The Key To Beating Duke

[jeffgt14]

Corey will need to have another big game. It's likely he'll be the only free man needing to make an open field tackle.

 

[AE 87]

Power is a pulling ol to the gap. You still can have the dl double team to next level you see in inside zone. It has a ton of zone blocking with how you can seal the end and roll the blocking to the next level. For instance the tackle in power will often double Dt before going to the second level like you do in zone, the pulling OL kicks out the DE that the tackle didnt block since he has a great angle to seal that hole. If you pull both the ol and the hback then they can zone the de seal block and the hback can go to the second level with the OT that blocked down on the dt; both work to the lb and s on that side of the box.

Its one of my favorite run plays no doubt and a staple of a physical offense

Yeah, I think our difference might simply arise from the way I keep things (perhaps too) simple for myself. I think of what we do as typically gap blocking, where we our OL has particular assignments about whom/where to block in order to open a particular gap. Zone blocking as I understand it has to do with getting at the guy within a particular zone so that the RB hits wherever the gap opens up. My understanding of how Counter and Power often work in zone-read packages is that they attack a gap while in other ways appearing like a zone scheme. So, when you said Zone Power, I wasn't sure what exactly that meant. It may be that it's the same thing as I was thinking, just saying it differently.

 

[33jacket]

Yeah, I think our difference might simply arise from the way I keep things (perhaps too) simple for myself. I think of what we do as typically gap blocking, where we our OL has particular assignments about whom/where to block in order to open a particular gap. Zone blocking as I understand it has to do with getting at the guy within a particular zone so that the RB hits wherever the gap opens up. My understanding of how Counter and Power often work in zone-read packages is that they attack a gap while in other ways appearing like a zone scheme. So, when you said Zone Power, I wasn't sure what exactly that meant. It may be that it's the same thing as I was thinking, just saying it differently.

What you are referring to is typically an outside zone or stretch scheme. But you can zone block for a gap. The easy way that works is a dl gets doubled then one of the ol comes off that double and blocks number 2. 2 could be a mlb olb or S depending on the D being used. Who doubles at the point of attack is determined by who is covered. The person doubling comes off the block always for 2. This is done only for the gap playside; as 5 OL cant have two double teams.

What you refer to is more commonly shown as a stretch play where the objective of the OL is to slide the Dl vs exploit a single hole....

There are three common zone blocking schemes. Inside zone outside zone and stretch. The power inside is based off power with inside zone double team

 

[GTNavyNuke]

........ What I am saying is that for Duke, they generally don't have an offense capable of marching down the field by stringing together 10 or more plays (assuming we can manage their inside zone read plays). They need explosion plays off of a missed assignment / tackle/ whatever mistake to make things happen for them. If we are very aggressive with blitzing it is likely we will make a mistake somewhere that can / will lead to an explosion play for them. Doesn't mean you don't run blitz some or otherwise jam the gaps they want to run to - but they will run that bubble screen right behind the blitz fairly routinely.

Having seen this QB in 3 games, I don't think he can sit back and pick a defense apart. I would make him prove it first before I went after him.

This makes sense to me too. Especially given how much they turn over the ball.

What we have here is two 3 ACC loss teams who are struggling to make a bowl. It will come down to who wants it the most.

It used to be that Fluke was a gimme game till they beat us the last two times. It really doesn't matter whether we have gotten worse or they have gotten better. We are now at Fluke's level.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Duke is trash.

Played Louisville good after a bye week when they lost to the #3 Team.

They will try to run up the middle all day. Should be no problem if we Blitz and Press like last week.
Play Action and 3rd Down are my only worries.

Offense should go for at least 300 on the ground maybe 100 passing.

They do run a lot of Tunnle Screens, they killed Louisville with those in the first half.

Duke shouldn't be able to hang with us, I see us winning big. Killing them with the Rocket Toss all day.

****ing A right. All this "OMG Duke" crap is pathetic. We should beat the **** out of 'em.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

****ing A right. All this "OMG Duke" crap is pathetic. We should beat the **** out of 'em.

Yeah we should, but haven't the last two years. Losing to Fluke two years in a row is like UGAg losing to Vandy two years in a row.

 

[Fatmike91]

I think the key to beating Duke (and VPISU) is the same: We need to stretch the field and make them pay for over-committing on defense.

