Quick BC game and end-of-season thoughts

[orangepassion]

• Really like Moe at RB. Breaks a similar amount of tackles as Strick, but also gives us a Home run threat. Will be interesting to see where he ends up next year after his performance these last 3 games. Also will be interesting to see how Jordan compares to him.
• Thought Culpepper was okay, probably as good as you can hope for in his 1st start. Think he could be Devito's Mahoney.
• Those who doubt Dungey's value just need to watch the last 3 games of our season.
• Ish ended his career here as he started, producing and showing great hands and determination. Will really miss him and Erv and think they won't be as easy to replace as others here think. More on that.
• Think the OL has improved, particularly with the run blocking. Think their continued improvement is the best reason for optimism for next year's offense. Also think Sampson will get us some attitude on the line.
• Pierce must dream of playing against our Defense. Believe he has been underutilized and we cannot seem to cover the TE
• Surprised that Butler is still dropping this many passes. Thought he was going to turn the corner after his nice catch at the end of the 1st half against Pitt, but he doesn't inspire any faith at this point. I would love to be proven wrong. Hope a couple of these guys step up, but right now the only somewhat proven receiver we have is Neal and we might need him at RB.
• Am I the only one disappointed we didn't get some of our young guys, such as Pierre, NY Johnson, Shy, Armstrong, Fagan, Kingsley Jonathan some PT, particularly when the game got of hand? If you're gonna play Culpepper, why not more of the other young guys?
• Other than Slayton, I don't recall hearing anyone on the DL's name mentioned the whole day yesterday. It was a free pass to the LB's. Everyone talks about the Defensive backfield's problems and they definitely had their issues, but the DL has disappeared at the end of the year...which brings me to...
• It definitely seems like our D was done these last 3 games. I understand for Lamar Jackson, but we have made opposing players look like Heisman winners for 3 games in a row. We could have been beaten worse the last 2 games if they didn't call off the dogs. We have been beaten on the same plays over and over during games and made 0 adjustment (QB run against Wake, bootleg against BC). The tackling has definitely gone way down. Tons of big plays given up. I think one of the issues is we play more plays than ever, but rotate less. Think we need to give our 2's more snaps throughout the year, particularly on the DL
  
• I know it has become fashionable to blame everything on Shafer's recruits, but think Bennett and Franklin have had excellent careers and were great representatives of the program. Bennett in particular had a tremendous year and was just worn down and beaten by the end of the year.
• I like Dino, but don't know how you can give him an extension at this point, unless he can bring in a top notch DC. He needs time and he will get it (He has 4 years left on his contract), but right now the focus needs to be on recruiting from anywhere and everywhere, including the guys who have already committed.

 

[orangepassion]

One last thing that stood out to me about the last few games during the 2nd half was that I wanted the games to end. I had no confidence we would come back and didn't want the score to get worse. Not a good feeling.

 

[TheCusian]

Agree 100%.

Would add:

- 1000% like on the OL improvement being the reason for optimism next season. They really improved over the season.
- Moe looked great too.
- the D looked like they knew the O wouldn’t keep them in a game. Like they had faith in ED and once he was gone it was more possessions defended without the firepower on O to keep up.
- I think the DL will be a strength next year. Depth will be better, Robinson and Slayton will be very very good.