Turnovers and Special Teams

[Coloradojacket]

So for special teams, other than the blocked field goal I thought we did pretty well. They had no returns and we had a 73 yard return. Punting team was outstanding. The reason for the blocks is the kicker is kicking the ball too low. Did you notice the different trajectory when we switched kickers. Also we go a guy who puts kickoffs in the end zone.

For turnovers, the late ones were because we had a young guy pressing, Sims. His fumble was just a good slap and the missed mesh was just two Freshman trying to run it. All correctable.
What was evident to me, as I stated in another thread, while Gibbs is electric, he has some size to put on or he is more the scat back. We were missing Mason big time, particularly in the red zone. Older bigger stronger running back. Till we get him back if I were the coaches I would go with D Smith in the zone. he is a powerful runner. Oh and run the ball more overall.

 

[CuseJacket]

My position re: Special Teams is that much of it is coaching, particularly coverages, trick plays, etc.

There is also an element of mental readiness and corresponding unpredictability with the field goal unit in play to start this year. I trust that Jude's performance the first two week's is not reflective of practice. There is no way he won a wide open D1 kicking competition with the type of performance we are seeing in game action. Unfortunately practice is all the coaches had to go off of prior to Sept 12th.

We need to find a field goal kicker, whether it's Jude or someone else, to become a good team. Unfortunately it's not a situation you can necessarily coach up in the middle of a season because there is no free agency. There is a reason kickers are not always offer scholarships out of HS... as has been proven across coaches at GT and with other programs, you just don't know if they'll be able to perform at the level needed in college.

 

[takethepoints]

Very true. The five turnovers were all committed by sophomores and freshmen. That should tell us that (1) they will get better, and (2) the rough times might continue this year if the young guns don't improve quickly. We are depending on a LOT of young players.

What it told me is that we had better hope we get Mason back soon. With him out there in the 3rd and 4th, we'd have had a much better chance of winning the game. Too bad we had to depend so much on the whippersnappers for a unit like UCF, but they had a fair number of new kids as well. Unfortunately for us, their experienced folks tended to be in places that made the matchups difficult.

 

[RamblinCharger]

Well that was a frustrating game to say the least. Watching that game I felt we were just as talented as them and had a chance to win until the 4th. We don't have the bodies at DT and our QB made too many freshman mistakes. We could have been up 21-7 to start the game if we capitalized in the redzone. If we can stop killing ourselves and start scoring TDs in the redzone we can beat a majority of the ACC teams on our schedule. Not sure I know enough about kicking to talk about it, but that is frustrating. Seems like we're just not getting the ball in the air fast enough with all these blocks. Hopefully that is correctable.

 

[CuseJacket]

May as well bump this rather than repost

 

[Scubapro]

Red zone scoring offense percentage is low. Guess we should just the defense at the 20yd line

Yeah...but its not Patenaude's fault....we just need a year or two more

 

[SWATlien]

I'm all for dancing gracefully around the miscues and weaknesses of our individual players. But I think it's also unfair to lay all of those misgivings solely at the feet of the coaches. The coaches are not calling "the fumble play".

Yes, 5 turnovers are the sign of a bad team. In our case it's likely due to a young, developing team. And much of that will get corrected either by way of player improvement or new players given a chance.

I said it in the write-up and I've said it here over the last decade. Winning college football games often comes down to turnovers and special teams. You cannot be a good team "except for the turnovers". You cannot be a good team "except for our special teams play".

Much like the Beamer ball, conservative offense years at VT, you can be really successful in college ball once you take care of those things. We really need to figure it out this year to have a chance at a bowl. Game experience and reps help, and given our roster make-up that means there are reasons for hope/optimism that we can sort those things out. This year might be too soon to get us over the hump, but it'd sure be nice to see continued improvement.

It was just sloppy all around. They have a lot to clean up. They have a lot of work to do.

 

[g0lftime]

Sims may be having trouble with the speed of the game (late throws) and is having trouble with some reads or our OC is asking him to do things that he is not quite capable of yet. Either way we are throwing too many interceptions.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

May as well bump this rather than repost

Yeah. I may not do a post- mortem on the play by play ST. Maybe next year.

Pressley great. Coverage weak, kicking awful.

Good thing is that we are used to bad overall ST.

 

[THWG16]

We’re awful plain & simple , hopefully it changes soon

 

[DaDodd]

Yea how do you not blame coaches? There is a total lack of discipline on the field. 15 penalties! That’s on coaching. I feel like CGC cares more about how he looks than how he coaches. Why the outfit change at half time? Yes players execute the plays but the coaches are not preparing them well for certain situations. This team has loads of talent but overall it’s a bad team. I hate to say it but they are right now. There’s a lack of leadership on offense. It field goal unit looks like a middle school team just learning how to kick and the kickers are playing paper rock scissors to see who will go out to kick.

