NC State Postgame

[sgreer]

Chris Cotter (former sports radio host in Atlanta) was play by play. Mark Herzlich was color commentary and played TE for Boston College and the NY Giants.

Chris Cotter is also a GT graduate.

 

[TooTall]

As a former post player in basketball, our coaches told us that if we got one hand the ball (and yes fingers are part of the hand) than we should've gotten two on it. So many passes hit the receivers in the hands but were dropped. (I hate that CDP still calls those dropped passes plays.)
But thats what cost us the game. We started slow but D kept us in and then the running attack took off, but we couldn't balance it out with stone hands receivers and they knew it.

 

[MacJacket]

I think this is most likely our last game of the year. I’ll be happy if we play Pitt on Thursday but I don’t see it happening due to COVID. My thoughts:
1. Need to start faster.
2. CDP Redzone playcalling HAS to get better.
3. Gibbs probably houseS at least 1 or 2 runs. We win with him.
4. Curry gets a bad rap around here but the dude has been lights out the past 2 games.
5. Youth movement. Some of the freshmen looked great. Kennard, Ivey, and Lockhart have all-ACC potential.
6. @forensicbuzz stated Sims was still drinking from a firehose. Perfect analogy that can be seen on the field. When it all comes together it will be beautiful.
7. Defensive progress. We were shorthanded against a good offense and played well. Thacker is starting to let it rip. I think we make a jumó next year in this side of the ball.
8. Special teams still needs work. Hopefully we can start kicking field goals soon.
9. Make plays. We need to make bang-bang plays. Not calling out players.... watch the tape and you’ll see.
10. Refs. Dreadful. I can live with calls but be consistent.
11. I see progress from last year. Young players and unseasoned coaches need to learn and build on the progress we’ve made.

 

[jayparr]

Pitt canceled against us earlier with fewer problems than this.

Pitt canceled against us earlier with fewer problems than this.

 

[GT05]

To be as shorthanded as we were it was not all bad. If we had a full roster I think we win the game. Boys played hard. Got to hold on to the football. What is up with Griffin? He seems to have faded out of the playbook

 

[THWG]

To be as shorthanded as we were it was not all bad. If we had a full roster I think we win the game. Boys played hard. Got to hold on to the football. What is up with Griffin? He seems to have faded out of the playbook

He's been hurt. It looked like he got shaken up again after one of his runs in this game.

 

[yeti92]

Playcalling was off and on, but particularly poor around the end zone and on our last two drives - running game was working great and Pnode wants to throw deep bombs that aren't jeff's strong suit to lazy receivers that don't want to get open.

Jeff played ok - a lot of holding the ball too long and bad decisions, but none that were super costly and he did a lot with his feet to keep us in the game.

Kicking was good for once! When was the last time we made 2+ field goals with no misses? Shouldn't have needed to kick field goals at all though.

Reffing wasn't good, lots of calls in favor of nc state though not the worst I've ever seen, and we still should have won if we hadn't screwed ourselves repeatedly in the redzone.

Team continues to play extremely undisciplined. Multiple personal fouls/unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, constant false starts, I'm really sick of it. We would have at least 2 more wins this season and CGC would look a helluva lot better as a coach if the players didn't act like morons so much. This is imo one of the biggest things that needs to get corrected in the offseason.

 

[slugboy]

So I take it that the color guy (Herzlich) was the one commenting on the apparent lack of effort from our receiving corps? It makes sense that he has a Boston/NY background if that is the case as the sports fans up there tend to really "tell it like it is". As an aside, one of my worst ever broadcasters was Brent Musberger because he was the exact opposite - he was always unicorns and butterfies no matter what. Give me a guy who is honest and straight up - I used to love Johnny Miller on golf broadcasts for this reason although most people did not.

I couldn’t stand Musberger because he used all the wrong terms. He’d call a formation a “Power I” because it sounded good to him, not because the offense actually lined up in one.
Maybe the replay will be better, but the studio direction on the game was pretty bad if you were trying to figure out what was going on. Herzlich could probably see a lot more of the game from his camera angles than I could from mine. An advantage of being at the game is that you can watch the parts you want to focus on.
Cotter has a great play by play voice, but he doesn’t tell you anything more than what you see on the screen. John Madden with the telestrator fell out of fashion, but I love to see a good color commentator break down a play and tell you a reason that one team is succeeding that you hadn’t seen.
For having a handful of DL players, those guys played all out, and I would have liked to hear a lot more about that. I also would have appreciated hearing what was going on with the NCST defensive line penetration and how someone was getting beat (swim move or missed assignment or whatever).

