Shirreff bailed on some plays early and took some wicked hits. He is not going to last the season if he is taking hits like that against Maine. Imagine what Virginia will do to him?
It was a team effort of badness last night. My biggest concern is how sloppy the execution looked, because I fear that while the play calling is atrocious, the players can't even run the plays that are called. You don't need Bill Walsh calling your plays to beat Maine. Half the inside runs looked like simple counters, so the run blocking should also be simple one direction, open up pre-assigned gaps against a designated defender. Yet there were almost no gaps being created against a weak opponent.
The receivers are rounding their cuts instead of sharp, angular cuts. This makes it much easier to defend them. It honestly felt like some of the receivers were jogging on patterns. These are fundamentals, and effort. If those are problems, it doesn't matter what plays are being called.
On defense, the backs NEED to turn around in coverage. Several Maine passes were quacking and with the exception of a handful of plays, the defensive backs didn't even try to make a play on the ball.
