SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- In the first half it looked like the real Dino Babers Era was beginning, one in which we would dominate any non-power-5 team and contend for the ACC title. In the second half it was back to the same old thing: being gashed for huge plays while we make mistakes on offense.
- On Dino’s show DC Brian Ward said: “They stretch the field with one guy: (D’Wayne) Eskridge. We need to keep him in front of us.” We didn’t. In basketball if the other team only has one good shooter, you take him out of the game by keeping a hand in his face or by double-teaming him if you have to. Instead we guarded him one-on-one with Scoop Bradshaw and a safety who was too late to offer inside help. It didn’t work until we brought in Williams and adjusted the defense- after the Broncos were already back in the game.
- Our lines, which we feel are the key to a big turn-around we hope for this year, were dominate in the first half but far from it in the second half. Jim Wassink was allowed to stand in the pocket and wait for his receivers to break open. LeVante Bellamy blew through the line and outran the secondary for a 64 yard TD and Jamauri Bogan had a 59 yarder. The Broncos averaged 8.6 yards per carry and Wassnink threw for 379 yards, 20.0 yards per catch. They totaled 621 yards.
- Meanwhile our running backs were wading into a pile of bodies. Neal averaged 2.9 yards per carry and Strickland 3.5 – just the sort of thing we’ve been watching for the last two seasons. Early on, they were getting 4-5 yards on those first down runs. In the second half it was 1-2. Tommy DeVito was under pressure on every play he was out there and even Dungey was only 7 for 19. They didn’t have time for receivers to break open the way Wassink did.
- I’m not going to judge Tommy DeVito based on his first game, except to say that the gap between him and Dungey is a lot greater than the hints coming out of camp suggested. His big problem is that the other players just seem to play better with Dungey in there. They block better, run harder, run their route better. That can change over time. But in this game, we scored the first nine possessions that Dungey was in there and got nothing done with Tommy.
- And Dungey got dinged up in this game, a tight wrap around his right shoulder which was added to as the game went along. He also seemed to tweak an ankle on one run where he appeared to be in pain as he got up. He also almost got himself thrown out of a game roughly pulling a defender off the ground, 9no, I don’t think he was trying to be nice: you gran him by the arms or hands for that, not the collar). That means we could see DeVito in there at any time. He’s going to have to grow up quickly.
- Two coaching decision to mull over: If Dungey could play as well as he did in the fourth quarter, why did we go as long as we did with DeVito? And, when it was 55-35 with 4:49 left and we had 4rth and goal from the 1, why didn’t we kick the chip-shot fiddle goal to take a 23 point lead instead of letting the home team take over needing three TDs and 1 point conversions to win? The clock stopped when the play was stuffed, so we gained nothing there. And they proved they could score very quickly. We could have closed it out and we didn’t.
- Jamal Custis established himself as our #1 receiver. Devin Butler established that he wasn’t, with a big drop early in the game and at least one long pass he seemed to give up on that he might have bene able to catch. And Ravian price caught a couple fo balls but had that huge fumble to open the second half that began the home team’s comeback. Both these guys are supposed to be potential stars. It’s time they played like it.
- I couldn’t decide which was the worst idea: Giving the ball to the receiving team at the 25 on a fair catch at the 2 or putting up and advertising sign on the net behind the upright in exactly the line of sight of the camera so we couldn’t see the kick- or the snap or the hold or any block. I suspect we won’t see the latter again but we’re going to see the former all year. Yeechh…
- You want two things form a game- to win and to come out of it feeling that you are going to a lot more games. At halftime it seemed we were going to get both goals fulfilled. We lost the second in the second half. 55-42 against even a good MAC team doesn’t translate into a lot of ACC wins. And opposing coaches will have a lot of film of plays that worked against us.
- On Dino’s show DC Brian Ward said: “They stretch the field with one guy: (D’Wayne) Eskridge. We need to keep him in front of us.” We didn’t. In basketball if the other team only has one good shooter, you take him out of the game by keeping a hand in his face or by double-teaming him if you have to. Instead we guarded him one-on-one with Scoop Bradshaw and a safety who was too late to offer inside help. It didn’t work until we brought in Williams and adjusted the defense- after the Broncos were already back in the game.
- Our lines, which we feel are the key to a big turn-around we hope for this year, were dominate in the first half but far from it in the second half. Jim Wassink was allowed to stand in the pocket and wait for his receivers to break open. LeVante Bellamy blew through the line and outran the secondary for a 64 yard TD and Jamauri Bogan had a 59 yarder. The Broncos averaged 8.6 yards per carry and Wassnink threw for 379 yards, 20.0 yards per catch. They totaled 621 yards.
- Meanwhile our running backs were wading into a pile of bodies. Neal averaged 2.9 yards per carry and Strickland 3.5 – just the sort of thing we’ve been watching for the last two seasons. Early on, they were getting 4-5 yards on those first down runs. In the second half it was 1-2. Tommy DeVito was under pressure on every play he was out there and even Dungey was only 7 for 19. They didn’t have time for receivers to break open the way Wassink did.
- I’m not going to judge Tommy DeVito based on his first game, except to say that the gap between him and Dungey is a lot greater than the hints coming out of camp suggested. His big problem is that the other players just seem to play better with Dungey in there. They block better, run harder, run their route better. That can change over time. But in this game, we scored the first nine possessions that Dungey was in there and got nothing done with Tommy.
- And Dungey got dinged up in this game, a tight wrap around his right shoulder which was added to as the game went along. He also seemed to tweak an ankle on one run where he appeared to be in pain as he got up. He also almost got himself thrown out of a game roughly pulling a defender off the ground, 9no, I don’t think he was trying to be nice: you gran him by the arms or hands for that, not the collar). That means we could see DeVito in there at any time. He’s going to have to grow up quickly.
- Two coaching decision to mull over: If Dungey could play as well as he did in the fourth quarter, why did we go as long as we did with DeVito? And, when it was 55-35 with 4:49 left and we had 4rth and goal from the 1, why didn’t we kick the chip-shot fiddle goal to take a 23 point lead instead of letting the home team take over needing three TDs and 1 point conversions to win? The clock stopped when the play was stuffed, so we gained nothing there. And they proved they could score very quickly. We could have closed it out and we didn’t.
- Jamal Custis established himself as our #1 receiver. Devin Butler established that he wasn’t, with a big drop early in the game and at least one long pass he seemed to give up on that he might have bene able to catch. And Ravian price caught a couple fo balls but had that huge fumble to open the second half that began the home team’s comeback. Both these guys are supposed to be potential stars. It’s time they played like it.
- I couldn’t decide which was the worst idea: Giving the ball to the receiving team at the 25 on a fair catch at the 2 or putting up and advertising sign on the net behind the upright in exactly the line of sight of the camera so we couldn’t see the kick- or the snap or the hold or any block. I suspect we won’t see the latter again but we’re going to see the former all year. Yeechh…
- You want two things form a game- to win and to come out of it feeling that you are going to a lot more games. At halftime it seemed we were going to get both goals fulfilled. We lost the second in the second half. 55-42 against even a good MAC team doesn’t translate into a lot of ACC wins. And opposing coaches will have a lot of film of plays that worked against us.
