CU44SE
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- Apr 11, 2012
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Ill be honest, I was discouraged after losing the game on saturday night and not nearly as satisfied as some of you were about this game. Personally, I don't believe ND is a top 10 team and believe they are closer to a top 15-20 team. Doesn't mean I don't think they are good, just don't believe they are great. The thing that makes this even more discouraging is the fact that we still lost by 16 points after winning the turnover battle 5-1. Maybe you think I'm too hard on this team or expect to much but If I told you before the game we win the turnover battle 5-1, would anyone have believed we would lose by 16? In all honesty, I would have looked at you crazy if you even told me we LOST after hearing that. We were only out-gained by 94 yards and won the turnover battle 5-1 and still lost by 16 points. I believe their are two things that stick out to me more than anything else after watching the game and have really hampered us all year; the complete and total lack of fundamental football and discipline. The coaching staff needs to start holding these players accountable for their mistakes.
-Ill start with McDonald and the offense. I do not believe McDonald is a very good offensive coordinator, I believe he lacks the rhythm and flow necessary of calling plays in a game. Some of the best offensive coordinators in football call plays early in the game to set up a future play which hopefully goes for a big gain. A perfect example of this (and there are many) was in the Green Bay game Sunday. Chicago runs jet sweeps with Alshon Jeffery all the time, or fake jet sweeps with a hand off to forte. In this particular game, they put Alshon in motion to run a jet sweep or fake with handoff to forte, but in this particular instance, on the snap he quickly ran back in the direction he just came from and took advantage of a play that was set up by the 5 or 6 identical plays before it where Alshon ran across the formation faking or running the jet sweep. A subtle change to a play that has been working all year, which resulted in a 20 yard score where Alshon was completely alone and untouched. Another example, one pertaining to our game on Saturday was the first fuller TD. ND continually uses bubble screens to drive down the field, then they called another WR screen that looked like every other bubble screen, except it was a different screen. This one was a misdirection screen to take advantage of everyone flowing to the bubble screen like they ran so many times before. They set up a bubble screen, Fuller catches the ball and makes a step or two move to the outside to make it look like every other play; making the defense think its a routine bubble screen. The defense proceeds to flow towards the sideline and he immediately puts his foot in the ground and starts running back towards the middle of the field with his lineman making great backside blocks down the field springing him for that 30 yard TD.
-Another thing I do not particularly like about McDonald is that he does not utilize his talent effectively in my opinion. As many of us can see, we currently are not as talented and don't have the athletes that other teams have. But it seems like teams always find a way to put their players in the best position to succeed. As an offensive coordinator, you have to call plays that utilize the talent you have. I get we don't currently have the talent or athletes we need to run the offense McDonald wants to run. That means, as an offensive coordinator, it is his job to tailor his offense to the players and strengths they have. Currently, McDonald is trying to fit square pegs into circular holes. A perfect example of this is running bubble screens to Custis. All we heard was Custis was getting run at TE to matchup with linebackers. He would be a mismatch nightmare. We were excited when we brought him in because of his height and basketball background. Something that seems would equate to a downfield threat. Yet the only way we try to get him the ball is through the bubble screen. Something which I believe most of us would agree would not be his best asset. Usually you want to get the bubble screen to one of your smaller, quick, fast receivers and have your big receivers blocking. Its somewhat frustrating when for example, we run bubble screens to West or Custis and have our smallest WR in Estime blocking for them. Obviously this does not always happen, but it has happened more than it should this year.
-Speaking of the bubble screens, there are plays to be made. Not every time, but most of the time their is room for a good chunk of yardage but someone (generally a WR) misses a block. You don't necessarily need athletes to run bubble screens, that is a great myth. You need to be fundamentally sound (blocking) and take advantage of what the defense is giving you. The blocking on the outside has been absolutely horrid all year. Maryland and ND not only took advantage of our lack of numbers on the outside but their WR made and held blocks for their bubble screens. That is not happening when we use the bubble screen. This is where I believe players need to be held accountable, the fundamentals necessary to succeed have not been there. The amount of times we run bubble screens, we should have at least 10-15 minutes dedicated to WR blocking everyday in practice.
-Lastly, Maryland and ND have played us with 8 or 9 guys in the box almost exclusively and we refuse to throw the ball down the field; they rarely have safety help. Yes, we don't necessarily have the receivers or qb to throw deep, but we started to move the ball and make plays on Saturday when we started throwing the ball over 10 yards downfield. Sometimes you have to change your philosophy if a team is taking away what you do. It was pretty obvious that ND went into the game and was determined to make us throw the ball down the field if we wanted to win the game. They were not going to let us run the ball. We started both halves with very successful downfield throws but were reluctant to throw anything else downfield until the very end. However, we continued to run right up the middle and throw bubble screens against their fronts. There were plays to be made on the bubble screens, but missed blocks again killed us with our execution.
