Pessimism everywhere.
Does anyone think we simply can't be as bad on offense as we looked in the last two weeks? That maybe some unusual set of circumstances led to the poor performance at South Bend and Durham? And that maybe playing in front of the home crowd against a lesser defense, we might see the offense we've been expecting show up?
After watching the Duke very closely and examining the line play and blocking, I'm convinced we can fix this. People who have said we are not being physically dominated are correct.
Duke did some dangerous things and we did not make them pay. On short yardage they were baiting us into the dive read by standing up the DE, and then either sending the Mike on a run blitz, or bringing the guy standing in the A-gap straight to the dive. They won 3rd and 4th and short with these gambits.
We played right into their hands by giving the ball up the middle. But, we weren't getting terribly behind the sticks. Give Duke credit. They bet on our short yardage tendencies. They also played fast and confident, and 16 was excellent. It wasn't all 16 though, I give more credit to the DC.
We need to get more creative and run speed or power option wide, or rocket toss in short yardage. We have been a tad predictable. The QB draw seems to be our only answer for 3rd and 8, for example. They spied it and managed to trip up JT a few times.
The big plays are still out there. We do need better blocking, but it is just by degrees, IMO. I'm calling for more Marshall and Allen at BB. We need to hit homeruns to combat all the strikeouts, if you follow. Jeune can block at WR, can anyone else? Messick is just....well....I can't say anything nice.
Need to score 30 to win a close one. I expect us to get it done. 31-30.
