Sorry so long, but I'm on my soap box today damnit
I usually do position groups and start with the qb but today I have to talk about our scheme and players. I may throw some of you off...but I'm going to tell you this, the first thing we need to do on defense is to solve for football players. I firmly believe our front four would have a lot more success if they could pin their ears back and disrupt the line of scrimmage vs...keep contain and spy qb run game. Any coach knows that option rules have two philosophies:
1. dline cover up oline and spill everything to backers except the weak side end who cat n mouses or has qb presnap.
2. dline penetrate and try to flatten the play before it starts. ends have responsibilities and backers flow.
We clearly do #2 and when our dline doesn't penetrate our backers are often not there to support. Drives me crazy.
SO back to football players. Based upon two plus years of data 10, 23, 24, 25 are NOT good football players. They don't understand how to play the game. I don't mean their SCRUBS (per say) I mean their like a novice chess player who just moves the pieces without any rhyme or reason and get's beat by a 10yr old who "knows how to play." Or a casual black jack player who comes to your table and hits on 14 when dealer is showing a 6 and takes the bust card and then dealer gets the 5 and gets 21 and beats the table...if you will. These guys don't understand the game and man there are so many plays that display that. Two from today come to mind.
First one being the 3rd and long that the receiver catches a come back against Bowman or McCuchen but I want to say David U is forcing the edge and Broiles literally runs right behind him (taking himself out of the play) and forces the edge with him effectively creating a HUGE window behind him for the wr to come back to. What he SHOULD do is sink and cut off the angle for the throw forcing the qb to make a great throw to complete the pass...nope and McCuthen or whoever it was looks even worse because his underneath help is covering air.
The second being a play where Stuntsman and White are in. I know josh says 28 got caught inside (he could have done more) but watch White scrape on the play. He AGAIN...for the millionth time stops in the hole and hes the INSIDE out player and his "air" allows Neal (the rb) to out leverage the defense and he's off to the races. On the SAME PLAY instead of Fields being physical and hitting him on the sidelines, he patty cakes him and truth is, Neal ALMOST stays in and scores. He definitely gets ten more yards. For good measure, we have the 4th and 1 where we stuff the sneak...go watch and see what white is doing as they scrum...he and broiles are hanging out off to the side instead of joining the momentum...the refs hold the whistle and the offensive scrum takes the momentum and gets the yard...those guys DON'T GET THE GAME...yes part of that is coaching.
Okay...with that out the way, lets see who've we've identified as Ball Players:
13 should be in on ANY run down. watch how he tracks the ball vs 23 and 24 and it's no contest. Also watch how he fights to get his head across on tackles and all the sudden you have form tackles that knock people backwards and create momentum for the defense
28 should be groomed to never leave the field. he's big and sturdy and although he made some mistakes...that last seam route they scored is on him not sinking enough...but he tracks the ball and shows up with technique and bad intentions.
12 showed me a lot today...and based on his play...he's our starting SS and it's not close. He plays well close to the LOS and tackles well in space. Yeah its Kansas but the same plays others consistently had the chance to make they missed, and he didn't. 3 or 4 HUGE tackles on the edge.
** I have so much sympathy for both of our corners. Imagine a defense where your backers and nickel are often lost and our safeties don't help much over the top. Compound that with a defensive scheme that I can't identify who the flat defender is (I know a thing or two about football...if anyone can explain the scheme and who's responsible for the flats; conversely the secondary CONTAIN defender in run game I'd love to hear it) and corners are often looking terrible because their side of the field is always exposed vertically and horizontally. Blows my mind
Now my ten...promise to be short:
1. Caleb = human but only until he isn't. That one play took a game that we've witnessed us lose the last ten years, but he personally did something you can't teach and probably strengthened his Heisman campaign against KU...lol
2. I think this is the first game since wk 1 or 2 where gray should have gotten more carries. there are two or three runs that gray's explosion gets him threw a hole that brooks couldn't get thru. It's nip picking but brooks looked a step slow. I like how they got gray the ball in space btw
3. Hall tried his best to kill the game 1st possession of the second half. Kudos to him for getting on that fumble.
4. Oline made KU look like ISU or OSU. Those guys suck and they beat the shit out of our oline half the time. embarrassing. like they lined up and bullied us entirely too much.
