Game 1 Thoughts

[Smart]

Here are some thoughts on Game 1 so far. Let's start with the positives:

- Danny O'Brien was exactly what we needed in the first half. He didn't make any stupid mistakes. He let plays develop and found open receivers, never risking drives.

- The kicking and punting game looked great. I wasn't expecting French and Meyer to look anywhere near as good as they have.

- The secondary and linebackers have played mistake free, solid football. Northern Iowa has gotten nothing on us.

Now the bad:

- By far the biggest problem of this game has been that the right side of the O-Line has been awful. Look, Havenstein is a big guy. He just isn't that fast. So what is Northern Iowa doing? The logical thing, of course, putting a little DE on him and basically running around him. Same is true at the RG spot. Because of this, we haven't even tried to run to the right (I counted one total run to that side). The linebackers can crowd the left side, and all of a sudden you have an O-Line getting dominated by Northern Iowa. It's fucking despicable, and it needs to stop. Put in some smaller linemen on the right side so that you can run it to that side and force the linebackers to spread out. If not, they'll keep stopping us and other teams will follow the formula. OSU beat us by doing it last year, and it's only a matter of time until somebody does it to us this year.

- Did Azzani forget to teach the receivers how to block? I've counted four likely big plays that have gotten blown up because wide receivers have screwed up basic blocks.

- The D-Line is making the same dumb mistakes, getting into the backfield but having lapses in concentration. It's not going to kill us against Northern Iowa, but it will eventually if our guys don't wake up.

I'm still stunned we looked that awful in the first half. Hopefully, we wake up and win by 35+.

 

[Smart]

Dezmen Southward is fucking awful.

 

[Smart]

I've already said it all at other places. Suffice to say I want Partridge fired, Ash removed as DC, and Matt Canada to wake the fuck up. We aren't going to win shit if our lines aren't good enough to avoid getting killed by UNI. When Montee Ball is consistently breaking 2-3 tackles, and still being held under 4 YPC (for the first time in his career), you know something is wrong with the O-Line.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

Alright. Let's not lose our minds. I can't pretend that I'm not concerned about the offensive line, but let's talk about that. Zeitler is starting in the NFL as a rookie, and Oglesby was a brute on run plays. This line hasn't had much time together. I don't think it was just the right side of the line. Even on one of the better plays as I was watching highlights, it looked like Havenstein got tripped up when Groy got shoved back. That can't happen. I'm not sure I wouldn't rather see Groy at Center. Wagner and Frederick might be a far better anchor on the left side.

On the receivers... Good point. Toon was always tough on run plays but Abby is a half pint and that was Fredericks' first game.

The defense can't slip like that. Not sure what the hell they were doing.

But look. There are a lot of new guys out there for the first time in a while. Not sure there's really a vocal leader amongst them. Someone is going to have to step up and be the flag bearer. The coaches need to get shit sorted out. I'm not too pleased with Travis Frederick talking in "The Camp" video about "bumps in the road" while getting used to Markesan as OL coach. Bob Bostad was the single most important replacement we had to make, and that includes Offensive Coordinator in my opinion. We have to keep churning out top offensive line draft picks or we better start looking for a new "identity."

 

[ForkEmBucky]

Quick thoughts as I catchup on what actually happened(I missed the vast majority of the game).

1. How often was Mike Taylor out in coverage? Looked like a lot.

2. Groy. Did he look questionable?

 

[Smart]

Quick thoughts as I catchup on what actually happened(I missed the vast majority of the game).

1. How often was Mike Taylor out in coverage? Looked like a lot.

2. Groy. Did he look questionable?

1. Taylor was in coverage a lot, as was Armstrong. They did this a lot with Claxton last year, and it was one of true undoings of our defense. MSU attacked it at will in the B1G Title Game and Oregon followed the mold in the Rose Bowl. Once again, though, Ash and Partridge seemed to have learned nothing from their mistakes.

2. He wasn't Kevin Zeitler or anything, but I thought Groy was solid. The biggest struggles that I saw came from RG (both of the guys they rotated in) and Havenstein. Havenstein especially. They had little linebacker/DE combo on him, and their lateral movement was so much faster than his that they pretty much went unguarded on any run plays. Like I said before, I hope those issues go away when he goes against big defensive ends, but i'm not convinced it will.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

Shelton Johnson was in at Nickle pretty much the entire game during the Rose Bowl. Nevertheless, it is going to be our biggest problem all year. Especially if we're not going to make adjustments. Without the pressure from Watt or Schofield, teams are pretty much passing on our defense at will.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

You know what? What do you guys think of this.

Edit: changing the question. Did our co-defensive coordinators(I still hate that) decide to force our defense out of their comfort zone so that they would take some lumps and learn how to play? I'm reading a lot about missed assignments. The second touchdown they suffered looks like HORRIBLE screw ups across the board. Who all was blitzing there?

So what I'm saying is. Did the coaches kind of know what would happen, and chose not to adjust and let the defense have the easy path? Force them to communicate or fail?

 

[Smart]

The 26-14 play was poorly designed. Borland should have been covering on wheel, but instead blitzed (this may have been him not understanding the play call or the wrong play call...not sure). Southward was the safety, and was in perfect position to make the tackle on the receiver, but inexplicably went for the legs like it was an open field tackle instead of pushing him out of bounds.

On the 26-21, Taylor was late covering the wheel (it looked like a miscommunication....he originally went with Cromartie's guy before he realized the wheel route was open). Shelton was late getting over as well.

I personally think it was just rusty players making stupid mistakes.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

The 26-14 play was poorly designed. Borland should have been covering on wheel, but instead blitzed (this may have been him not understanding the play call or the wrong play call...not sure). Southward was the safety, and was in perfect position to make the tackle on the receiver, but inexplicably went for the legs like it was an open field tackle instead of pushing him out of bounds.

On the 26-21, Taylor was late covering the wheel (it looked like a miscommunication....he originally went with Cromartie's guy before he realized the wheel route was open). Shelton was late getting over as well.

I personally think it was just rusty players making stupid mistakes.

I agree, but what I'm saying is...have they been rusty in different schemes all camp? Because normally in a game that counts you just stick with what works. Pressuring the quarterback was working despite the lack of sacks. They seemed to get away from that. Did they just decide...."Well our guys are either going to get this right or they're going to lose. It's on them. We're not going back to pressure."

 

[Doctor Krieger]

I didn't read any of the above posts (I'm lazy/hammered right now lmao), but I really want to see Canada open up the playbook and see some more throws downfield against OSU...

Dezmen Southward struggled big time and Taylor also got burnt on a long TD...the passing defense (both secondary and passrush) as a whole needs to get better.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

I wonder how Michael Caputo is performing these days.