Really long guys, might be a little scrambled. I literally just spent the last several hours of my life rather meticulously rewatching every play of that game. Yes, I have a problem.
Ok, so, I think the game kind of went the way many of us expected it might. Low scoring, not very pretty, kind of a tough, physical, gritty game similar to last year's, down to the wire, etc. The big thing that I took away from the game was the emergence of the running game on offense and the continued domination of our defensive front.
I think we all recognized the great game that Gallman had for us on Thursday and he's really separated himself from the pack of RBs, and I really don't think it's close. Watching the game, he was the only one really willing to stick it up inside and be physical and take on contact.
As much credit as Gallman deserves, I really think the offensive line played pretty well as far as run blocking up the middle is concerned. I really wanted to pay attention to those guys this week and get a feel for them. I felt like they really controlled the interior well, Crowder and Guillermo were getting a fantastic push inside on the nose when there was one.
On Guillermo, I really like his athleticism. He's very skilled at keeping his eyes on the backer and climbing to the second level and getting blocks on linebackers. Crowder is not so adept at this, but Crowder is a powerful straight ahead drive blocker, which is one reason why the power zones with him and Guillermo are so successful. Crowder provides a great push and Guillermo is able to get to the second level and cover a LB there. TBH Guillermo might be our most complete lineman, at least from what I saw. Gore played well also. Not sure why Guillermo is 2nd string, maybe someone can fill me in? Admittedly I've not watched Norton as closely.
Where Crowder clearly struggles the most is in pass protection. It looks like he's still learning how to play with proper balance in pass pro. I can't imagine it's easy for a 330lb guy to learn how to balance himself properly, and he tends to play the role of the nail in pass protection. Got beaten badly a couple of times, noticeably so on the first touchdown pass, which did let a guy get a good shot on Watson as he let the ball go. He's got to learn how to have enough balance where he doesn't get knocked back so easily but I imagine this might be a product of him having a problem with guys running around him because he was putting too much weight forward. Just got to find that balance.
On the other side I felt that Hyatt and MacLain were less consistent. Hyatt I think is still learning, you can kind of see him thinking a bit too much out there. He struggled a bit against speed rushers. When Louisville would have a stand up end line up on him he was a step slow against him. What I really like about Hyatt is he finishes the play. He's not a block my guy then watch sort of player. I thought that was evidenced pretty well on the 3rd down play where he came in and pushed the pile and helped Gallman get the first down. But you can see his mental wheels spinning quite a bit still. He went with a defensive end that was stunting inside on a 3rd down play in the first quarter that allowed a free blitzer to come off of the edge. By time he realized his mistake it was too late and Watson was sacked. Probably Hyatt's best play came in the 3rd quarter on a 3rd down where we ran a speed option and pitched it to Gallman. Hyatt does a great job of getting out in space and getting a good block to help spring Gallman for the first and then of course Gallman turned it into a big gain. Really like Hyatt's feet. Saw him get out in space on some other plays and make nice blocks but was just a hair late. He'll get faster as he goes and gets more adjusted to the pace of the college game.
I felt like Gore played well also, nice and physical, long arms. There was a pretty clear drop off when he got hurt and Jake came into the game for a couple series. Jake also seems to be mentally not quite there, not playing at full speed. I did think that Morris played well in the couple of series he was in, very physical but more of a guard body type. It seemed that we kind of called plays around him at first, probably seeing how he would perform, running more to the left and having a tight end help him and create easy down blocks for him. We did run an end around behind him but again that really only depended on him getting a piece of the defender to slow him down. But at least for the brief time they were in, I felt Morris played more effectively than Jake did.
I think when we want to be physical and really run the ball inside the right side of the OL is our best bet. Gore and Crowder are physical and can push guys off the line and Guillermo can cover up on the 2nd level. MacLain again was a little inconsistent, at times looked great at times getting beat.
If you watch a replay of the game, check out the QB draw we run with about 3:40 left in the 1st quarter, really great blocking there. Crowder pulls and gets a nice knockdown block, Peake gets a great block on the outside and we use Gallman as a lead blocker who just puts a safety on his ass. Good to see Gallman block with the same ferociousness with which he runs. He played the part of lead blocker several times, including on some straight up old school iso plays which allow crowder and Guillermo to really push the tackle out of there about 5 yards downfield and then Gallman just plays the role of full back and lets Watson get a nice run in.
