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WR group

Aren’t those DBs who are not looking back beat?

They had 3 PIs in the second half, none if which would have been called if they had their heads turned towards the ball.
The third one was kind of weak the ball sailed three feet over Alfords head but the defender definitely grabbed him early on Alfords jump. The other two absolutely.
 
For all those that think our WR group without OG is good, just let me know what teams in the ACC you wouldn’t swap WR groups with.

We have Clemson in two weeks. Our guys have to prove it there.

If you argue that I’m a year or two the young guys will be good, sure. I’m with you. Right now, this group isn’t at the level we need.
 
I actually think Shrader should have had three touchdown passes. The Hatcher drop, Brown got held big-time after washing his defender on a slant, and maybe Alford on the PI in the end zone.
Big exaggeration about guts weren’t getting open.

On deep balls Hatcher dropped a td he had gotten behind the defense. Alford’s first PI he had his guy beat and the defender grabbed his left arm to restrain him from getting to the spot. Had nothing to do with getting his head around. Same with the one on Browm, defender grabbed his Jersey.

Adams beat his guy, the ball was just a little to far in front, or that has a chance for a TD.

Alford was wide open on two medium passes that he got another 15 - 20 yds after the catch.



Brown had an incomplete deep out where he was wide open.

On the plays where the balls were dislodged guys had position but didn’t hold on through contact. That’s an issue, but they aren’t AJ Brown, Brown, Hatcher, and Jones are all long and lean and that is probably something that is really practiced much, if at all, these days. Brown did do a good job of securing a couple of those. He did the best job by far inside.

Allen was wide open on a couple of his receptions.

Fact is if Hatcher catches his and Adams and Shrader connect it’s 42 vs 35 (they scored on the possession that Hatcher had his drop) with another 80 yds passing and 40 less rushing. In addition if they hold onto three of the 6 that got broken up on the catch instead of 14 of 28 for 190 it’s 19 of 28 for 290 and two td’s.
I went back thru to see the drops/passing/ and Shrader running plays as well.

On his true running plays, he got hit 7 times and a few more on passing plays. So he ran a bunch and got hit a few times, but solid contact was not very often. He played it safe on many of the runs.

While we had a good chunk of drops 6+, we also had 7+ contested throws.

I found the WRs made 2 catches that I would call Pretty good. Purdue had 10..

I found 5 throws that should have been for a TD, 1 was the Hatcher drop but 1 other should have been caught as well. There were 3 that was just a poorly placed throw that led to a miss or a drop or into a contested throw.

Shraders throwing was bad. I have him down for 17 good throws and 11 bad throws. many of the contested throws were because of bad ball placement.

I think if you put a better throw on the ball it was a 4/400 type game. There were guys running free on deep balls 5-6 times and we got zero out of them.

In addition, the D played better than the stats say.. there were 4 drives extended on missed play/tackle, in a game that they actually tackled pretty well. Purdue was lucky they didn't end up with 7-8 TOs, one we had didnt count and one we had got overturned by just the luck of a guy touching the sideline.
 
For all those that think our WR group without OG is good, just let me know what teams in the ACC you wouldn’t swap WR groups with.

We have Clemson in two weeks. Our guys have to prove it there.

If you argue that I’m a year or two the young guys will be good, sure. I’m with you. Right now, this group isn’t at the level we need.


[after first two games] "The WRs put up impressive numbers, but Purdue will be the big test."

[after Purdue] "Clemson is where they need to prove it"

Look, this is an emerging group. I lean toward that they had an off-game at Purdue, far moreso than it being indicative of lack of ability.

Nobody is claiming that we're better without OG, but this group is capable. Go had it right -- a couple of 50 / 50 plays need to be made, and the perception changes. They need to be a bit more consistent. And they can be.
 
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Assuming our wr's were blanketed every time? I think people need to re watch the game. I saw holds on Brown. Sometimes the pressure forced Shrader to take his eyes off wr's. He missed some reads and down field opportunities as well.
 
For all those that think our WR group without OG is good, just let me know what teams in the ACC you wouldn’t swap WR groups with.

We have Clemson in two weeks. Our guys have to prove it there.

If you argue that I’m a year or two the young guys will be good, sure. I’m with you. Right now, this group isn’t at the level we need.
I think the Wr's have a lot to prove but some are exaggerating too.
 
We also have to factor in (at least according to the Purdue fans) their secondary was their weakness. Idk anything about the rest of the teams we face but I imagine Clemson and FSU have good secondaries.
 
[after first two games] "The WRs put up impressive numbers, but Purdue will be the big test."

[after Purdue] "Clemson is where they need to prove it"

Look, this is an emerging group. I lean toward that they had an off-game at Purdue, far moreso than it being indicative of lack of ability.

Nobody is claiming that we're better without OG, but this group is capable. Go had it right -- a couple of 50 / 50 plays need to be made, and the perception changes. They need to be a bit more consistent. And they can be.
PTSD gets the best of us at times. You see bad for so long it distracts you from seeing anything promising.
 
The epitome of the WR core can be shown simply by watching Alford … solid blocker, makes a great catch on that out on the first drive (DB actually tipped the ball and Alford still snagged it to the surprise of many) and will have an occasional drop. The amazing thing about Alford seems to be that he makes the catch when in all likelihood he shouldn’t even have a shot. How many times has he high pointed a ball and snatched it only to be out of bounds because the throw was just a bit too wide. He has made some spectacular catches, had mind numbing drops, does some of the other necessary things like blocking well but just can’t quite get over the consistency hump. Amazing potential but the execution just isn’t quite there yet. These things get remedied and with their size that core could be lethal.
I don't like that he gives up on routes, he also needs to understand how to help his qb out when he scrambles. Alford needs to get the mental part of the game down.
 
