jbdphi
Aussie Aussie Aussie!
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 1,498
- Reaction Score
- 2,832
Despite the end result, glad I woke up at 2:00am to watch this live. I know it won't always be a straight line trend but the improvement from Stony Brook to this was significant. Joey Galloway was a really good color commentator - made some very good points some of which I'll repeat below for those who couldn't listen.
QB:
- Whitmer was obviously improved for the first three quarters in this game.
- When CW had time, he made decent throws and I like that we focused more on the short to mid range game instead of all the deep bombs - he also had some good runs and some good scrambles and threw the ball away a few times when he needed to.
- The first INT in the 4th quarter was a killer and once again Galloway made the call - just an incredibly difficult throw for a QB to try and make. CW's arm strength is not going to make those long out routes work. The 2nd INT / strip of Davis was a 50/50 ball that you hope your WR helps you out with (could have been a better throw though).
- CW/TB ended up taking a lot of sacks and I put that far more on CW's height (per Galloway) and the OL rather than happy feet or poor judgment.
- Boyle has the ability to make great throws when he has time but in his one "real" series it was a 3 & out where he made one bad short pass (low to receiver so couldn't run after catch) and took a 9 yard sack. I'm fine with him getting more meaningful reps in future games to help him improve but until he can sustain a drive in real action, I still think Whitmer gives us a better chance to win now.
RB:
- Yet another 1st quarter fumble by a different RB so I guess next week will be Ron Johnson's turn?
- In terms of production, Max had some good runs today (and Ron had one great one in garbage time) but it seems pretty apparent to me that you can't blame the RB's for the limited running game given the inability of the OL to make any lanes
- Nice catch by Arkeel on the 2 point conversion.
WR:
- I have more questions on personnel decisions than I do on actual play. To repeat many others, I don't understand why Davis was off the field so much. Davis needs more playing time and more targets.
- While Foxx had a 100 yard day, half of that was on the play when his defender just fell down. I still don't think he is the answer at WR2 and would prefer him to be the 3rd guy in (in the slot).
- Maybe Thomas Lucas is the answer at WR2? Limited plays but made 5 catches on 5 targets which seems a hell of a lot better than the other guys not named Geremy Davis.
OL:
- Just not very good either in the running game or in pass protection.
- I'll defer to others who know more on why they aren't playing well as a group. Mateas got beaten, Guards got beaten, Tackles got beaten. #8 for BSU (Correia) just terrorized us.
- Given our issues here, it seems obvious to me that we won't be able to impose our will on defenses when running. We need to look at misdirection, delayed handoffs, jet sweeps, whatever isn't just pushing the ball between the tackles.
TE:
- Shares the blame with the OL for the lack of a running game but nice TD catch by Bloom and McQuillan had a few good catches as well.
DL:
- Another really solid performance - saw Campenni taking on two blockers on one play and still almost make an arm tackle on the runner.
- Adeyemi got some penetration a few times but BSU also had a ton of guys slipping and falling which probably made our D look a bit better than they might have been otherwise?
LB:
- Really enjoy watching Vann making plays out there and Ornsby on the sack was huge.
- Stewart doesn't seem to have the lateral speed and angles to make all the plays his head is telling him to make. He's being asked to drop into coverage a lot as well and I just don't know if that's the right place for him (as opposed to being the 3-4 4-3 flex guy alongside Frank.
- Joseph made the coverage mistake on a Boise passing TD (per Galloway) - I hope it helps him get better because he's usually pretty good around the line.
DB:
- I didn't see BSU try Byron Jones at all? Summers got beat on an underneath TE route for a critical 1st down and Jhavon Williams got beaten once or twice but overall the CB's were pretty good. Once again, the field seemed to help us a lot with BSU WR's slipping a lot. Green got a PD as well early but some of these guys need to learn to look back every once in a while to locate the ball.
- Adams was a beast supporting the run and his hit on the late run down the left side was awesome closing speed.
- In the "statistics can be deceiving" line, Obi led the team in tackles with 10 but had two absolutely horrible plays - one on the first TD (Galloway argued that a safety in man coverage 12 yards of the LOS against a slot receiver is a disaster waiting to happen) and the other on the PI penalty. He also just looks slow out there a lot - I don't know what's wrong with him.
Specials:
- Puyol is great on his FGs but can't KO with power without pulling the ball to his left. He really needs to work on KO. Overall though our coverage teams were really good (both punt and KO).
- Wain had another good game averaging 42 per kick - unfortunately we didn't get a defensive penalty on his one shank this game.
- KO return is not looking great and we didn't have a single PR today. I don't understand why we aren't setting up to try and return a punt by blocking the cover squad as opposed to what we are currently doing.
Coaching:
- WR personnel decisions were definitely worth questioning.
- Not sure I liked going for two right before the end of the 3rd quarter (with so much time left) but it worked.
- The TO early when McQuillan was on the wrong side of Whitmer (3rd and 2 in 1st quarter) turned out to be a bad decision given it looked like Davis could have gotten a lot of yardage but you can only say that with the benefit of hindsight. I thought we were going to have a delay of game / broken play until we didn't.
