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Elephant in the room
1to392831weretaken
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,302
I'll have to put on the film (/Coach Pete), but what the fuck was up with all of the blitzing the MIK into the away side A gap? 100% of the time not only did this completely vacate the middle of the defense and give Eastern half their rushing yards on inside zone, but it also vacated the hook/curl zone and the inside help for the slant from the slot receiver. They abused the secondary with those quick slants and YAC starting in about the 2nd quarter, and every fucking time (IIRC), the MIK linebacker was playing patticake with Eastern's right guard and completely out of the play.
Were they TRYING to put unsound defense on tape just to entice Cal into being stupid or is this just going to be another season where blitzing anything but a safety/nickel is completely pointless? It was so ineffective, counterproductive, and done over and over again that it's a recipe for conspiracy theories.
As stated before, I'm also pretty pissed about the repeated loss of outside contain when rushing the passer. Seems like it was Bowman more often than not.
Last season, 107% of the tackles were made by linebackers. This season, the only time I heard a linebacker's name was when Tafisi killed somebody. I worried that the defensive approach would have to completely change if playing guys like Levi, Benning, and Bronson up front. No more two-gapping and letting the linebackers feast. Again, need to rewatch and see, but it sure looked like this was the case, the D-Line was one-gapping a lot more, and the linebackers were being swallowed up. Levi could be all-conference caliber, but there really needs to be a big body in there with him. More Tuli/Taimani/Bandes/Pa'ama, por favor.
Other observations:
Walk-on Vincent was a captain (I'm guessing special teams captain) and was in on kick coverage all day. Also on kickoff coverage? Chico. What a fucking stud for a starting senior WR to be manning up to cover kicks. I'd rather we not be throwing deep fades into the end zone to him, though, seeing hows he's 5'6" and all... Also, Chico blocking for Baccellia on a bubble vs. two defensive backs was a WTF moment.
Anyone else notice the wedge man on kickoff return? Bronson! Another senior stepping up and doing the dirty work. We have to have somebody back there better than McGrew to return, though. I like what he does as a back, but he's not dynamic as a returner. Ditto Fuller, as he pissed me off with one of his fair-catches.
I'm starting to wonder if part of the reason it's difficult for them to get younger receivers into the game is because personnel seems to come in as packages. For instance, only one time in the whole game were Hunter Bryant and McClatcher on the field at the same time, and it resulted in a timeout, with everyone out there looking confused, and only one was out there on the ensuing play. I'm wondering if they have different packages of plays for different personnel groupings, so subbing just one guy in is difficult and/or could fuck up the timing of the play. It might take a few weeks of integrating those guys into personnel packages before they can trust them out on the field.
One of the things I wanted to see from this game, considering it was against an FCS opponent that averages like 250 across the defensive front, was just total domination in the run game. Two to three yards of line surge on every play, wide open holes, etc. That's not at all what happened, so I'm slightly disappointed there. Losing Harris sucked, and I hope he's back for Cal, if not for the blocking/leadership, for the fact that his snaps aren't a random lottery (yikes, Mele!). But, yeah, not 100% sold on the O-line just yet.
Same goes for the defensive line. I expected them to just completely overwhelm Eastern's O-line, but that never happened. They won the battle, but Eastern's line definitely looked like they belonged.
Tafisi needs to start, full stop. Dude looks like a fire hydrant and hits like a truck.
Was the guy with the club hand Ulofoshio? If so, I want to see him get more time once he has two hands, as he looks really good out there.
The wobbly pass to Bryant that he came back for on the south sideline would have been the most wide open TD ever had Eason seen him earlier in the play. He released, and not a single Eastern player seemed to notice. He ran about 60 yards total to get over to that sideline, and at no point was there a defender within 10.
If Fuller wouldn't have gotten tied up at the LOS and made it under that 70 yard lightning bolt from God, I'm pretty sure at least 50 women in the stands would have become immediately pregnant.
Maybe 25,000 in the stands 10 minutes before kickoff, 30,000 at kickoff, and 50,000 peak. Quiet crowd, too. I'm waiting until after Cal to buy USC tickets: lose to Cal, USC tickets will be cheap and plentiful, crowd will be shit. Win at Cal, and Husky Stadium is going to be rocking for a primetime USC game, and price won't matter. Already promised my Trooj dad I'll take him, so going either way.
That's all I got.
Were they TRYING to put unsound defense on tape just to entice Cal into being stupid or is this just going to be another season where blitzing anything but a safety/nickel is completely pointless? It was so ineffective, counterproductive, and done over and over again that it's a recipe for conspiracy theories.
As stated before, I'm also pretty pissed about the repeated loss of outside contain when rushing the passer. Seems like it was Bowman more often than not.
