Without Diggs in the center it's a different game IMO. His line Solo 4 Ast/ 3 Tot 7/ TFL 2/ 4 YDS.
I imaging depending on who we are playing his position will change but he was great today
Based on Fran's presser comments, he said EROB and the D coaches sequestered themselves in a room for a day and a half and came up with a substantially altered defensive scheme. Those schemes and Diggs lining up at multiple positions and sometimes in center / middle linebacker clearly threw Haynes and the Gtech offense off, and they had problems adjusting to schemes they didn't and couldn't practice for. It also let Diggs loose and go full beastmode. He was pure chaos. Great to see and fun to watch.
Three points:
1. D-rescheme. Clearly they did a lot more on defense than simply "tackle better" and play tougher as Fran hinted at last week (coachspeak with his cards close to the vest obviously)... And it's clear he let EROB and his D-coaches "fix it' how they wanted - successful delegation by Fran without too many cooks in the kitchen. I think Dino suffered from that often (doubling down on schemes that weren't working and/or overriding what his coaches wanted to do with his plans/tweaks)... I.e. why Anae ran for the door.
2. Implementation. Impressive they (the coaches and the team) could rescheme that substantially on D in one week after losing Waxe and hold a team like Gtech, with their running game, to 100 yards. In a game that relies so heavily on repetition to yield effectiveness, it was a small miracle and kudos to them all. Very hard thing to do in one week. There is no way that works if the players are not 100% focused and know exactly what is expected of them and how to execute it.
3. Physicality. Fran harped on the fact in the presser that he took Key's comments personally about it not being about X's and O's coming into the dome with their plan to out-tough us from 12-4. It really pissed him off. He diplomatically called Key dumb for giving him that ammunition. OG said in the presser that Fran had those comments and the " Syracuse" comments with the laughs in a loop and was playing it all week to the players in every film room review. It clearly worked and the players played with a big chip on their shoulders. Great knob twisting and tuning by Fran to get the team hyper-focused.
All in all, some big and little things to really like about yesterday's performance and the preparation that went into it.
Really like what we're seeing from Fran and his coaches so far as well. He's passing the new head coach test with flying colors so far.
Let's get Specials fixed next and continue to progress.
If we can stay reasonably healthy the rest of the way, this team has a LOT potential for good things.