- Play calling in the 1st half was pretty good and definitely had BSU off balance but they adjusted in the second half and we didn't seem to have a way to provide our QB with enough protection.
QB:
- Whitmer was obviously improved for the first three quarters in this game.
- When CW had time, he made decent throws and I like that we focused more on the short to mid range game instead of all the deep bombs - he also had some good runs and some good scrambles and threw the ball away a few times when he needed to.
- The first INT in the 4th quarter was a killer and once again Galloway made the call - just an incredibly difficult throw for a QB to try and make. CW's arm strength is not going to make those long out routes work. The 2nd INT / strip of Davis was a 50/50 ball that you hope your WR helps you out with (could have been a better throw though).
- CW/TB ended up taking a lot of sacks and I put that far more on CW's height (per Galloway) and the OL rather than happy feet or poor judgment.
- Boyle has the ability to make great throws when he has time but in his one "real" series it was a 3 & out where he made one bad short pass (low to receiver so couldn't run after catch) and took a 9 yard sack. I'm fine with him getting more meaningful reps in future games to help him improve but until he can sustain a drive in real action, I still think Whitmer gives us a better chance to win now.
RB:
- Yet another 1st quarter fumble by a different RB so I guess next week will be Ron Johnson's turn?
- In terms of production, Max had some good runs today (and Ron had one great one in garbage time) but it seems pretty apparent to me that you can't blame the RB's for the limited running game given the inability of the OL to make any lanes
- Nice catch by Arkeel on the 2 point conversion.
WR:
- I have more questions on personnel decisions than I do on actual play. To repeat many others, I don't understand why Davis was off the field so much. Davis needs more playing time and more targets.
- While Foxx had a 100 yard day, half of that was on the play when his defender just fell down. I still don't think he is the answer at WR2 and would prefer him to be the 3rd guy in (in the slot).
- Maybe Thomas Lucas is the answer at WR2? Limited plays but made 5 catches on 5 targets which seems a hell of a lot better than the other guys not named Geremy Davis.
OL:
- Just not very good either in the running game or in pass protection.
- I'll defer to others who know more on why they aren't playing well as a group. Mateas got beaten, Guards got beaten, Tackles got beaten. #8 for BSU (Correia) just terrorized us.
- Given our issues here, it seems obvious to me that we won't be able to impose our will on defenses when running. We need to look at misdirection, delayed handoffs, jet sweeps, whatever isn't just pushing the ball between the tackles.
TE:
- Shares the blame with the OL for the lack of a running game but nice TD catch by Bloom and McQuillan had a few good catches as well.
DL:
- Another really solid performance - saw Campenni taking on two blockers on one play and still almost make an arm tackle on the runner.
- Adeyemi got some penetration a few times but BSU also had a ton of guys slipping and falling which probably made our D look a bit better than they might have been otherwise?
LB:
- Really enjoy watching Vann making plays out there and Ornsby on the sack was huge.
- Stewart doesn't seem to have the lateral speed and angles to make all the plays his head is telling him to make. He's being asked to drop into coverage a lot as well and I just don't know if that's the right place for him (as opposed to being the 3-4 4-3 flex guy alongside Frank.
- Joseph made the coverage mistake on a Boise passing TD (per Galloway) - I hope it helps him get better because he's usually pretty good around the line.
DB:
- I didn't see BSU try Byron Jones at all? Summers got beat on an underneath TE route for a critical 1st down and Jhavon Williams got beaten once or twice but overall the CB's were pretty good. Once again, the field seemed to help us a lot with BSU WR's slipping a lot. Green got a PD as well early but some of these guys need to learn to look back every once in a while to locate the ball.
- Adams was a beast supporting the run and his hit on the late run down the left side was awesome closing speed.
- In the "statistics can be deceiving" line, Obi led the team in tackles with 10 but had two absolutely horrible plays - one on the first TD (Galloway argued that a safety in man coverage 12 yards of the LOS against a slot receiver is a disaster waiting to happen) and the other on the PI penalty. He also just looks slow out there a lot - I don't know what's wrong with him.
Specials:
- Puyol is great on his FGs but can't KO with power without pulling the ball to his left. He really needs to work on KO. Overall though our coverage teams were really good (both punt and KO).
- Wain had another good game averaging 42 per kick - unfortunately we didn't get a defensive penalty on his one shank this game.
- KO return is not looking great and we didn't have a single PR today. I don't understand why we aren't setting up to try and return a punt by blocking the cover squad as opposed to what we are currently doing.
Coaching:
- WR personnel decisions were definitely worth questioning.
- Not sure I liked going for two right before the end of the 3rd quarter (with so much time left) but it worked.
- The TO early when McQuillan was on the wrong side of Whitmer (3rd and 2 in 1st quarter) turned out to be a bad decision given it looked like Davis could have gotten a lot of yardage but you can only say that with the benefit of hindsight. I thought we were going to have a delay of game / broken play until we didn't.
- Play calling in the 1st half was pretty good and definitely had BSU off balance but they adjusted in the second half and we didn't seem to have a way to provide our QB with enough protection.
