Louisville Post Game

[Root4GT]

Well, if running it up the middle doesn’t work the first time, do it again 25 times and throw the game away

Might want to actually count the runs up the middle in the 2nd half. You only need one hand. But it sure sounds good.

 

[orientalnc]

Nabob, what the hell is a nabob??

Maybe they said on the Spectrum broadcast, which I conveniently didn't have Friday on my classic cable box......

Actually, it's nattering nabobs of negativism. It's an aliterative quote from Spiro Agnew referring to politicians critical of his role in the Nixon troubles.

 

[MusicalBuzz]

Might want to actually count the runs up the middle in the 2nd half. You only need one hand. But it sure sounds good.

I think it refers to when it was done .. which was literally when the momentum and the score of the game turned.

 

[Root4GT]

I think it refers to when it was done .. which was literally when the momentum and the score of the game turned.

One set of downs inside the 20, three runs, missed FG. Of course the same folks said we should have run on the sack/fumble at the same spot on the field 5 minutes later.

 

[ibeattetris]

Here are a few more numbers on the game (again, from https://gameonpaper.com/cfb/game/401525462). These are defensive numbers. I’m not going to say whether Thacker can call a defense, etc.

First big number is “stop rate”—on what percentage of plays your defense is on the field did they get a punt, turnover, or turnover on downs (including 4th down conversions).

Louisville got us off the field—punting, etc—about half the time. Ours was only about 26%. To our credit, we held them to FGs a lot.


View attachment 14690

I’ve seen a few people write that we couldn’t get sacks, we couldn’t pressure the QB, we didn’t get any tackles for loss. They didn’t get many more tackles for loss than we did. They got one sack (and boy, that one counted).

We had more explosive plays than they did. We were about as effective as them in stuffing the ball.

Turnovers hurt us—and Louisville made more of their turnovers than we did (ours only had seconds left in the first half).

View attachment 14691

What these numbers don’t show is the difference between the second quarter vs the third and the beginning of the fourth. I don’t think it was just Louisville’s halftime adjustments—it was ours, too. Our line yards (the yards on a run from the OL compared to the yards on runs from the runner) were about the same as Louisville’s.

We don’t have a line that will push for 3 1/2 yards on a play. We’re better off spreading the defense out and getting rushing yards that way. Also, we were better off optioning, and that had been effective for us in the first half.

If you look at the special teams stats, they basically cost us a TD worth of points—at least six, and enough to lose the game. We finally figured out to fair catch the kickoffs after a while. Punts are still kind of an adventure.

I don’t have any stats for bad tackling, but that killed us in the second half. Bad tackling allowed Louisville to move the ball down the field on the first series after halftime.

There are a lot of things to improve on defense, and our guys were going for turnovers, but if they can focus on one thing, it’s making the tackle—wrap up and make good tackles. If you can’t do it solo, fight and hold on until you get help. Stay between your player and the goalline.

On offense—unless we end up with the mid-1980’s version of the Washington Redskins “Hogs” where they can just push you down the field—we’re going to spread and option. If we bring in extra TEs, we still have to spread.

Key seems to want the OL to take over the game. I understand that they won’t be able to do that unless he keeps pushing them, but they couldn’t do it last night. There’s no side of the line that you can follow for three yards. Key and Geep Wade need to be smart in picking their battles. They can’t give up, but that first offensive series in the third cost us dearly.

Special teams need work.

Only 65 plays. The new clock rules are so stupid.

 

[yeti92]

Might want to actually count the runs up the middle in the 2nd half. You only need one hand. But it sure sounds good.

I may have missed it, but does the stat sheet specify what they are considering middle vs right/left? Anything inside the tackles? Guards? TE? People may be generalizing anything inside the TEs as "middle" vs what the stat sheet is defining. It did feel like a lot of handoffs from shotgun that stayed inside the TEs, but maybe not, the stat sheet doesn't have that level of detail.

I do see that in the second half, we ran 11 times with guys not names Haynes King, and 8 of those went for 2 yards or less. The other three carries were for 3, 6, and 8 yards. That's pretty bad performance from the RBs, we were much much more effective in the 2nd quarter.

 

[GT33]

Might want to actually count the runs up the middle in the 2nd half. You only need one hand. But it sure sounds good.

Stats say 7 of 18 runs in 2nd half were counted as up the middle. 5 of the 11 deemed not “up the middle” which I assume are runs not between wherever the guards were blocking were pretty much between the tackles which most people probably consider to be “up the middle” runs. You’re probably right that you only need 1 hand as long as you do a 5, 5 and a deuce. Basically every 3rd play in the 2nd half (12 of 35) we ran in the middle of the field.

 

[iceeater1969]

That was the biggest play of the game, but there were lots of chances to win it.

We don’t need a flexbone, but option plays can act like an extra blocker or two, and we have the QBs to make that work.

We also tried some H back plays with the TEs and didn’t get much out of that.

Slug, great info!
I was at game and had seats in lower level so unlike at bds i couldn't see the ol play. We need to look into whoever recommended the LT starter verses the true freshmen finisher. Also when they have a war daddy dt over the center he must have help. On the blind side he was pulled down and thrown out past the left tackle. This happened while the RG and RT had one guy stoned. With Williams injured we had Fusile move over LG

We can t loose a rush the qb in the quard alley. The g c g must help each other.