-Defensively, I thought the kids played great. However, Im still not a believer in Bullough. Our failure to line up differently when ND bubble screened us down the field was inexcusable. We continued to blitz the outside LB or play him to close to the line of scrimmage when they had 3 WR split outside with only 2 CB's at the line of scrimmage. Unlike our lack of blocking on the outside, ND's WR blocked great which allowed the WR to get positive yards every single catch. We continually gave them the easy pass, to which they took advantage of; the sole reason Golson had 25 or so completions in a row. The only way we continued to stop them was the fumbles and interceptions. The kids made great plays all night to make up for the scheme and it could have been a lot worse if not for all the turnovers.
-Another big issue, and this was talked about somewhere else and more so then anything I hope it was an error on the safety because Winfield should NEVER be matched up one on one with their best WR. The kid was a WR just 2 months ago and is just transitioning to CB. All we heard during training camp was how raw he is and he was susceptible to the big play. You don't leave an inexperienced player on an island with their best WR, that would be just inexcusable to me, and whatever did happen, ND took advantage of it. Something we very rarely seem to do on offense.
-Lastly, Shafer needs to hold his players accountable. Im all for the ra-ra fire he has, but you never see him yelling or demanding more from a kid. Im not asking him to be psychotic but the pre snap penalties and personal fouls are inexcusable. They are drive killers, and killed multiple drives in both the Maryland game and again against ND. Our offense was struggling to begin with, it was hard enough to gain 10 yards on three downs against that defense, and players were putting us in position where we had to gain 15 yards for a first down or more. Lasker not only had a false start, but then on the ensuing play had a personal foul late hit called on him. Dumb undisciplined football, which prevented us from extending drives. One drive in particular went from a very manageable 3rd and 2 to 3rd and 7 and an ensuing punt.
Obviously, most of these coaches are in their first rodeo so Im going to be patient. However, I'm just not sold on this coaching staff at the moment. It is apparent they are not very good game day coaches and I believe that puts us at a serious disadvantage every week and even in the future. Even if we do get the recruits and athletes that we desire, someone needs to put them in position to succeed and I'm not entirely sure we have the coaches to do that. I hope they prove me wrong over the course of the season and with all these negatives, their have been positives too. So heres to hoping they get it righted and we go on a big winning streak. Hopefully we get a big victory this week against Louisville. GO CUSE!!!!!
-Ill start with McDonald and the offense. I do not believe McDonald is a very good offensive coordinator, I believe he lacks the rhythm and flow necessary of calling plays in a game. Some of the best offensive coordinators in football call plays early in the game to set up a future play which hopefully goes for a big gain. A perfect example of this (and there are many) was in the Green Bay game Sunday. Chicago runs jet sweeps with Alshon Jeffery all the time, or fake jet sweeps with a hand off to forte. In this particular game, they put Alshon in motion to run a jet sweep or fake with handoff to forte, but in this particular instance, on the snap he quickly ran back in the direction he just came from and took advantage of a play that was set up by the 5 or 6 identical plays before it where Alshon ran across the formation faking or running the jet sweep. A subtle change to a play that has been working all year, which resulted in a 20 yard score where Alshon was completely alone and untouched. Another example, one pertaining to our game on Saturday was the first fuller TD. ND continually uses bubble screens to drive down the field, then they called another WR screen that looked like every other bubble screen, except it was a different screen. This one was a misdirection screen to take advantage of everyone flowing to the bubble screen like they ran so many times before. They set up a bubble screen, Fuller catches the ball and makes a step or two move to the outside to make it look like every other play; making the defense think its a routine bubble screen. The defense proceeds to flow towards the sideline and he immediately puts his foot in the ground and starts running back towards the middle of the field with his lineman making great backside blocks down the field springing him for that 30 yard TD.