Chris Cotter is also a GT graduate.

I forgot about that, and I remember complaints that “you’d never know he’s a Tech grad the way he treats us”. That may also be because he didn’t think much of Gailey back then. I thought he called an even-handed, but boring game, and I think both commentators were hoping we’d tie the game so they’d have something to talk about.
They didn’t have good filler stories for the third quarter.

 

[Oakland]

Need to figure a way to get the tight ends more involved in the passing attack. Looks like they're having to help more with the pass blocking. We've got three tight end commits for 2021. I wouldn't be surprised if Leo Blackburn starts next year.

 

[yeti92]

When we have a tide end as a converted long snapper... that’s all you need to know about the tide end position

You totally seem like someone who's football knowledge can be trusted.

 

[7979]

there is a lot to be critical of at the moment to be sure. But giving the missing players and being on the road against a 7 win (now 8) team, I thought the team compted hard (the announcer's comments about our receivers were very disturbing however.) As in 2 or 3 of our other losses we went into the 4th quarter with a chance to win the game. I see improvements in coaching and still see a positive trendline. I think the program is being built and we are going through what we did in Curry and Ross's first two years.

I have 2 questions - who was that announcer last night? Quite frankly, I enjoyed his candor. Also,for your former OL and/or coaches, what are the difference skillsets required to run vs. pass block? We were effective at one last night and very inefffective at the other? Thanks for any input.

"...what are the difference skillsets required to run vs. pass block?..."

Pass blocking = passive, receive the blow, defend space by yielding ground slowly, requires 5 or 6 seconds of success, stay tall, use your hands
Run blocking = attack-attack-attack, assigned man/zone, deliver the blow, stay low, lead with your face, requires 2-3 secs of success
Pass blockers = taller, much better feet an absolute, stronger upper body, hands
Run blockers = low CoG not a problem, powerful lower body, mad/mean playing pissed off
Pass blocking = Everybody must be blocked/stay blocked for 5 secs, all 5 guys must be great every play
Run blocking = Key/critical blocks only at point-of-attack, backside blocking is just a cut-off release across face of defender

Here lies the heart of our difficulties with the change, Paul to Geoff.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Good, Bad, Ugly.

Overall - We are better this year (except FGs) and I expect better next year. Kind of hope the Pitt game is postponed a week since we are so banged up. What we saw yesterday was a team with too many injuries.

Good:

• Defense - pass defense some of the big NC State pass plays were beautiful throws.
• Defense - another great game by Curry
• Defense overall - Holding NC State to 23 was pretty good. And I saw a lot of effort and hard hitting with good tackling.
• Rush Offense - pretty good when we committed to it.
• ST - not trying to return KOs or even punts. The one punt we tried to return was ill advised and our guy was hit as soon as he caught the ball. Thought it that the returned had to be given 2 yards which he didn't have.
• ST - EP and FG (when attempted were good)
• ST KOs and coverages were TBs or good coverage.
• ST - punting wasn't up to PH3 standards (had to put in one category and wasn't bad)
• ACCN wasn't blacked out, GIECO had some good commercials and the announcers were good (not as good as Wiley or Roddy but better than others)

Bad & Ugly

• Coaching - self inflicted chaos by rushing inside the 5. And I blame the intentionally coached chaos for lack of discipline. Like personal foul on a non-returned KO. All turnt up and stupid.
• 1/2 of our passing game. The passes which weren't way off the mark were met with stone hands.
• Officiating. Both sides were holding and we got called.
• Coaching - mix of play calling. We should have rushed more.

 

[danny daniel]

I blame this on Patenaude. I don't know why he RUSHED to try and score when it should have been reviewed. I think Sims got in for the TD but P'nut decided to rush and try to score quick which led to the false start.

Got to agree about the rush to score. With the ball first down on the one and plenty of time on the clock there are four chances to score by calling plays not to lose yardage (quick hitting runs right at the D) and base plays with short counts. The D will not stop you in this situation. Only you can stop you with just being too cute. Other than the Wolfpack receivers winning the contested balls consistently and us having too many penalties I thought we played pretty well with so many of our starters out. The freshmen DEs played very well especially early in the game.

