orangepassion
Nunzio Prophet
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
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- First of all, kudos to our D for keeping us in the game for 3 quarters against probably the 2nd best offense in the conference. Not only did they give us stops, they gave us 2 turnovers, including one deep in UNC territory
- Thought the DB's in particular were excellent, particularly their tackling
- Have to be impressed w/ how Tony White was able to implement his new Defense in a crazy offseason. Love the job he's doing.
- TD missed a few throws, but showed a ton of progress making something out of nothing several times and getting us 1st downs. Would still like to see us use the middle of the field more, as we're generally more successful there than we have WR's our tip-toe the sidelines and hope not to get pushed out of bounds
- The biggest issue of the game was the run blocking or lack thereof. It looked like boys going against men when we tried to run-No physicality, no push, no holes. I don't understand people who blame the backs. It's the same thing year after year, especially early in the season. You can't have a successful offense w/o at least a mediocre running game. It's year 5 and we've had a bad running game basically every year in the Babers era w/ Dungey carrying us in the magical 2018 season. You wonder why our 2 opt-outs are RB's?
- Related to the above, do any of you feel confident we're going to score when we get in the red zone. When Devito got tackled after his nice run to the 3 yard line, I said to my son-I have no confidence we're going to get it in from here. Either our OL has to get a lot better there or we have to get more creative. I get the same feeling of dread I had last year when we get tackled there, even if we have first and goal at the 1-yard line.
- In contrast to our run blocking, which was an F, I'd give us a C+ for our pass blocking. Not great, but okay. Good enough if we had any threat of a running game. It's unfortunate we have to waste our TE's receiving abilities
- We used the middle of the field a little more than last year, but still not enough. Want to see more Nykeim as our Erv Phillips. The quick passes in the middle of the field were generally fairly successful
- My biggest concern about DB is it seems there has been no adjustment in his offense from day 1, which is shocking to me, as he came in as a offensive innovator. He saw the Defense needed a change and made a great move there, but still doing way too many 1st down runs up the middle when it's not our strength. We have a very fast and elusive RB and 2 new starting guards-How does it make sense to then keep running him up the middle most of the time. It just seems instead of playing to our strengths and personnel, such as getting JJ out in space, it's the same game plan trying to fit circles into squares (or however that quote goes). We did it a couple of times, but that has to be our base instead of the changeup-let the runs up the middle be our changeup.
- Dazz is a fantastic returner, but was I the only one holding my breath every return. Tackling there wasn't pretty-Hopefully just a game 1 issue.
- Nykeim looked good on the returns.
- Will learn a lot about this team on Saturday