For all those that think our WR group without OG is good, just let me know what teams in the ACC you wouldn’t swap WR groups with.

I don't think I've read one post that said or even implied this.
 
Assuming our wr's were blanketed every time? I think people need to re watch the game. I saw holds on Brown. Sometimes the pressure forced Shrader to take his eyes off wr's. He missed some reads and down field opportunities as well.
There were open guys a bunch.. The ball placement by Shrader was poor and the WRs did not make many tough catches to help it out. Too many throws were also way wide of target on some of the more open guys.
 
There were open guys a bunch.. The ball placement by Shrader was poor and the WRs did not make many tough catches to help it out. Too many throws were also way wide of target on some of the more open guys.

Agreed. The notion that the Purdue secondary blanketed our guys and they couldn't get open is inaccurate, IMO.
 
Adams beat his guy, the ball was just a little to far in front, or that has a chance for a TD.
On that note, feels like that was the only time this season Adams has been targeted. He doesn't have any receptions yet this season at least.
 
I think one or two may have some "alligator arms."
Gadsden would catch balls over the middle - sometimes with 2 guys on him.
If Pena's(tough dude) not coming back anytime soon, I'd almost like to see Villari
get targetted once or twice.

Maybe we're saving it for Clemson...
 
Before the Purdue game I was in wait and see mode, post Purdue game and after a rewatch without the emotion of the live action playing a factor, I feel slightly better about where we stand without OG. Seperation for the most part wasn’t overly an issue, of course there were some plays our guys didn’t get open, we’re playing P5 football that’ll happen. As some alluded to ball placement played a big factor here in this game, the interception was directly due to ball placement and another ball to Brown on the right sideline was pushed too far and led Brown off his spot making it a way more difficult play than it needed to be. One of the main things I’m looking for going forward is if Alford’s route running can improve any as times it does still seem very sloppy, in the first quarter GS almost threw a pick on an out route because Alford gave away his route with his hips. And also looking to see Brown progress at the the point of catch, he’s young so he’ll get stronger naturally as time goes on and that’ll help surely. I’m looking forward to seeing them in another step up in competition against Clemson next week, excited to see how they respond.
 
My view is that Shrader ran effectively because Purdue had good man coverage and guys were not open.
Purdue had an interception and several breakups when Garrett tried to force it in. They had 3 PIs in the second half, none if which would have been called if they had their heads turned towards the ball. Our receivers just didn't get very open at all.

The Defense won that game by creating turnovers. Otherwise, Purdue would have won. Not much question.

Clemson, VPI and Pitt will cover us like a blanket not so much anybody else.

We're simply not the same offense without OG. Defensive Coordinators have picked up an extra man not having to double OG.

Purdue underestimated GS and whomever was spying him wasn't up to the task. That's all on tape now and ACC coaches will do a better job.

To not be concerned doesn’t seem to be wise to me.

As I have said before, OG was worth 1-3 games. I feel that even more after our first real test.

Hopefiily, Trebor will be back soon and that will help. Also, guys will get better as the season progresses and they get used to the increased attention.
I will hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Defense was very good. The two net 20 yard punts, missed field goal and pick in Purdues territory did not help us. If you take Shrader on the read RB’s will have a field day. If you put a spy on him a WR will be running open. If you watch the PI’s 2 of those would have been TD’s including a hold of Brown when he would have been wide open for a TD. Our offense is touch to stop and Shrader is one of the best college QB’s
 
I’d like to see our guys make some of the catches the Purdue guys made - closely covered, good concentration grabs. I think that will come as they continue to develop. Card threw some fantastic passes against what I considered to be really tight coverage by our corners.
 
I’d like to see our guys make some of the catches the Purdue guys made - closely covered, good concentration grabs. I think that will come as they continue to develop. Card threw some fantastic passes against what I considered to be really tight coverage by our corners.

That's right -- their WRs made some tough catches against close coverage, and our guys did not.

They need to make more of those plays.
 
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Alford has 32 (29 minus the 4 frosh) games over his career. For him it’s who he is.

Hatcher hasn’t played enough to say his poor game is a trend. He’s been great to date. First time the kid had a big role away from home. I’d give him a hot minute to get his feet under him.

Same with Brown.
 
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Alford has 32 (29 minus the 4 frosh) games over his career. For him it’s who he is.

Hatcher hasn’t played enough to say his poor game is a trend. He’s been great to date. First time the kid had a big role away from home. I’d give him a hot minute to get his feet under him.

Same with Brown.

I think Gadsden's injury is going to be a huge opportunity for Brown. He just looks the part.
 
So no one can say where they would be in the list of WR groups in the ACC, right?

Listen, they have their moments. They have potential, for sure. But this is a position group where we will have to make up ground in other areas because they aren't at the level to be truly competitive in the ACC.

This is what I mean. It's fine to say they will be good. It's fine to say they have good moments. But without OG, this isn't an upper level ACC WR group right now. They probably aren't even a mid-level group if we're being really honest. And that's fine. No team is perfect across the board. But we need them to grow during the year, we need Beck to be smart in his offensive strategy which no doubt he will and we need Shrader to be super man a little bit, which, if healthy, I think he can do.

Listen, our D and Shrader and how the OL could be pieced together was always going to be our ticket.
 

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