On blocking outside, I saw Leggett continue to struggle. I think Leggett does a better job blocking in tighter spaces, in a more traditional tight end role where he can be more physical. I think in space he's too hesitant and not aggressive enough. I think he's worried about getting beat in space and so instead of just trying to block the guy he's trying to make sure he's in position and all this stuff and just has too much going on in his brain. When you watch Peake he just gets his hands on the guy and then works himself in position, I think Cain is a better blocker on the outside as well. I don't think that Scott is a great blocker out there but is at least aggressive and manages to get in the way and disrupt the defender.
I didn't have a big problem with the play calling. Watching the game again more closely I saw a team that had an offensive line that was winning on most running plays, a QB that was just a bit off the mark, and an OL that wasn't necessarily struggling in protection but wasn't going to give the QB a nice pocket to sit in for very long either. So I felt like going more with a power run was the way to go, Louisville also was giving us 6 in the box most of the game, we really had success running out of 10 and 11 personnel. (I suppose it's all 11 personnel if we have Legget out there even if he's split out) which again goes back to getting them short in the box and then us being able to win at the LOS and a physical runner getting some tough extra yards. And, hey, I'm always a fan of the old Pole Cat.
I think we need to self scout a little bit, We were very lucky we didn't give up a pick 6 on that quick pass to Scott in the 4th. If you watch the play you'll see the entire Louisville defense immediately went in that direction. They were pretty aware of what was coming. Wouldn't be surprised to see us develop some sort of fake off of that if we feel we can protect long enough to let it develop.
I'd really like to see Cain get the ball more. I think he's ready to start being a bigger contributor. I think in an ideal world we could move Peake back to his original position and get Cain on the field more. I'd also like to see us be more creative with Ray Ray, again, it's just time. I'd be interested to see if we can figure a way to get him and Scott on the field at the same time.
So overall offensively, I'm encouraged by the offensive line and the way they controlled the middle of that defensive front. I think we'll obviously have better games from our QB, we had a couple penalties that hurt us, some false starts and of course some no calls, the facemask and the pretty obvious face guarding PI against Hopper that didn't get called, so those will even out for us hopefully.
Defensively, again, I think the story is just how it's almost as if we didn't miss a single beat on our defensive front, I mean they really dominated the bulk of this game. If I could describe the defense in one word, it would be disciplined. These guys just do what they're supposed to do. They didn't bite on fakes, they didn't lose contain, they didn't commit a bunch of stupid penalties, they didn't bust coverages, very well coached and disciplined.
Carlos Watkins stood out to me early, just dominating at the line, knocking his guy back every play. Dodd and Lawson were in the backfield pretty much every snap. and Boulware might as well change his name to Everyware (ok sorry) because he was all over the place. Safeties were fantastic in run support.
If you want to see great defense go to the first quarter and watch Louisville try to run a sweep on 3rd and 1, Kearse contains it, forces it back inside where Watkins has completely blown his guy up and is 2 yards behind the LOS which allows Goodson and Boulware get easy penetration and Lawson is coming in unblocked from the backside. It's a thing of beauty.
Our 3rd down defense was excellent, and really our consistent ability to get stops on 3rd and short is awesome. Another guy I want to call out was Roderick Byers. Really showed up in the 2nd quarter, played a lot of snaps. He split a double team on a 3rd and 1 play and blew that up in the backfield for another great stop. Love his leverage, plays low and with a flat back. Reminds of the way Bowers played, not saying he's as talented, but plays with a similar ability to bend and play flat backed. When you watch him split the double team you'll see his face mask is right around chest level on those 2 blockers so they really didn't have a chance.
Wilkins held his own OK. Didn't see him getting the same consistent push that others got. I think he tends to let his feet die when he's engaged if only for a second. I think he's probably still in the habit of, you know, he can just physically whip the other guy so his feet are instinctually just stopping because they're used to being done by that point. He'll get better with that and his physical talent is pretty evident. Very athletic. Moves laterally very well.
We gave up a couple plays but really only 10 points on defense. Couple questionable roughing calls, especially the hands to the face one, seemed pretty phantom. Gave up the one big pass and that was about it. The only time I really saw our defense seem flustered was when Louisville brought in that mobile QB on a 3rd down play in the 2nd quarter. They ran the read option and the defense in that instance did seem a bit out of sorts, gave up 8 yards or so to him. We called a time out and I thought that was a great move by the staff. It was clear that we needed to get the guys on the sideline real quick and get them sorted out, and they came back out and got another nice stop on 3rd and short which led to a false start on what was to be a 4th down try.
Speaking of time outs, not sure why we needed to call one there in the 3rd quarter in what was clearly a field goal situation.