Last season, 107% of the tackles were made by linebackers. This season, the only time I heard a linebacker's name was when Tafisi killed somebody. I worried that the defensive approach would have to completely change if playing guys like Levi, Benning, and Bronson up front. No more two-gapping and letting the linebackers feast. Again, need to rewatch and see, but it sure looked like this was the case, the D-Line was one-gapping a lot more, and the linebackers were being swallowed up. Levi could be all-conference caliber, but there really needs to be a big body in there with him. More Tuli/Taimani/Bandes/Pa'ama, por favor.
Other observations:
Walk-on Vincent was a captain (I'm guessing special teams captain) and was in on kick coverage all day. Also on kickoff coverage? Chico. What a fucking stud for a starting senior WR to be manning up to cover kicks. I'd rather we not be throwing deep fades into the end zone to him, though, seeing hows he's 5'6" and all... Also, Chico blocking for Baccellia on a bubble vs. two defensive backs was a WTF moment.
Anyone else notice the wedge man on kickoff return? Bronson! Another senior stepping up and doing the dirty work. We have to have somebody back there better than McGrew to return, though. I like what he does as a back, but he's not dynamic as a returner. Ditto Fuller, as he pissed me off with one of his fair-catches.
I'm starting to wonder if part of the reason it's difficult for them to get younger receivers into the game is because personnel seems to come in as packages. For instance, only one time in the whole game were Hunter Bryant and McClatcher on the field at the same time, and it resulted in a timeout, with everyone out there looking confused, and only one was out there on the ensuing play. I'm wondering if they have different packages of plays for different personnel groupings, so subbing just one guy in is difficult and/or could fuck up the timing of the play. It might take a few weeks of integrating those guys into personnel packages before they can trust them out on the field.
One of the things I wanted to see from this game, considering it was against an FCS opponent that averages like 250 across the defensive front, was just total domination in the run game. Two to three yards of line surge on every play, wide open holes, etc. That's not at all what happened, so I'm slightly disappointed there. Losing Harris sucked, and I hope he's back for Cal, if not for the blocking/leadership, for the fact that his snaps aren't a random lottery (yikes, Mele!). But, yeah, not 100% sold on the O-line just yet.
Same goes for the defensive line. I expected them to just completely overwhelm Eastern's O-line, but that never happened. They won the battle, but Eastern's line definitely looked like they belonged.
Tafisi needs to start, full stop. Dude looks like a fire hydrant and hits like a truck.
Was the guy with the club hand Ulofoshio? If so, I want to see him get more time once he has two hands, as he looks really good out there.
The wobbly pass to Bryant that he came back for on the south sideline would have been the most wide open TD ever had Eason seen him earlier in the play. He released, and not a single Eastern player seemed to notice. He ran about 60 yards total to get over to that sideline, and at no point was there a defender within 10.
If Fuller wouldn't have gotten tied up at the LOS and made it under that 70 yard lightning bolt from God, I'm pretty sure at least 50 women in the stands would have become immediately pregnant.
Maybe 25,000 in the stands 10 minutes before kickoff, 30,000 at kickoff, and 50,000 peak. Quiet crowd, too. I'm waiting until after Cal to buy USC tickets: lose to Cal, USC tickets will be cheap and plentiful, crowd will be shit. Win at Cal, and Husky Stadium is going to be rocking for a primetime USC game, and price won't matter. Already promised my Trooj dad I'll take him, so going either way.
That's all I got.
Comments
The OL was probably my biggest concern. I feel like the unit is less than the sum of their parts. We should have been blowing them off the LOS. And while EW OL has legit size, 3 6th year SRs and 2 5th year SRs, their DL is undersized. Disappointing we couldn't fully take advantage. With that said, I didn't think Mele showed all that bad. A few bad snaps but nothing major and he held his own just fine. It certainly wasn't the disaster I thought it could be when Harris went down.
I actually think all things considered the D was solid all things considered. The 2nd touchdown was just a breakdown by 2 Fr that will be cleaned up. We also substituted extremely liberally, much of it trial by fire. Easterns offense is actually pretty good I think. Their qb isn't Vernon Adams but he's a player.
I kept wishing I could see eastern play some shitty power 5 teams and mediocre group of 5 teams to see how they would fare. I certainly think they could beat the Kansases, Vandys, Indianas, Arkansas, New Mexico, SMUs, UNLVs, UNTs, etc.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy.
@UW_Doog_Bot maybe we should get @1to392831weretaken on the pood to actually do all the football discussion (or Grundle), and Yella and I can alternate in for the dick and fart jokes.
Unfortunately I sound like a 15 year old girl voice wise.
I told her, she said she’s going to find you and kill you. But I’m still laughing at her.
Well, looks like I’m first...
That Latu safety was one play that I literally yelled out loud when I saw it. So awesome to have Latu hit the guy, wrap, and slam him backwards.