which won't usually be the dynamic. So based on that we were very boom or bust. Get a big play and we can score. Don't get a big play and we won't. So do we have the talent level at the skill positions for that type of offense to be successful? To me the answer is no. The guys we have might be good players for us, but I don't see them as guys like Dwyer/Thomas in 08 who could help cover the weakness in the rest of the offense (particularly the OL) based on pure ability. Rutherford and Haynes are in year 3 for us . Lane played 4 years at TAMU. Blaylock played 3 at UGA. Cooley played two at UL. There is enough experience to look at and see that it is very unlikely we have "cover for a weak OL" level of skill players. Again, they can still be very good for us, but we'll need to be significantly better at sustaining drives going forward for the offense to have consistent success, and that is worrisome after the last several years, especially with the OL play. Now, obviously you can't take away anything definitive from one game. The second quarter could just be entirely a fluke, or we could have a much more improved OL than showed in the other 3 quarters.
Defense is much more concerning thing though. We gave up 39 points, allowed a very balanced offense against us, generated little pressure, and had tackling issues. It was nice we were able to stiffen up and force 3 redzone (effectively) FGs two of which were there not because of the defense. That also does mean that the 39 could have been worse for those that like to play the "we were this close to x" game. But regardless, the defensive performance wasn't good. We kept a lot of the same defensive staff as last year, under the argument that the issues we had on defense the previous 4 years were because of Collins' micromanaging and the improvement that was made throughout the year last year. It would have been hard to justify keeping Key as head coach with our OL performance just to turn around and fire the rest of the staff anyways, but it was a questionable decision at best. Especially since both Thacker and a couple of players were on record saying that Collins was much more directly involved in the defense in the spring and summer before last year than he was his first three years so how much the improvement over the first three years last year was related to less Collins involvement is a questionable take. Regardless, I find it hard to have much hope for our defense based on the historical lack of success of the defensive staff combined with the loss of key players and this performance. My guess is Thacker and most of the defensive staff will be gone after this year or next to buy time for Key.
Special teams was meh. No huge mistakes in the punting or kick off games either way. I think there was one or two times we chose to return a KO and didn't get back to the 25 but the potential for a big return is worth the risk of a loss of 5 or so yards. Hard to blame Stewart for the 54 yard miss. Long kick. The missed chip 33 yard big time though. Overall I don't think we should really worry about him from within 40 yet, but I do think it will probably cost us points not having someone who can go 40+ where Stewart is 1-4 in his career.
Overall, there was enough good for people who were believers in Key to latch on to to maintain that, and enough bad for skeptics to remain skeptical. IMO, really hurts our chances at a bowl game though as we'll likely have to sweep SC State/BG/BC/Cuse at home and win 2 of @Wake, @Miami, UNC, UVA. Obviously upsets happen but @Ole Miss, @ Clemson, and UGA seem very unlikely. Still doable but margin of error isn't large and catching a new staffed UL early was a big opportunity for us that we let slip.
Techastrophe
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Red zone defense was respectable. Punting ok. I think the offense could make the argument that they would have done better if they hadn't had a little help from the defense overall and kicking. Haynes King took more hits than you'd probably want if the defense could be relied upon.
LongforDodd
LatinxBreakfastTacos
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I only saw
we still lack personnel for Thacker to build with. Hopefully there will be growth where tonight it was obvious we needed it. If there is no growth we’ll need more portal additions next year like what we see has occurred on Offense.
LongforDodd
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yeti92
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I didn't feel like Louisville was faster than us or beating us to the edge, but I'll have to go back and rewatch. They did seem to be on us immediately whenever we threw a screen though, and their tackling looked much better than ours.
Techster
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We should have had at least 2 sacks...but we got to the QB but for some reason we totally whiffed on the sack.
The long TD run in the second half should have been a tackle behind the LOS and lost yardage, but our guy decided to play "let's hit the ball carrier as hard as we can and watch him fall" instead of tackling. WRAP UP THE BALL CARRIER ALWAYS. We don't have a Ronnie Lott or Ray Lewis on defense...our guys need to take the right angles and wrap up. Instead that was a backbreaking TD run for Louisville.
Our defense played well in spurts, but our tackling undermined our defense the entire night.
CEB
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Not that we wanted to let it happen, but it was actually a pretty good turn of events. Still a one possession game and we had plenty of time and time outs left.
It felt deflating in the moment, but it really shouldn’t have been a back breaking event.
Granted, I would’ve rather been down 1 and getting the ball back with a minute or so left, but...
SOWEGA Jacket
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One team adjusted after halftime and one team didn’t. The coaching was bad.