 

[Ibeeballin]

Yeah...but its not Patenaude's fault....we just need a year or two more

So it was CDP fault that the Syracuse made a play when we had Gibbs wide open in the flat or that our kickers can’t kick the ball over an ant wearing stilettos?

If you’re going to criticize him, let it be about Syracuse all out blitzing and us not having answer for it

 

[GCdaJuiceMan]

So it was CDP fault that the Syracuse made a play when we had Gibbs wide open in the flat or that our kickers can’t kick the ball over an ant wearing stilettos ?

If you’re going to criticize him, let it be about Syracuse all out blitzing and us not having answer for it

 

[Scubapro]

So it was CDP fault that the Syracuse made a play when we had Gibbs wide open in the flat or that our kickers can’t kick the ball over an ant wearing stilettos?

If you’re going to criticize him, let it be about Syracuse all out blitzing and us not having answer for it

OK...fair enough...Cuse knew how to confuse Sims causing him to hesitate and turn the ball over. This is due to the offense scheme P-nut is running...Patenaude could have kept it simple and rolled Sims out with with a one read RPO as a complement to our running game

 

[Southpawmac]

OK...fair enough...Cuse knew how to confuse Sims causing him to hesitate and turn the ball over. This is due to the offense scheme P-nut is running...Patenaude could have kept it simple and rolled Sims out with with a one read RPO as a complement to our running game

So your solutions for the redzone is to take an already compacted field, and compact it more by rolling the QB to one side and making the defense only cover one third of the field?

 

[Scubapro]

So your solutions for the redzone is to take an already compacted field, and compact it more by rolling the QB to one side and making the defense only cover one third of the field?

You ever hear of a mis direction and rolling a TE out giving the QB a RPO and a chance to use his feet or his arm?
Really? What did we do today that was certain to work better?
We are all arm chair QBs right now but sheesh how many quarters are we gonna be shut out?

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I'm all for dancing gracefully around the miscues and weaknesses of our individual players. But I think it's also unfair to lay all of those misgivings solely at the feet of the coaches. The coaches are not calling "the fumble play".

Yes, 5 turnovers are the sign of a bad team. In our case it's likely due to a young, developing team. And much of that will get corrected either by way of player improvement or new players given a chance.

I said it in the write-up and I've said it here over the last decade. Winning college football games often comes down to turnovers and special teams. You cannot be a good team "except for the turnovers". You cannot be a good team "except for our special teams play".

Much like the Beamer ball, conservative offense years at VT, you can be really successful in college ball once you take care of those things. We really need to figure it out this year to have a chance at a bowl. Game experience and reps help, and given our roster make-up that means there are reasons for hope/optimism that we can sort those things out. This year might be too soon to get us over the hump, but it'd sure be nice to see continued improvement.

I agree with all of this except that we are not going to a bowl. This team will be fortunate to win four or five games. We do not look like a good football team. It has been a long time since I have seen a Tech team that churns up yards both rushing and passing but doesn't score. I think we really miss Jordan in the red zone.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I would like someone who knows QB's to tell me why through 3 games, Sims has had at least 4 interceptions due to tipped balls. Is there something he's doing that contributes to the DL being able to get their mitts up to block the pass? There has to be a reason. Tipped balls are bad breaks, unless they're not. DL are taught to get their hands up when the QB starts his throwing motion. Does Sims just not see these guys right in front of him?

I'm not being critical of Sims or the play-calling. I'm legitimately asking if there's a reason we've had so many tipped passes.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I agree with all of this except that we are not going to a bowl. This team will be fortunate to win four or five games. We do not look like a good football team. It has been a long time since I have seen a Tech team that churns up yards both rushing and passing but doesn't score. I think we really miss Jordan in the red zone.

I don't know about missing Jordan in the red zone. Those three guys ran really hard today, breaking tackles, avoiding tackles, weaving through traffic, and carrying people. I was very impressed with our running game. Today's loss can be laid squarely at the feet of the turnover gods. We don't turn the ball over, we beat Syracuse by a couple of touchdowns.

 

[CuseJacket]

I agree with all of this except that we are not going to a bowl. This team will be fortunate to win four or five games. We do not look like a good football team. It has been a long time since I have seen a Tech team that churns up yards both rushing and passing but doesn't score. I think we really miss Jordan in the red zone.

Well to be clear, I wasn’t make a prediction. Rather I was offering the prerequisites to make that happen. So far, we haven’t made the corrections.

But there is a chance we make a bowl no matter what. On the table with the NCAA is a proposal to waive all requirements around # of wins to make a bowl this year, due to Covid and scheduling challenges. That is probably worth its own thread.