/

 

[gtg936g]

@33jacket Does Duke actually run the zone read? I have not watched them closely in a while. I know they run a lot of give/keep plays where there is a mesh, but I don't recall seeing an unblocked read key. I would assume it is part of their offense, but I am not familiar enough with it to know.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Yeah we should, but haven't the last two years. Losing to Fluke two years in a row is like UGAg losing to Vandy two years in a row.

Agreed.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

****ing A right. All this "OMG Duke" crap is pathetic. We should beat the **** out of 'em.

In the 70's and early 80's, we were the league's whipping boy, but times change. If times are able to change for us, then they're surely able to change for them, too.

Duke has had a resurgence of late. They have good coaches, they have recruited well, in fact, they've out-recruited us over the last 5 yrs.

It's silly to assume we should automatically beat a team just because we did back in the day. I sure hope our team has a healthy respect for them, but they're smart, I'm sure they do.

 

[33jacket]

@33jacket Does Duke actually run the zone read? I have not watched them closely in a while. I know they run a lot of give/keep plays where there is a mesh, but I don't recall seeing an unblocked read key. I would assume it is part of their offense, but I am not familiar enough with it to know.

I dont think its a big staple if they do. They do more power and iso. They dont even do much outside zone or stretch. Mainly inside zone, power, iso etc.

Actually thinking about it they used to do a wildcat package so they have it. But like i said not a staple.

 

[33jacket]

In the 70's and early 80's, we were the league's whipping boy, but times change. If times are able to change for us, then they're surely able to change for them, too.

Duke has had a resurgence of late. They have good coaches, they have recruited well, in fact, they've out-recruited us over the last 5 yrs.

It's silly to assume we should automatically beat a team just because we did back in the day. I sure hope our team has a healthy respect for them, but they're smart, I'm sure they do.

While you are totally right, to the posters original point we should beat teams like duke and pitt way more often than not. While our program has challenges we are still in better shape than both those.....but i agree. Duke is now even with us. Says a ton about the job they did and alot about the one we are not doing

 

[iceeater1969]

This makes sense to me too. Especially given how much they turn over the ball.

What we have here is two 3 ACC loss teams who are struggling to make a bowl. It will come down to who wants it the most.

It used to be that Fluke was a gimme game till they beat us the last two times. It really doesn't matter whether we have gotten worse or they have gotten better. We are now at Fluke's level.

Dont we need to flush the Duke this year to say we are at their level?

Doesn't 3 in a row mean it is not a fluke and they are clearly better than gt at many levels.

Us old guys are embarrassed to even consider the possibility that it is just accepted as a matter of " life has just changed".

 

[Boomergump]

3 in a row would stink. I don't even want to let my mind go there. Ultimately, the rest of the entire series doesn't even matter next weekend. They are an opponent and we need to play well and beat them.

Honestly I don't know what this game is going to be like. My gut tells me that they will be harder to score on than PITT, but easier to stop. We seem to have a better time with immobile QBs. The guy they have at QB now is pretty good, but not like Peterman in terms of decisions and accuracy.

The keys to beating them? Well, I would have to say, just eliminate the mistakes and self-inflicted wounds. We have lost the last two. Essentially, they played clean in those games while we simply screwed ourselves with mistakes. They were far from imposing their will and we were too. They just played smart and tough and let us beat ourselves.

People who say we should crush them are a bit off. We may do that, but it would be unlikely in my mind. They would have to play poorly. If we play our A game and they play their C it could be one sided, but I wouldn't count on it. That scenario was ultimately reversed the last two contests.

Let's embrace the fact that DOOK has become a legit foe and is no longer a whipping boy. It is good for football and it is good for us fans. I dislike that school going all the way back to my playing days for a variety of reasons, but I respect what they have become. For me, it is a lot more fun having a sense of anticipation approaching a contest and not just the eqivalent apathy of an FCS game.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

3 in a row would stink. I don't even want to let my mind go there. Ultimately, the rest of the entire series doesn't even matter next weekend. They are an opponent and we need to play well and beat them.

Honestly I don't know what this game is going to be like. My gut tells me that they will be harder to score on than PITT, but easier to stop. We seem to have a better time with immobile QBs. The guy they have at QB now is pretty good, but not like Peterman in terms of decisions and accuracy.

The keys to beating them? Well, I would have to say, just eliminate the mistakes and self-inflicted wounds. We have lost the last two. Essentially, they played clean in those games while we simply screwed ourselves with mistakes. They were far from imposing their will and we were too. They just played smart and tough and let us beat ourselves.