Gotta give some love to Tankersley. Was picked on and really responded. I mean we're really doing well with these corners. They threw to Alexander so little that our own fans are wondering if he even played, and they tried to pick on Tankersley and he clearly isn't the one you want to pick on either. I think you'll see offenses work to try to get match ups against safeties and LBs going forward, with the amount of man we are playing I think that's where they are going to hedge their bets. It was really the only big pass play Louisville got was when they got a matchup against Green.
On the kickoff. What I'm seeing there, not just on the touchdown but on all our kickoffs, we're having issues with guys squeezing too early. You want to get by the blocker and then squeeze on the ball carrier. We are trying to squeeze before we get by the blocker which is allowing us to get blocked and get pushed out of our lanes, although I don't think modern kick off techniques really use the term lanes anymore. But similar concept. Guys are also not taking the "butt side" of the blocker. You know, a blocker is going to have to tip his hand at some point, he's going to turn his body which will tell you which way he wants to block you, when he turns you want to take the "butt side." He's not going to be able to block you if you're running off his back. If he doesn't give you a butt, you need to engage him and drive him back. I don't see that happening, so really just poor technique there. And finally I see a lot of guys slowing down/stopping. You should be speeding up, getting faster the closer you get to the ball carrier. If you watch TJ Green is actually unblocked on the touchdown but as he gets closer he slows down and the ball carrier simply runs right by him. You have to kind of abandon the defensive technique of breaking down to tackle someone when you're on kickoff, you run through the ball carrier. These were also issues against App State and so I'd imagine the staff will spend a lot of time on getting that cleaned up. Anytime you give up a big play in special teams, it pretty much always boils down to a breakdown in technique. Great effort by Kearse, who very nearly caught him.
That's about all I got. I think the bye week will be nice and let us get some guys healthy that we need healthy. We don't need Gore to be beat up or have any nagging ankle problems. The bye week lets these guys actually heal up instead of just getting treatment to manage the injury so they can play. I think the kicking job should remain with Huegel until he shows he can't do it. He's done a fine job so far. Obviously a lot of people will 2nd guess it if he goes out and misses a big kick, but you know, you have to go with the horse that brought you and right now he's our horse. You don't get to go out and get arrested and get suspended and just get your job back, especially when the other guy is doing arguably a better job than you were a year ago.
Ok, so, I think the game kind of went the way many of us expected it might. Low scoring, not very pretty, kind of a tough, physical, gritty game similar to last year's, down to the wire, etc. The big thing that I took away from the game was the emergence of the running game on offense and the continued domination of our defensive front.
I think we all recognized the great game that Gallman had for us on Thursday and he's really separated himself from the pack of RBs, and I really don't think it's close. Watching the game, he was the only one really willing to stick it up inside and be physical and take on contact.
As much credit as Gallman deserves, I really think the offensive line played pretty well as far as run blocking up the middle is concerned. I really wanted to pay attention to those guys this week and get a feel for them. I felt like they really controlled the interior well, Crowder and Guillermo were getting a fantastic push inside on the nose when there was one.
On Guillermo, I really like his athleticism. He's very skilled at keeping his eyes on the backer and climbing to the second level and getting blocks on linebackers. Crowder is not so adept at this, but Crowder is a powerful straight ahead drive blocker, which is one reason why the power zones with him and Guillermo are so successful. Crowder provides a great push and Guillermo is able to get to the second level and cover a LB there. TBH Guillermo might be our most complete lineman, at least from what I saw. Gore played well also. Not sure why Guillermo is 2nd string, maybe someone can fill me in? Admittedly I've not watched Norton as closely.
Where Crowder clearly struggles the most is in pass protection. It looks like he's still learning how to play with proper balance in pass pro. I can't imagine it's easy for a 330lb guy to learn how to balance himself properly, and he tends to play the role of the nail in pass protection. Got beaten badly a couple of times, noticeably so on the first touchdown pass, which did let a guy get a good shot on Watson as he let the ball go. He's got to learn how to have enough balance where he doesn't get knocked back so easily but I imagine this might be a product of him having a problem with guys running around him because he was putting too much weight forward. Just got to find that balance.
