Honestly, I am willing to sacrifice havoc plays for effectiveness. Outside of ND getting the ball on a muffed punt inside the 5, our defense gave up 10 points and held the other team to less than 50 yards rushing. The game plan was clearly to play contain and not let Book beat us with his legs. If we are pinning our ears back and missing Book, then he can extend drives. Aside from our inability to cover the TE and Tyrique McGhee, I have no complaints with both the play of the defense and the gameplan.
The defense was good. There were some drop backs where Book had all day. Idk if that's trying to contain or what but the edge rushers were not affecting Book at all. I wonder if maybe you try to change the contain gameplan when both of your starting corners are out to try to hurry Book more but I'm not paid $7m to develop defensive gameplans.
Not if you trust your back ups. Webb, Daniel, and Wilson held up their end of the bargain, so there was no need to change the gameplan. Now if they needed help, then yeah, you sell out, but as the ND fans have stated, Book wouldn't push the ball downfield. If they aren't trying to hit the homerun ball, it doesn't matter how much time we give him. With a QB like Book I'd give him the 50-50 ball all day. Just don't let him grind out first downs. Our DEs were doing absolutely everything they could NOT to get caught to far upfield. If you can push the OL back into Book or beat them inside, you do it because you will have backside help with the linebacker. I will say this, if Brenton Cox had made the adjustment and played like that against Bama, last year, I think the outcome is very different.
Right, but he was still beaten another couple times. Not ragging on him bc he was solid overall but in a game like that I’m not 100% trusting him.
I count 10 obvious "havoc downs" aka 3rd and 5+ for ND Book was 4-9 for 32 yds and 1 INT they converted two of these, one via pass and the other via 9 yd run by Book
I just don't think you abandon the game plan until either ND shows they can beat you or your CBs give up the big plays. Fortunately, neither happened, so you stay the course with what is working.
Sure, but that is a 180 degree different philosophy than Kirby was preaching all offseason. There is merit to that style of defense, but I’m not currently convinced that it was our goal to do it that way. The results were very good in this game, and I think our defense played well. Looking through all the individual havoc stats, we’re top 30ish in most of them. Considering everything including opponents, I’m not concerned yet, but it’s something to keep an eye on.
Right. I think we are saying the same thing outside of those corners getting beat. And Divaad got lucky as hell on that INT bc he was beat but the guy bobbled the catch.
on the flip side, we were in 3rd and long 9 times Fromm was 4/7 for 33 yds and 1 TD two rushes for 12 and 9 yds (neither of these converted) we converted 3 of these, passes to Wolf and Cager (twice)
That INT was on Book. He threw it behind the receiver. That would have been an amazing catch if he held on. Watching Divaad bobble that ball took 4 years off my life.
Same receiver got drilled in ND last drive of first half and caught the ball after it was jarred loose. I'll call it even.
I haven't seen a youtube link to the full game yet. Has there been any discussion about how the ND wide receiver didn't catch the pass that set up their field goal before half? My brother pointed it out to me when we talked after the game. The clip below shows it hit the ground but you have be looking for it. Should have been reviewed at a minimum. On rewatch, there was one slow mo replay that shows he obviously didn't catch the ball, but there was no review before ND snapped it.
I'm not trying to shit on Daniel or McGhee too much. They both were in position but didn't make the play. I think that's the difference between a Stokes/Campbell being on the field.
Daniel looks a little too stiff to be an elite player. Think he can be good and help us this year and next, but hopefully he’s the #3 guy
ND's second drive we brought Dean right up the gut on 3rd and 14 and Book just barely gets it off to Jones for a 12 yd gain. I am not sure how that isn't a QB pressure.
Rewatching the game and christ Camarda was terrible. There needs to be an open competition at punter. You can't have him punting the ball 20 yards with the game on the line
I think that stat changes based on who is keeping score. I’ve seen it described in various places as merely pressure, and other places that require the QB to leave the pocket or to make the throw before he was ready.
Forgot about that. Hopefully its it, but he seems stiff in the hips. Still think he could be a good matchup with bigger WR's regardless
I felt positive that he was the worst punter in the conference. He still may be, but somehow there are several SEC teams that have worse average and net numbers. Come baaaaaaaack Nizialek.
I thought him screwing up so much last year was because he was a freshman but he's a huge liability. Had that one 20-something yarder in the 1st quarter and the 20-something yarder late when we gave ND the ball back. There has to be someone better on the roster.
Camarda has had some great punts. He had two good punts in this game, one of which pinned them inside the 20 and another that hit at the five but cook couldn't keep it out of endzone. He's also hit some bombs this year. His problem is that he nuts up under pressure whether from opposing team or the moment. His stats will wind up being solid by the end of the year because he's good most of the time. Regardless, I don't trust him to be good when we most need it at the end of the year.
Yeah, that was just a pure choke job. He punted well the first few weeks, and they didn't even come after him on that last punt. Just couldn't handle the pressure of the moment.
Yeah, he’ll have a 70 yarder in the 3rd Q against Arky St, and then shit his pants with the game on the line. Ugh. Also, we’ve been blessed with some great FG kickers over the past couple decades, but I feel confident that nobody was better than Rodrigo. We are going to miss him badly next year. Total fucking stud.
We clearly had a plan to not let Book beat us with his legs and for the most part we were very effective there. You can’t create massive QB pressure and keep contain all at the same time - at least not very easily. Our defensive plan was solid and our defense was (mostly) lights out. We look to be well ahead of Bama and LSU defensively right now.
I agree we are ahead of them defensively, but I think we are just as far behind them offensively. Regardless of how good our defense may be, it will take a shootout to beat teams like Alabama, Ohio St., Clemson, Oklahoma, and LSU, and I don't think we have the offensive firepower or coaching to do it, particularly if we get down a couple of scores. Notre Dame showed the blueprint for how to stuff our offense and they executed it with a lot less depth, size, and athleticism than other teams we would face in the SEC championship/playoff.
I’ll try to respond in more detail later but I’ll just note you’ve always been a pessimist. We can score with the best of them if our coaches will let us. There is no shortage of explosive players on this offense. It’s a long season and dare I say all of the teams you mentioned have obvious weaknesses as well.
it's still September and we are still top 5 in yards/play after Saturday. we still have a lot to figure out on offense but we have time to get it clicking.
Oh I know. I'm just trying to prove a point. Our offense looked significantly worse against ND two years ago than it did this past Saturday, and we beat Oklahoma in a shootout later that season after being down 3 scores.
I think LSU’s defense being hot garbage is a factor here. Of course, I don’t expect to see LSU this year as they will lose to Bama and maybe Auburn as well. Clemson has not looked to be an offensive juggernaut thus far. I would like to see Oklahoma play a team that’s doesn’t have one of the worst defenses in the history of football before I comment there. Alabama is still the team that scares me the most with their receivers. The defense will improve. Of all the teams you mentioned Bama is the least flawed IMO.
I think Clemson is just as good as Bama at WR with a better qb and a better rb. I know they haven't looked great lately but they will be tough when it matters.