-Another thing I do not particularly like about McDonald is that he does not utilize his talent effectively in my opinion. As many of us can see, we currently are not as talented and don't have the athletes that other teams have. But it seems like teams always find a way to put their players in the best position to succeed. As an offensive coordinator, you have to call plays that utilize the talent you have. I get we don't currently have the talent or athletes we need to run the offense McDonald wants to run. That means, as an offensive coordinator, it is his job to tailor his offense to the players and strengths they have. Currently, McDonald is trying to fit square pegs into circular holes. A perfect example of this is running bubble screens to Custis. All we heard was Custis was getting run at TE to matchup with linebackers. He would be a mismatch nightmare. We were excited when we brought him in because of his height and basketball background. Something that seems would equate to a downfield threat. Yet the only way we try to get him the ball is through the bubble screen. Something which I believe most of us would agree would not be his best asset. Usually you want to get the bubble screen to one of your smaller, quick, fast receivers and have your big receivers blocking. Its somewhat frustrating when for example, we run bubble screens to West or Custis and have our smallest WR in Estime blocking for them. Obviously this does not always happen, but it has happened more than it should this year.
-Speaking of the bubble screens, there are plays to be made. Not every time, but most of the time their is room for a good chunk of yardage but someone (generally a WR) misses a block. You don't necessarily need athletes to run bubble screens, that is a great myth. You need to be fundamentally sound (blocking) and take advantage of what the defense is giving you. The blocking on the outside has been absolutely horrid all year. Maryland and ND not only took advantage of our lack of numbers on the outside but their WR made and held blocks for their bubble screens. That is not happening when we use the bubble screen. This is where I believe players need to be held accountable, the fundamentals necessary to succeed have not been there. The amount of times we run bubble screens, we should have at least 10-15 minutes dedicated to WR blocking everyday in practice.
-Lastly, Maryland and ND have played us with 8 or 9 guys in the box almost exclusively and we refuse to throw the ball down the field; they rarely have safety help. Yes, we don't necessarily have the receivers or qb to throw deep, but we started to move the ball and make plays on Saturday when we started throwing the ball over 10 yards downfield. Sometimes you have to change your philosophy if a team is taking away what you do. It was pretty obvious that ND went into the game and was determined to make us throw the ball down the field if we wanted to win the game. They were not going to let us run the ball. We started both halves with very successful downfield throws but were reluctant to throw anything else downfield until the very end. However, we continued to run right up the middle and throw bubble screens against their fronts. There were plays to be made on the bubble screens, but missed blocks again killed us with our execution.
-Defensively, I thought the kids played great. However, Im still not a believer in Bullough. Our failure to line up differently when ND bubble screened us down the field was inexcusable. We continued to blitz the outside LB or play him to close to the line of scrimmage when they had 3 WR split outside with only 2 CB's at the line of scrimmage. Unlike our lack of blocking on the outside, ND's WR blocked great which allowed the WR to get positive yards every single catch. We continually gave them the easy pass, to which they took advantage of; the sole reason Golson had 25 or so completions in a row. The only way we continued to stop them was the fumbles and interceptions. The kids made great plays all night to make up for the scheme and it could have been a lot worse if not for all the turnovers.
-Another big issue, and this was talked about somewhere else and more so then anything I hope it was an error on the safety because Winfield should NEVER be matched up one on one with their best WR. The kid was a WR just 2 months ago and is just transitioning to CB. All we heard during training camp was how raw he is and he was susceptible to the big play. You don't leave an inexperienced player on an island with their best WR, that would be just inexcusable to me, and whatever did happen, ND took advantage of it. Something we very rarely seem to do on offense.
-Lastly, Shafer needs to hold his players accountable. Im all for the ra-ra fire he has, but you never see him yelling or demanding more from a kid. Im not asking him to be psychotic but the pre snap penalties and personal fouls are inexcusable. They are drive killers, and killed multiple drives in both the Maryland game and again against ND. Our offense was struggling to begin with, it was hard enough to gain 10 yards on three downs against that defense, and players were putting us in position where we had to gain 15 yards for a first down or more. Lasker not only had a false start, but then on the ensuing play had a personal foul late hit called on him. Dumb undisciplined football, which prevented us from extending drives. One drive in particular went from a very manageable 3rd and 2 to 3rd and 7 and an ensuing punt.
Obviously, most of these coaches are in their first rodeo so Im going to be patient. However, I'm just not sold on this coaching staff at the moment. It is apparent they are not very good game day coaches and I believe that puts us at a serious disadvantage every week and even in the future. Even if we do get the recruits and athletes that we desire, someone needs to put them in position to succeed and I'm not entirely sure we have the coaches to do that. I hope they prove me wrong over the course of the season and with all these negatives, their have been positives too. So heres to hoping they get it righted and we go on a big winning streak. Hopefully we get a big victory this week against Louisville. GO CUSE!!!!!
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