 

[4shotB]

"...what are the difference skillsets required to run vs. pass block?..."

Pass blocking = passive, receive the blow, defend space by yielding ground slowly, requires 5 or 6 seconds of success, stay tall, use your hands
Run blocking = attack-attack-attack, assigned man/zone, deliver the blow, stay low, lead with your face, requires 2-3 secs of success
Pass blockers = taller, much better feet an absolute, stronger upper body, hands
Run blockers = low CoG not a problem, powerful lower body, mad/mean playing pissed off
Pass blocking = Everybody must be blocked/stay blocked for 5 secs, all 5 guys must be great every play
Run blocking = Key/critical blocks only at point-of-attack, backside blocking is just a cut-off release across face of defender

Here lies the heart of our difficulties with the change, Paul to Geoff.

Thank you so much for this well informed reply. It is easier now for me to understand why one can be good at one and not the other. I thought it was interesting to note that the announcer said we were good at pass blocking for about 1.5 seconds or so. His comment makes more sense to me after reading your response.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Thank you so much for this well informed reply. It is easier now for me to understand why one can be good at one and not the other. I thought it was interesting to note that the announcer said we were good at pass blocking for about 1.5 seconds or so. His comment makes more sense to me after reading your response.

Exactly - and as a coach and QB you have to be aware of this. You should be calling plays that allow for quick throws if that’s what you’re facing. Or be ready to tuck it and run after 2 seconds. We had multiple fumbles and near interceptions in the first 10 minutes alone.

 

[danny daniel]

other than run and pass what else can an offense do ?

Lets try some down and distance and field position awareness in our play calling, especially in the red zone. Something is not right when the O yardage stats are so high and the scoring is so low (not the first time).

 

[LongforDodd]

Really disappointed with the overall effort in this game. The guys had to know they had a great chance to win this game but they did not play like it mattered. We continue to make the same stupid mistakes, over and over and over. Penalties, bad play calls, poor offensive line play, a defense that plays hard but can not pressure the qb with any consistency or cover receivers. They still struggle to get off the field on third down and fail to make the key stops when we have to have them. This is a game we really needed in order to show some semblance of forward progress for the program. In my view, this team looks the same today as they looked in game one. I think the only way to fix the problems is to churn the roster and a good part of the coaching staff. We have some promise for the future but this season has been a bust.

Go Jackets!

Yes the lack of fire reminded me of the Syracuse game

 

[Gtswifty81]

Exactly - and as a coach and QB you have to be aware of this. You should be calling plays that allow for quick throws if that’s what you’re facing. Or be ready to tuck it and run after 2 seconds. We had multiple fumbles and near interceptions in the first 10 minutes alone.

Thank you so much for this well informed reply. It is easier now for me to understand why one can be good at one and not the other. I thought it was interesting to note that the announcer said we were good at pass blocking for about 1.5 seconds or so. His comment makes more sense to me after reading your response.

The standard rule of thumb is a QB needs to release his pass in about 3 seconds. Some NFL QBs are under 2.5 seconds. DBs can’t be expected to cover receivers much longer so pass rush is critical. I believe the announcers made that call after Smith had to choose who to block between two unblocked blitzers. I’m not sure if they delayed a blitz or we just missed it but our oline doubled a DT at the snap and vacated the middle.

As Sims and the Oline improve, hopefully we can buy that extra time in the pocket. There was one play I believe after the second false start on the one where the Oline did a tremendous job blocking but Sims didn’t seem to trust his line and faded back and to the right where the DE was. If he stayed in the pocket and stepped up he likely finds a guy for a TD. I think sims evaded the DE but lost about two yards when he scrambled right.

 

[Ibeeballin]

Lets try some down and distance and field position awareness in our play calling, especially in the red zone. Something is not right when the O yardage stats are so high and the scoring is so low (not the first time).

Like what?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Sims once again played awful and the overall offensive coaching was awful.
We still got beat by a better team though so let’s not sweat it too much. They’re 8-3 for a reason.

Agree. The best team won.

In a weird way I felt better about our failings this time because they were specific, contextual and, presumably, could be fixed. Previously after a loss it felt like so many things were wrong you didn’t know where to start, hence the calls by some to eject this coach or that coach. This feels manageable.