The Clemson and UGA DL will bring malicious anger on our qb

 

[Root4GT]

Slug, great info!
I was at game and had seats in lower level so unlike at bds i couldn't see the ol play. We need to look into whoever recommended the LT starter verses the true freshmen finisher. Also when they have a war daddy dt over the center he must have help. On the blind side he was pulled down and thrown out past the left tackle. This happened while the RG and RT had one guy stoned. With Williams injured we had Fusile move over LG

We can t loose a rush the qb in the quard alley. The g c g must help each other.

The Clemson and UGA DL will bring malicious anger on our qb

Fusile is our starting LG. Williams is the starting RG

 

[SteamWhistle]

I don’t think Our OL is as bad as we are leading on. Especially considering we played 2 guys in the 2nd half who weren’t starters.

 

[herb]

Might want to actually count the runs up the middle in the 2nd half. You only need one hand. But it sure sounds good.

We didn’t watch the same game

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Slug, great info!
I was at game and had seats in lower level so unlike at bds i couldn't see the ol play. We need to look into whoever recommended the LT starter verses the true freshmen finisher. Also when they have a war daddy dt over the center he must have help. On the blind side he was pulled down and thrown out past the left tackle. This happened while the RG and RT had one guy stoned. With Williams injured we had Fusile move over LG

We can t loose a rush the qb in the quard alley. The g c g must help each other.

The Clemson and UGA DL will bring malicious anger on our qb

"Malicious anger" is it? Odds are pretty good that Haynes is either going to have to start developing eye balls all the way around his head or my preference, get in the face of some of those offensive linemen that should be matadors in a bull fight rather than linemen in a football game.

 

[Root4GT]

We didn’t watch the same game

Read the play by play on the GTAA web site and get facts. It will surprise you. We had one set of 3 plays that were 2 runs up the middle and a QB read option run. That was the three plays prior to the mussed FG. You won’t find 3 consecutive calmed runs any other time in the game. I will say watching the game live it did not seem like that was the case.

 

[danny daniel]

Not a single comment yet on two fantastic catches by the true freshman? Makes me wonder how many here turned off the game or left early.

That first catch by Singleton was truly spectacular. Second catch was much less difficult (not contested like the first one) but he had to go high to get it and he did, making it look routine. Very encouraged ..

 

[danny daniel]

Where is Nate McCollum?

North Carolina with a groin injury. Did not play today.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Just watched the replay and I was wrong about the player who missed the block on the sack-fumble. We pulled the left guard to protect Haynes while he rolled the pocket to the right. It was the center who missed the block on the DT.

 

[danny daniel]

^this .. was my takeaway. I couldn’t believe seeing the same thing again and again

Unfortunitely its worse than the too many one yard runs up the middle. It is the puny yardage we are getting on first down causing way too many 2nd and 9 and third and 7 situations. This has been a problem since 2019. In the second half Louisville was getting 5-8 yards on first a lot and we were stuffed for under 3 a lot. We need more creativity and consistency on first down.

 

[Root4GT]

I may have missed it, but does the stat sheet specify what they are considering middle vs right/left? Anything inside the tackles? Guards? TE? People may be generalizing anything inside the TEs as "middle" vs what the stat sheet is defining. It did feel like a lot of handoffs from shotgun that stayed inside the TEs, but maybe not, the stat sheet doesn't have that level of detail.

I do see that in the second half, we ran 11 times with guys not names Haynes King, and 8 of those went for 2 yards or less. The other three carries were for 3, 6, and 8 yards. That's pretty bad performance from the RBs, we were much much more effective in the 2nd quarter.

The execution was poor in the 2nd half, especially in the 3rd quarter. We only converted 1 first down in the 3rd quarter on a King scramble, We ran 3 first down plays. King short pass for 2 yards. Cooly rush left 0 yards. Haynes rush middle 2 yards. The last play of the quarter, Cooly rush middle 1 yard.

Really bad offensive quarter. Execution was poor for sure. Play calling can be criticized as well. Nothing worked. Of course when nothing works play calling looks bad.

Now compare that to the 2nd quarter. We made 7 first downs and 4 TDs. Hard to do better. Our first down plays were:
- King pass complete short right to #11 J.Haynes for 46 yards
- Smith rush right for 7 yards
- D.Smith rush left for 0 yards
- Cooley rush left for 5 yards
- Cooley rush right for 11 yards gain
- Cooley rush middle for 1 yard (TD)
- Haynes rush middle for 9 yards
- King rush right for 1 yard gain
- Cooley rush right for 23 yards (TD)
- Haynes rush left for 13 yards
- Haynes rush middle for 4 yards
- G.Stewart field goal attempt from 54 yards NO GOOD

So in the very successful 2nd quarter we ran 12 1st down plays. 10 were running plays, one was a pass and one was a FG.

Bottom line is execution matters more than play calling!

 

[CuseJacket]

From the postgame presser:

Louisville changed their defensive front at halftime.

 

[Root4GT]

From the postgame presser:

Louisville changed their defensive front at halftime.

I watched the 3nd and 3rd quarter in slow motion. It was hard to see much difference in how Louisville lined up defensively but one would need the all 22 film and lots more football knowledge than I have to actually assess what they did differently. Coach said they did adjust on defense. It was not anything easy to see though.

This is where the play execution vs play call is a topic for debate. We clearly executed very well in the 2nd quarter but did not execute well in the 3rd quarter. We only ran 9 plays in the 3rd quarter, 6 runs (including 2 QB scrambles) and 3 passes.

The defense really struggled that quarter.