People who say we should crush them are a bit off. We may do that, but it would be unlikely in my mind. They would have to play poorly. If we play our A game and they play their C it could be one sided, but I wouldn't count on it. That scenario was ultimately reversed the last two contests.

Let's embrace the fact that DOOK has become a legit foe and is no longer a whipping boy. It is good for football and it is good for us fans. I dislike that school going all the way back to my playing days for a variety of reasons, but I respect what they have become. For me, it is a lot more fun having a sense of anticipation approaching a contest and not just the eqivalent apathy of an FCS game.

Like you, I don't know (or even pretend to know) what will happen. I very much know what I would like to have happen; I'd trade a loss to fluke to UVa or Pitt and other teams too (not UGAg though).

Kayaa isn't a mobile QB and he picked us apart - 13 of 19 with no interceptions and a QB rating of 195. Miami only scored 3 TDs offensively on us; but they didn't have the ball as much given our two fumbles and one int. Again, I'll come back to the point I started with, we have to win the turnover battle. Or like you said, stop these damn self inflicted wounds.

 

[AE 87]

Our Defense hasn't shown consistency and improvement from the beginning of the year, as our O has. In fact, we've looked worse since Vandy, imo.

If our D shows something, we should win easily, but I've said that before.

 

[YlJacket]

One other thing about Duke, even more than most teams, it is important to get out ahead of them and make them play from behind. They really want to play conservative and the more you can pressure them to open up to catch up the better off we are. They will be the ones making mistakes.

 

[Old South Stands]

In the 70's and early 80's, we were the league's whipping boy, but times change. If times are able to change for us, then they're surely able to change for them, too.

Duke has had a resurgence of late. They have good coaches, they have recruited well, in fact, they've out-recruited us over the last 5 yrs.

It's silly to assume we should automatically beat a team just because we did back in the day. I sure hope our team has a healthy respect for them, but they're smart, I'm sure they do.

In the '70s we weren't yet in the league (independent) and, even though we'd become a mediocre team, we weren't getting beaten by everyone on the schedule. We were still playing teams like Notre Dame and national powerhouse Pitt (Big East) on a regular/annual basis, as well as old SEC rivals like Auburn and Alabama. Tech beat Georgia several times that decade and won against a highly ranked Notre Dame squad in 1976. With the program still running on the fumes of the Bobby Dodd legacy, and since Tech played against an array of powerhouse national opponents each season and because Pepper Rodgers was a fairly skilled recruiter, Tech could still attract great athletes to the flats in those days...

But there were many games Tech lost due to bad in-game coaching decisions. There were discipline problems that plagued the team as well, causing them not to be prepared mentally for games-- a principal reason Coach Rodgers was fired. On top of that, Tech athletics was losing money and couldn't even upgrade its facilities. Coach Curry inherited a terrible mess in 1980 when Tech joined the ACC. In the very early '80s we were still playing Alabama and Auburn in addition to UGA (as well as Notre Dame) and not yet a full ACC schedule. If memory serves, Duke was doing well under Coach Spurrier, but not much after he left for Florida. I remember the ignominy of losing to Wake Forest and just about everyone else during those first Curry years. Virginia seemed to always give us fits, whether the game was at home or up in Charlottesville. For me, Curry's hire and the concomitant entry into the ACC (plus the arrival of Dr. Homer Rice) was when the Bobby Dodd era really ended. It was a sad time for Tech Football for a few years.

Duke's recent success may have been a fluke... Don't think they're nearly as good as Pitt this year, as an earlier poster implied. But Tech will still have to bring a good game next week to beat them... Duke really seems to get motivated to play against Tech.

 

[RamblinWreck92]

While you are totally right, to the posters original point we should beat teams like duke and pitt way more often than not. While our program has challenges we are still in better shape than both those.....but i agree. Duke is now even with us. Says a ton about the job they did and alot about the one we are not doing

Exactly. Losing 2 IAR to Duke is awful. Losing 3 IAR is not an option. A 3rd loss is an indictment of our program, though I don't think that will happen.

GT 34
Puke 17

They shouldn't out-recruit us 5 years in a row, Cheese. That's also an indictment of the program.

 

[MWBATL]

Miami hasn't won a game since their win over us. BC is still winless in the ACC but we only barely beat them. We managed a special teams TD against Pitt and still managed to lose.

Don't look now, folks, but we are playing like one of the worst programs in the league.

Can we turn it around and play better and improve? Yes. Have we given any hard, tangible evidence that we will? Not yet. Duke is indeed at our level these days. It is a big game for GT.