Elephant in the room
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
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I concur with most everything you said. The blitzing was odd. Even so, I thought the Lbs showed promise and I fully expected to hate Manu by now but he wasn't bad.
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. -
yup1to392831weretaken said: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. -
Manu was much better than expected.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy. -
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Ya they are all 5th and 6th year guys.jecornel said:Manu was much better than expected.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy. -
I thought this was going to be about DirtySouwfDawg’s wife.
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Club hand dude was ZTF
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@1to392831weretaken potw this shit was enfuego
@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. -
Now that I'm building a sweet home office for the purposes of doing a YouTube channel with advanced programming and techy bullshit I feel that in a year I'll join the pood
Unfortunately I sound like a 15 year old girl voice wise. -
🤣USMChawk said:I thought this was going to be about DirtySouwfDawg’s wife.
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... -
Digits?Pitchfork51 said:Now that I'm building a sweet home office for the purposes of doing a YouTube channel with advanced programming and techy bullshit I feel that in a year I'll join the pood
Unfortunately I sound like a 15 year old girl voice wise. -
Hey what's this reaction to?RaceBannon said:
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Latu’s safetyanimate said:
Hey what's this reaction to?RaceBannon said: -
The safety.animate said:
Hey what's this reaction to?RaceBannon said:
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Thanks.
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. -
I was screaming at the TV for that one. #mylatuanimate said:Thanks.
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.
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#89? Was that the guy who had 3 bad drops?jecornel said:Manu was much better than expected.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy. -
Yesrustysavage said:
#89? Was that the guy who had 3 bad drops?jecornel said:Manu was much better than expected.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy. -
I thought Manu seemed to know where to go and what to do but the act of actually getting there and making a play was hindered by the fact that he seemed to be running in sand all day. This problem of his will be exposed more if he were to play against, say, a D1 team. Even Cal's shit offense would expose him as a weakness. A rotation of Sirmon, Welly and Tafisi is the way to go from here on out. I'm certainly no film expert but he just seemed stiff and slow.jecornel said:Manu was much better than expected.
Eastern's oline did look good. Great size. #89? The tight end? Probably a D1 guy. -
Manu is exactly what I expected. Sound positionally but slow as fuck. Really hope he gets phased out here as the games become more difficult.
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On re-watch, I feel a lot better about Ahmed. There were a couple of times where maybe he could have put a foot in the ground and exploded through a tiny gap for a little more yardage instead of dancing around, but I doubt he left more than three or four yards on the field total, and he still has that upside. He's not going to break tackles because of how light on his feet he runs, but we'll get some exciting home runs out of him every once in a while. He typically found the hole he was supposed to and took what was there, but it seemed the defense was really keying on him.
The defensive front looked better than I remembered as well. There's definitely more one-gapping than before, and there wasn't much total push, but they held their own really well. My eyes were not deceiving me with the linebackers, though. That is--by far--the biggest liability on the field, either side of the ball. Sirmon seemed to be in the right place at the right time more than the other two, but rather anonymously; Tafisi had a couple highlight hits but also was late to his gap twice and missed one downfield tackle; Wellington was repeatedly blitzed out of the play into the A-gap and otherwise didn't do much; Manu was quietly decent but also a step late a couple of times. I still don't get were some people got the idea that BBK was "slow"...
Now that I've gotten to watch the 4th quarter, the guy who stood out to me the most was Victor Curne! I don't think he missed a single assignment, nor did his guy ever impact a play, rush or pass. He has more of a guard body, so it was strange to me that he's playing tackle, but I totally see it now. -
Good chit, thank you.1to392831weretaken said:
Now that I've gotten to watch the 4th quarter, the guy who stood out to me the most was Victor Curne! I don't think he missed a single assignment, nor did his guy ever impact a play, rush or pass. He has more of a guard body, so it was strange to me that he's playing tackle, but I totally see it now.
Pleased to see Curne didn't look bad. Regarding him looking more like a guard, is his RT spot in 2-deeps perhaps a function of no Bainivalu and Mele being needed more for Center depth right now? -
Pretty sure the initial plan for the future line was to kick Kirkland out to RT after this year and then put Curne at RG. But I agree, Curne showed a lot more promise at RT than I was expecting.NoWarningJustDawg said:
Good chit, thank you.1to392831weretaken said:
Now that I've gotten to watch the 4th quarter, the guy who stood out to me the most was Victor Curne! I don't think he missed a single assignment, nor did his guy ever impact a play, rush or pass. He has more of a guard body, so it was strange to me that he's playing tackle, but I totally see it now.
Pleased to see Curne didn't look bad. Regarding him looking more like a guard, is his RT spot in 2-deeps perhaps a function of no Bainivalu and Mele being needed more for Center depth right now?
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Spot on, I mentioned the same thing to my brother several times throughout the game in a drunken and much less succinct manner, we were also lining up safeties LITERALLY 20 yards downfield in situations like 2nd and 8 regularly.
I really hope that it was just for this game for whatever reason, but you can't give up that soft of a zone in the middle of the fucking field,particularly when the opposing qb is super inaccurate
Bowman is trash, and I may be a bit more concerned about the run game than even you are, I think it's going to be an issue throughout the year unless Newton can repeat that performance against better defenses..... Rough game for Ahmed -
We are the same team as last year but we have fucking Trevor Lawerence
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Disagree on Bowman. I get the concern about him, but he’s going to be good. He doesn’t break down sometimes and loses contain, but he gets in the backfield. A lot. I think there is a real possibility he’s the best pass rusher on the team.bigcc said:Spot on, I mentioned the same thing to my brother several times throughout the game in a drunken and much less succinct manner, we were also lining up safeties LITERALLY 20 yards downfield in situations like 2nd and 8 regularly.
I really hope that it was just for this game for whatever reason, but you can't give up that soft of a zone in the middle of the fucking field,particularly when the opposing qb is super inaccurate
Bowman is trash, and I may be a bit more concerned about the run game than even you are, I think it's going to be an issue throughout the year unless Newton can repeat that performance against better defenses..... Rough game for Ahmed -
And a better pass rushbackthepack said:We are the same team as last year but we have fucking Trevor Lawerence
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That gets me really concerned. I did not hear Joe Tryon's name mentioned at all, what's wrong with him?RoadDawg55 said:
Disagree on Bowman. I get the concern about him, but he’s going to be good. He doesn’t break down sometimes and loses contain, but he gets in the backfield. A lot. I think there is a real possibility he’s the best pass rusher on the team.bigcc said:...
Bowman is trash, and I may be a bit more concerned about the run game than even you are, I think it's going to be an issue throughout the year unless Newton can repeat that performance against better defenses..... Rough game for Ahmed -
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Different players. Nothing is wrong with Tryon. He’s not ever going to be a double digit sack guy. He’s still really good tho.halfbrainmanmolder said:
That gets me really concerned. I did not hear Joe Tryon's name mentioned at all, what's wrong with him?RoadDawg55 said:
Disagree on Bowman. I get the concern about him, but he’s going to be good. He doesn’t break down sometimes and loses contain, but he gets in the backfield. A lot. I think there is a real possibility he’s the best pass rusher on the team.bigcc said:...
Bowman is trash, and I may be a bit more concerned about the run game than even you are, I think it's going to be an issue throughout the year unless Newton can repeat that performance against better defenses..... Rough game for Ahmed
Latu will start playing more. Ngata is a useful and valuable player rotating in. Myles Rice looks solid to me, possibly more. We don’t have any Kikaha’s who will get 15 sacks, but I like where we are at. Smalls is going to have a tough time breaking in next year, which is how it should be.