On the other side I felt that Hyatt and MacLain were less consistent. Hyatt I think is still learning, you can kind of see him thinking a bit too much out there. He struggled a bit against speed rushers. When Louisville would have a stand up end line up on him he was a step slow against him. What I really like about Hyatt is he finishes the play. He's not a block my guy then watch sort of player. I thought that was evidenced pretty well on the 3rd down play where he came in and pushed the pile and helped Gallman get the first down. But you can see his mental wheels spinning quite a bit still. He went with a defensive end that was stunting inside on a 3rd down play in the first quarter that allowed a free blitzer to come off of the edge. By time he realized his mistake it was too late and Watson was sacked. Probably Hyatt's best play came in the 3rd quarter on a 3rd down where we ran a speed option and pitched it to Gallman. Hyatt does a great job of getting out in space and getting a good block to help spring Gallman for the first and then of course Gallman turned it into a big gain. Really like Hyatt's feet. Saw him get out in space on some other plays and make nice blocks but was just a hair late. He'll get faster as he goes and gets more adjusted to the pace of the college game.
I felt like Gore played well also, nice and physical, long arms. There was a pretty clear drop off when he got hurt and Jake came into the game for a couple series. Jake also seems to be mentally not quite there, not playing at full speed. I did think that Morris played well in the couple of series he was in, very physical but more of a guard body type. It seemed that we kind of called plays around him at first, probably seeing how he would perform, running more to the left and having a tight end help him and create easy down blocks for him. We did run an end around behind him but again that really only depended on him getting a piece of the defender to slow him down. But at least for the brief time they were in, I felt Morris played more effectively than Jake did.
I think when we want to be physical and really run the ball inside the right side of the OL is our best bet. Gore and Crowder are physical and can push guys off the line and Guillermo can cover up on the 2nd level. MacLain again was a little inconsistent, at times looked great at times getting beat.
If you watch a replay of the game, check out the QB draw we run with about 3:40 left in the 1st quarter, really great blocking there. Crowder pulls and gets a nice knockdown block, Peake gets a great block on the outside and we use Gallman as a lead blocker who just puts a safety on his ass. Good to see Gallman block with the same ferociousness with which he runs. He played the part of lead blocker several times, including on some straight up old school iso plays which allow crowder and Guillermo to really push the tackle out of there about 5 yards downfield and then Gallman just plays the role of full back and lets Watson get a nice run in.
On blocking outside, I saw Leggett continue to struggle. I think Leggett does a better job blocking in tighter spaces, in a more traditional tight end role where he can be more physical. I think in space he's too hesitant and not aggressive enough. I think he's worried about getting beat in space and so instead of just trying to block the guy he's trying to make sure he's in position and all this stuff and just has too much going on in his brain. When you watch Peake he just gets his hands on the guy and then works himself in position, I think Cain is a better blocker on the outside as well. I don't think that Scott is a great blocker out there but is at least aggressive and manages to get in the way and disrupt the defender.
I didn't have a big problem with the play calling. Watching the game again more closely I saw a team that had an offensive line that was winning on most running plays, a QB that was just a bit off the mark, and an OL that wasn't necessarily struggling in protection but wasn't going to give the QB a nice pocket to sit in for very long either. So I felt like going more with a power run was the way to go, Louisville also was giving us 6 in the box most of the game, we really had success running out of 10 and 11 personnel. (I suppose it's all 11 personnel if we have Legget out there even if he's split out) which again goes back to getting them short in the box and then us being able to win at the LOS and a physical runner getting some tough extra yards. And, hey, I'm always a fan of the old Pole Cat.
I think we need to self scout a little bit, We were very lucky we didn't give up a pick 6 on that quick pass to Scott in the 4th. If you watch the play you'll see the entire Louisville defense immediately went in that direction. They were pretty aware of what was coming. Wouldn't be surprised to see us develop some sort of fake off of that if we feel we can protect long enough to let it develop.
I'd really like to see Cain get the ball more. I think he's ready to start being a bigger contributor. I think in an ideal world we could move Peake back to his original position and get Cain on the field more. I'd also like to see us be more creative with Ray Ray, again, it's just time. I'd be interested to see if we can figure a way to get him and Scott on the field at the same time.
So overall offensively, I'm encouraged by the offensive line and the way they controlled the middle of that defensive front. I think we'll obviously have better games from our QB, we had a couple penalties that hurt us, some false starts and of course some no calls, the facemask and the pretty obvious face guarding PI against Hopper that didn't get called, so those will even out for us hopefully.
Defensively, again, I think the story is just how it's almost as if we didn't miss a single beat on our defensive front, I mean they really dominated the bulk of this game. If I could describe the defense in one word, it would be disciplined. These guys just do what they're supposed to do. They didn't bite on fakes, they didn't lose contain, they didn't commit a bunch of stupid penalties, they didn't bust coverages, very well coached and disciplined.