5. wr's were nothing special but not terrible. I missed the 3rd quarter but from what i saw they weren't a huge issue.
6. dline - i feel for them like our cbs. they take on so much pressure when they should be able to disrupt the pocket. no flat defender means they have contain. no edge defender means they hold the porch...and btw...get to the qb or the rb on the way to doing that. they aren't prefect but i'm telling you. they have a lot on their plate.
7. 13 and 28 do NOT play worse that 23 and 24 on camera. I wish I had the wide shot but i'm telling you, at LEAST they're playing football. I'm tired of 23 and 24 letting the inferior team gain confidence play in and play out simply because they won't attack and they give up so much air following the ball instead of reading their ques. 2 is out of position and is probably a plus at end. he's a check or minus at middle backer.
8. 10 and 25 are head scratchers...12 played well. he actually played soundly in the run game.
9. 4, 5 and 7...sigh. talk about zero confidence or faith. must suck to have to play off and soft, not have a plat defender and not have much help deep. think about that. no wonder all of them are bad...a TRUE island. but it begs the question "What in the F are the safeties and backers doing because we aren't in zero blitz."
10. we line up soft far too often. As you watch football today, watch how defenses line up. count how many defenders are in the box and then how many defenders are within 5 yards of the LOS. Now do the same on 3rd down. On early downs and especially on 3rd down we are far to light and off and soft. It's so easy for a "rookie" qb to know where to go with the ball when we give it away pre snap. If we are going to play 1 or 3 or whatever...line up in bump and effectively take away the quick hitch, out, slant and back up into 3. Or show are HARD 2 presnap and move to 3 at the snap. It's the #1 reason ANY qb can look good against us. we don't disguise pre snap.
my starters *a few are out of left field
que - 13 (love that number btw)
f - brooks
H - Hall and WIllis
X - Hazelwood
Y - Mims
Z - Woods
line - the core 7 guys
this side of the football needs to get tougher. ISU and OSU will beat us up otherwise
Dline - same core. give 40 more run and coe as well.
Mike - 28
Will - 13
Nickel - 24
SS - 12
FS - 5
cb - 9 and 7
*I know, I know...you think I'm crazy, but this group can all tackle and track the ball. On passing downs I probably flip 24 to 13's spot. and bring in 10 to play in the hole, not on top of the defense. But 5 is a safety for me. High safety. 12 is a bonafide SS for me and plays well in the box (Better than DTY even) 7 and 9 are all conf guys in a few years. they need to play physical and be bullies and 24 plays well chasing. putting him opposite the TE on the edge of the box is a better spot for him (just a guess).
I'm typing from my phone so sorry for the punctuation (for the technical community)
Post your take below and what you agree with and think I'm "Crazy" for stating...don't worry I can take it
#Boomer
I usually do position groups and start with the qb but today I have to talk about our scheme and players. I may throw some of you off...but I'm going to tell you this, the first thing we need to do on defense is to solve for football players. I firmly believe our front four would have a lot more success if they could pin their ears back and disrupt the line of scrimmage vs...keep contain and spy qb run game. Any coach knows that option rules have two philosophies:
1. dline cover up oline and spill everything to backers except the weak side end who cat n mouses or has qb presnap.
2. dline penetrate and try to flatten the play before it starts. ends have responsibilities and backers flow.
We clearly do #2 and when our dline doesn't penetrate our backers are often not there to support. Drives me crazy.
SO back to football players. Based upon two plus years of data 10, 23, 24, 25 are NOT good football players. They don't understand how to play the game. I don't mean their SCRUBS (per say) I mean their like a novice chess player who just moves the pieces without any rhyme or reason and get's beat by a 10yr old who "knows how to play." Or a casual black jack player who comes to your table and hits on 14 when dealer is showing a 6 and takes the bust card and then dealer gets the 5 and gets 21 and beats the table...if you will. These guys don't understand the game and man there are so many plays that display that. Two from today come to mind.
