Thoughts from my Offense and Defense Slow Motion Review:

Jerry the Jacket

Jerry the Jacket

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I was watching a couple of pro games this weekend and noticed something that reminded me of a long standing truth about the game. One game was the Redskins vs. Raiders. The Skins played a great defensive game and totally dominated the Raiders in every aspect of their defense vs. Oakland's offense. It was 90% the attitude they played with. Very aggressive and much akin to an old school - school yard fist fight where the quiet kid who has been picked on just literally rises up and beats the living hell out of the bully. A lot of their performance was dictated by their Coach a guy named Gregg Munusky (sp). He literally was pissed off the whole game and that bleed over to his team. Defense is about attitude and we need to continue to develop a bad attitude on both sides of the ball.

The other game was the Cowboys vs. Cardinals. The game was uneventful for 3 quarters. In the third quarter the Cowboys suddenly got back to who they were last year. They started running the ball with that big offensive line and quit trying to be cute with their play calls. I think our Coach has been tinkering around with his play calling trying to find something that would bust a long one on our opponents and we have not really seen our offense leveraged to it's maximum potential. The true strength of what we have is our center and guard combo and pounding the middle. It's a beautiful thing to watch those 3 yard runs and the effect they have on our opponents over time. I hope to see more and more of it as the season moves along. Marshall is a very good leader but he is still learning how to be a quarterback in our system. I love his potential and if he stays healthy he will be a great one. We have a lot of talent on offense but we need to use it to our maximum advantage. I am hoping Coach Johnson will sharpen his play calling skills as we move along as well.

Go Jackets!
 
Dustman

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on our first possession, the play where KB fumbled the pitch looks like a home run if we run it correctly. The A back doesn't get a good block on the edge, but if KB gets outside I don't think anyone is between him and the end zone.
 

Foxyg

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Jerry the Jacket said:
I think our Coach has been tinkering around with his play calling trying to find something that would bust a long one on our opponents and we have not really seen our offense leveraged to it's maximum potential. The true strength of what we have is our center and guard combo and pounding the middle. It's a beautiful thing to watch those 3 yard runs and the effect they have on our opponents over time. I hope to see more and more of it as the season moves along. Marshall is a very good leader but he is still learning how to be a quarterback in our system. I love his potential and if he stays healthy he will be a great one. We have a lot of talent on offense but we need to use it to our maximum advantage. I am hoping Coach Johnson will sharpen his play calling skills as we move along as well.

Go Jackets!
Click to expand...

I think defensive coordinators have been so scared about our experienced a-backs that they've attempted to take the outside away the first few games. You can see the logic in that because we're breaking in a new quarterback and a new b-back. I expect that there's now enough tape out there that we'll start to see teams make Quan go through his progressions more and start trying to shut down the between the tackles stuff. I hope and expect that he'll be just fine, but some food for thought there. Quan had an interesting comment yesterday, when asked what he expected out of UNC's defense. He said WTTE of "we'll see what they do the first series and go from there." The beauty of our offense and our offensive coordinator is that it's one giant feeback loop of "if, then" decisions. Consequently, I don't think CPJ spends a ton of time game planning what he's going to do prior to a game. He just reads what the defense does and knows what the answer to it is. Other than perhaps running a play action pass on the first play, typically the first series is to run base stuff to see how the opposing coordinator is going to react to it. Once he knows what the d-coordinator is going to do, he's got the answers.
 
Dustman

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Foxyg said:
Quan had an interesting comment yesterday, when asked what he expected out of UNC's defense. He said WTTE of "we'll see what they do the first series and go from there." The beauty of our offense and our offensive coordinator is that it's one giant feeback loop of "if, then" decisions. Consequently, I don't think CPJ spends a ton of time game planning what he's going to do prior to a game. He just reads what the defense does and knows what the answer to it is. Other than perhaps running a play action pass on the first play, typically the first series is to run base stuff to see how the opposing coordinator is going to react to it. Once he knows what the d-coordinator is going to do, he's got the answers.
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I'm sure he spends a lot of time game planning too, based on how the defense had success against us (or other flexbone teams) in the past, or he will also take something that worked well before and add a wrinkle assuming the opponent has made adjustments in their prep. He also breaks down our offense each week to see if we show tendencies.
 

Skeptic

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Jerry the Jacket said:
I was watching a couple of pro games this weekend and noticed something that reminded me of a long standing truth about the game. One game was the Redskins vs. Raiders. The Skins played a great defensive game and totally dominated the Raiders in every aspect of their defense vs. Oakland's offense. It was 90% the attitude they played with. Very aggressive and much akin to an old school - school yard fist fight where the quiet kid who has been picked on just literally rises up and beats the living hell out of the bully. A lot of their performance was dictated by their Coach a guy named Gregg Munusky (sp). He literally was pissed off the whole game and that bleed over to his team. Defense is about attitude and we need to continue to develop a bad attitude on both sides of the ball.

The other game was the Cowboys vs. Cardinals. The game was uneventful for 3 quarters. In the third quarter the Cowboys suddenly got back to who they were last year. They started running the ball with that big offensive line and quit trying to be cute with their play calls. I think our Coach has been tinkering around with his play calling trying to find something that would bust a long one on our opponents and we have not really seen our offense leveraged to it's maximum potential. The true strength of what we have is our center and guard combo and pounding the middle. It's a beautiful thing to watch those 3 yard runs and the effect they have on our opponents over time. I hope to see more and more of it as the season moves along. Marshall is a very good leader but he is still learning how to be a quarterback in our system. I love his potential and if he stays healthy he will be a great one. We have a lot of talent on offense but we need to use it to our maximum advantage. I am hoping Coach Johnson will sharpen his play calling skills as we move along as well.