Carlos Watkins stood out to me early, just dominating at the line, knocking his guy back every play. Dodd and Lawson were in the backfield pretty much every snap. and Boulware might as well change his name to Everyware (ok sorry) because he was all over the place. Safeties were fantastic in run support.
If you want to see great defense go to the first quarter and watch Louisville try to run a sweep on 3rd and 1, Kearse contains it, forces it back inside where Watkins has completely blown his guy up and is 2 yards behind the LOS which allows Goodson and Boulware get easy penetration and Lawson is coming in unblocked from the backside. It's a thing of beauty.
Our 3rd down defense was excellent, and really our consistent ability to get stops on 3rd and short is awesome. Another guy I want to call out was Roderick Byers. Really showed up in the 2nd quarter, played a lot of snaps. He split a double team on a 3rd and 1 play and blew that up in the backfield for another great stop. Love his leverage, plays low and with a flat back. Reminds of the way Bowers played, not saying he's as talented, but plays with a similar ability to bend and play flat backed. When you watch him split the double team you'll see his face mask is right around chest level on those 2 blockers so they really didn't have a chance.
Wilkins held his own OK. Didn't see him getting the same consistent push that others got. I think he tends to let his feet die when he's engaged if only for a second. I think he's probably still in the habit of, you know, he can just physically whip the other guy so his feet are instinctually just stopping because they're used to being done by that point. He'll get better with that and his physical talent is pretty evident. Very athletic. Moves laterally very well.
We gave up a couple plays but really only 10 points on defense. Couple questionable roughing calls, especially the hands to the face one, seemed pretty phantom. Gave up the one big pass and that was about it. The only time I really saw our defense seem flustered was when Louisville brought in that mobile QB on a 3rd down play in the 2nd quarter. They ran the read option and the defense in that instance did seem a bit out of sorts, gave up 8 yards or so to him. We called a time out and I thought that was a great move by the staff. It was clear that we needed to get the guys on the sideline real quick and get them sorted out, and they came back out and got another nice stop on 3rd and short which led to a false start on what was to be a 4th down try.
Speaking of time outs, not sure why we needed to call one there in the 3rd quarter in what was clearly a field goal situation.
Gotta give some love to Tankersley. Was picked on and really responded. I mean we're really doing well with these corners. They threw to Alexander so little that our own fans are wondering if he even played, and they tried to pick on Tankersley and he clearly isn't the one you want to pick on either. I think you'll see offenses work to try to get match ups against safeties and LBs going forward, with the amount of man we are playing I think that's where they are going to hedge their bets. It was really the only big pass play Louisville got was when they got a matchup against Green.
On the kickoff. What I'm seeing there, not just on the touchdown but on all our kickoffs, we're having issues with guys squeezing too early. You want to get by the blocker and then squeeze on the ball carrier. We are trying to squeeze before we get by the blocker which is allowing us to get blocked and get pushed out of our lanes, although I don't think modern kick off techniques really use the term lanes anymore. But similar concept. Guys are also not taking the "butt side" of the blocker. You know, a blocker is going to have to tip his hand at some point, he's going to turn his body which will tell you which way he wants to block you, when he turns you want to take the "butt side." He's not going to be able to block you if you're running off his back. If he doesn't give you a butt, you need to engage him and drive him back. I don't see that happening, so really just poor technique there. And finally I see a lot of guys slowing down/stopping. You should be speeding up, getting faster the closer you get to the ball carrier. If you watch TJ Green is actually unblocked on the touchdown but as he gets closer he slows down and the ball carrier simply runs right by him. You have to kind of abandon the defensive technique of breaking down to tackle someone when you're on kickoff, you run through the ball carrier. These were also issues against App State and so I'd imagine the staff will spend a lot of time on getting that cleaned up. Anytime you give up a big play in special teams, it pretty much always boils down to a breakdown in technique. Great effort by Kearse, who very nearly caught him.
That's about all I got. I think the bye week will be nice and let us get some guys healthy that we need healthy. We don't need Gore to be beat up or have any nagging ankle problems. The bye week lets these guys actually heal up instead of just getting treatment to manage the injury so they can play. I think the kicking job should remain with Huegel until he shows he can't do it. He's done a fine job so far. Obviously a lot of people will 2nd guess it if he goes out and misses a big kick, but you know, you have to go with the horse that brought you and right now he's our horse. You don't get to go out and get arrested and get suspended and just get your job back, especially when the other guy is doing arguably a better job than you were a year ago.
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