Question pertaining to the O

[HRE Otto IV]

I think we are all more than happy with the D. So had the O played better but the D worse...

 

[cuse10]

In any case, no. The final score doesn't tell the story of how tight a game could be. Whether it be 48 or 31, it says that your defense isn't good; especially the former. Thankfully, the ESPN ticker read that UNC used a big fourth quarter to pull away.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

In any case, no. The final score doesn't tell the story of how tight a game could be. Whether it be 48 or 31, it says that your defense isn't good; especially the former. Thankfully, the ESPN ticker read that UNC used a big fourth quarter to pull away.

Don't get your point. We hung with UNC for about 40 mins. The reset of the game they pretty much had their way with us. So if the margins were similar yesterday, would you not have felt better? So after 40 mins instead of 10-6 it was 27-23 and the final was 48-23 instead of 31-6. We have a new DC and new D system. We have a lot of young players on D as well. We were playing a top O. I don't think many here would be upset with the D had we held them to 27 points after 40 mins and then faltered. And the O instead of being a cluster would have been fine for 40 mins and then faltered. Barely breaking 200 yards in a college football game is really hard to do in today's game even playing against Bama.

 

[cuse10]

Don't get your point. We hung with UNC for about 40 mins. The reset of the game they pretty much had their way with us. So if the margins were similar yesterday, would you not have felt better? So after 40 mins instead of 10-6 it was 27-23 and the final was 48-23 instead of 31-6. We have a new DC and new D system. We have a lot of young players on D as well. We were playing a top O. I don't think many here would be upset with the D had we held them to 27 points after 40 mins and then faltered. And the O instead of being a cluster would have been fine for 40 mins and then faltered. Barely breaking 200 yards in a college football game is really hard to do in today's game even playing against Bama.

Regardless of the points put up, the margin still looks bad. One says it was a game where the offense showed up and the other says it was a defensive game where one bent to the point where it finally broke. A loss is a loss is a loss. Whether it's by 1 or 25.

 

[syrBossHogg]

I wouldn't have, 23 points still isn't a lot for college ball. At least the defense held a high powered offense in check.

 

[upperdeck]

we went 0-fer on passes that led to pts. had at least 4 shots, 1 was dropped. A couple others were pretty blatant PI. UNC on one had ahold of Harris by the pants and shoulder on the same play..

SO all the lousy plays still should have led to 14 pts on passing at a MIN. add in a missed chip shot and not kicking the first one and the punt return.. Pts where there for the taking, yards not so much.. but if you complete those 2 passes and add 50-75 yds is becomes a bad offensive result instead of an awful one.

 

[PhatOrange]

Absolutely not. I would’ve felt better with 31-23 but then probably be even more mad that we didn’t win it outright.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

This would have been a Maryland-style blowout if not for solid play by the defense. People are complaining about recruiting, but to anyone watching it was clear that Dino has quietly amassed a lot of talent for White to work with. I was surprised at how well Williams and Nunn played at CB. Obviously, in the 4th quarter our DL depth showed and UNC started gashing us on the ground. But to that point it was a very solid defensive effort and an excellent coaching job. Kudos to coach White.

Offensively, we were so inept that no defense could have been expected to survive on the road against a top 20 opponent. It's not that UNC had an ingenious defensive game-plan: They just stacked the box and dared us to beat their cover guys. We had no answer.

On running plays (when we were in the game the first half), the OL couldn't open any holes. We had success on a couple outside plays, but didn't stick with it. Instead we tried to run a 170 lb. space guy up the gut. Baffling. Those are the kind of in-game adjustment failures that drive guys like JeremyCuse nuts.

Our passing game was equally pathetic - below ACC quality IMO. S. Johnson had a wide open touchdown pass slip through his hands. Then TD overthrew Taj and Queely on open vertical routes. And instead of scoring inside their 20 2-3 times - we came away with nothing but an occasional FG.

In the second half it got worse. Their secondary started cheating on routes because they knew we were behind - and we just folded. TD kept trying to hit Taj on sideline routes that were forced OOB, and no one else could get open. Series after series went backwards with no completions and no ground gains. Really amazingly bad performance with few bright spots - questionable play-calling, poor in-game coaching adjustments, WR's that couldn't get open, RB's that couldn't gain more than a yard or two. TE's that totally disappeared from the offense.

It'll be interesting to see what changes, if any, are made to the play-calling against Pitt. Defensively, I hope TR can play because Pitt steam-rolled us last year and I don't want to watch another beat-down from the likes of them.

People like to make generalizations like our OL stinks or our WRs cannot get open but often don't provide examples. Sacks happen. Stuffed runs happen. Tight coverage happens. Given our talent we cannot expect them to perform consistently well. We need the O units to play well enough. I think all but one unit did play well enough yesterday, unfortunately the most important one had a bad game.

 

[kcsu]

Yes. Same as in any sport you have to score to win.