Go Jackets!
Click to expand...
I think your observation about Marshall learning to play QB explains all our playcalling so far. I really haven't seen the urge to "bust a long one", or at least not any more than usual in a Johnson offense, and it is always looking for the house. The jury is much out on his passing, and the triple is a work in progress. It's hard to hang on until you know you'll be leveled but he is learning it. Now he has to figure out how to make that pitch on the money. Benson should have picked off that speed option Saturday, but it was in fact high and outside. He will learn, I think. I hope. At the same time I want to see more of Jones so it is a conflict right there.
 

Sideways

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Foxyg said:
I think defensive coordinators have been so scared about our experienced a-backs that they've attempted to take the outside away the first few games. You can see the logic in that because we're breaking in a new quarterback and a new b-back. I expect that there's now enough tape out there that we'll start to see teams make Quan go through his progressions more and start trying to shut down the between the tackles stuff. I hope and expect that he'll be just fine, but some food for thought there. Quan had an interesting comment yesterday, when asked what he expected out of UNC's defense. He said WTTE of "we'll see what they do the first series and go from there." The beauty of our offense and our offensive coordinator is that it's one giant feeback loop of "if, then" decisions. Consequently, I don't think CPJ spends a ton of time game planning what he's going to do prior to a game. He just reads what the defense does and knows what the answer to it is. Other than perhaps running a play action pass on the first play, typically the first series is to run base stuff to see how the opposing coordinator is going to react to it. Once he knows what the d-coordinator is going to do, he's got the answers.
Click to expand...

Yep. This is pretty much SOP for Coach Johnson. Once he sees who is making the tackles, he decides how to attack the defense and what counter moves the defensive coordinator might make. With some of them like VT's Coach Foster it is quite the chess match with others they are content to play us the same way they practiced all week with variations. I have seen some defenses stay in pretty much the same formation the entire game. It just depends.
 
dressedcheeseside

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Sideways said:
Yep. This is pretty much SOP for Coach Johnson. Once he sees who is making the tackles, he decides how to attack the defense and what counter moves the defensive coordinator might make. With some of them like VT's Coach Foster it is quite the chess match with others they are content to play us the same way they practiced all week with variations. I have seen some defenses stay in pretty much the same formation the entire game. It just depends.
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If we can't control the LOS and block the MLB, there's not much coach can do.
 

Sideways

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dressedcheeseside said:
If we can't control the LOS and block the MLB, there's not much coach can do.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. One reason why I am excited for this year and next is the recruiting and development of offensive linemen that represent a significant improvement over our lines in the past. We can be dominated up front but it will occur much less often and you will seldom, if ever, see a situation where one tackle or end completely disrupts our offense like Aaron Donald (spelling?) and Luther Maddy did back in the day. If you are going to stop this offense, you need a team effort because one guy isn't going to cut it.
 

Skeptic

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Sideways said:
Yep. This is pretty much SOP for Coach Johnson. Once he sees who is making the tackles, he decides how to attack the defense and what counter moves the defensive coordinator might make. With some of them like VT's Coach Foster it is quite the chess match with others they are content to play us the same way they practiced all week with variations. I have seen some defenses stay in pretty much the same formation the entire game. It just depends.
Click to expand...
The TV crew at Saturday's game surprised me because the two of them were pretty much up on Johnson's adjustment routine and his scheme-changing as the game progressed. (But my alltime scheme memory is VT and Champion (?) actually a very good safety, talking about how he had solved the offense and there were keys and then on Saturday spent the whole game on his back or high stepping away from hand grenades. Tech came after him from every angle and position, including halftime locker room. I don't recall another instance of one player or position being so dominated.)
 
Boomergump

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Skeptic said:
The TV crew at Saturday's game surprised me because the two of them were pretty much up on Johnson's adjustment routine and his scheme-changing as the game progressed. (But my alltime scheme memory is VT and Champion (?) actually a very good safety, talking about how he had solved the offense and there were keys and then on Saturday spent the whole game on his back or high stepping away from hand grenades. Tech came after him from every angle and position, including halftime locker room. I don't recall another instance of one player or position being so dominated.)
Click to expand...
Cam Chancellor
 
85Escape

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Did Chancellor every do anything in the league? To hear them gush as the time, you would think he was destined to be a 10-year ProBowl regular.
 

Sideways

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Skeptic said:
The TV crew at Saturday's game surprised me because the two of them were pretty much up on Johnson's adjustment routine and his scheme-changing as the game progressed. (But my alltime scheme memory is VT and Champion (?) actually a very good safety, talking about how he had solved the offense and there were keys and then on Saturday spent the whole game on his back or high stepping away from hand grenades. Tech came after him from every angle and position, including halftime locker room. I don't recall another instance of one player or position being so dominated.)
Click to expand...

Kam Chancellor? (spelling?) A very good player for the Hokies who said some things that Coach Foster probably wishes he had not said.
Silk3 said:
Yeah hes a beast, pro bowler/all pro
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Yep. He was and is the very definition of a strong safety: big, strong, fast. But on that night in 2009 we abused him like a rented mule.
 
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