First one being the 3rd and long that the receiver catches a come back against Bowman or McCuchen but I want to say David U is forcing the edge and Broiles literally runs right behind him (taking himself out of the play) and forces the edge with him effectively creating a HUGE window behind him for the wr to come back to. What he SHOULD do is sink and cut off the angle for the throw forcing the qb to make a great throw to complete the pass...nope and McCuthen or whoever it was looks even worse because his underneath help is covering air.
The second being a play where Stuntsman and White are in. I know josh says 28 got caught inside (he could have done more) but watch White scrape on the play. He AGAIN...for the millionth time stops in the hole and hes the INSIDE out player and his "air" allows Neal (the rb) to out leverage the defense and he's off to the races. On the SAME PLAY instead of Fields being physical and hitting him on the sidelines, he patty cakes him and truth is, Neal ALMOST stays in and scores. He definitely gets ten more yards. For good measure, we have the 4th and 1 where we stuff the sneak...go watch and see what white is doing as they scrum...he and broiles are hanging out off to the side instead of joining the momentum...the refs hold the whistle and the offensive scrum takes the momentum and gets the yard...those guys DON'T GET THE GAME...yes part of that is coaching.
Okay...with that out the way, lets see who've we've identified as Ball Players:
13 should be in on ANY run down. watch how he tracks the ball vs 23 and 24 and it's no contest. Also watch how he fights to get his head across on tackles and all the sudden you have form tackles that knock people backwards and create momentum for the defense
28 should be groomed to never leave the field. he's big and sturdy and although he made some mistakes...that last seam route they scored is on him not sinking enough...but he tracks the ball and shows up with technique and bad intentions.
12 showed me a lot today...and based on his play...he's our starting SS and it's not close. He plays well close to the LOS and tackles well in space. Yeah its Kansas but the same plays others consistently had the chance to make they missed, and he didn't. 3 or 4 HUGE tackles on the edge.
** I have so much sympathy for both of our corners. Imagine a defense where your backers and nickel are often lost and our safeties don't help much over the top. Compound that with a defensive scheme that I can't identify who the flat defender is (I know a thing or two about football...if anyone can explain the scheme and who's responsible for the flats; conversely the secondary CONTAIN defender in run game I'd love to hear it) and corners are often looking terrible because their side of the field is always exposed vertically and horizontally. Blows my mind
Now my ten...promise to be short:
1. Caleb = human but only until he isn't. That one play took a game that we've witnessed us lose the last ten years, but he personally did something you can't teach and probably strengthened his Heisman campaign against KU...lol
2. I think this is the first game since wk 1 or 2 where gray should have gotten more carries. there are two or three runs that gray's explosion gets him threw a hole that brooks couldn't get thru. It's nip picking but brooks looked a step slow. I like how they got gray the ball in space btw
3. Hall tried his best to kill the game 1st possession of the second half. Kudos to him for getting on that fumble.
4. Oline made KU look like ISU or OSU. Those guys suck and they beat the shit out of our oline half the time. embarrassing. like they lined up and bullied us entirely too much.
5. wr's were nothing special but not terrible. I missed the 3rd quarter but from what i saw they weren't a huge issue.
6. dline - i feel for them like our cbs. they take on so much pressure when they should be able to disrupt the pocket. no flat defender means they have contain. no edge defender means they hold the porch...and btw...get to the qb or the rb on the way to doing that. they aren't prefect but i'm telling you. they have a lot on their plate.
7. 13 and 28 do NOT play worse that 23 and 24 on camera. I wish I had the wide shot but i'm telling you, at LEAST they're playing football. I'm tired of 23 and 24 letting the inferior team gain confidence play in and play out simply because they won't attack and they give up so much air following the ball instead of reading their ques. 2 is out of position and is probably a plus at end. he's a check or minus at middle backer.
8. 10 and 25 are head scratchers...12 played well. he actually played soundly in the run game.
9. 4, 5 and 7...sigh. talk about zero confidence or faith. must suck to have to play off and soft, not have a plat defender and not have much help deep. think about that. no wonder all of them are bad...a TRUE island. but it begs the question "What in the F are the safeties and backers doing because we aren't in zero blitz."
10. we line up soft far too often. As you watch football today, watch how defenses line up. count how many defenders are in the box and then how many defenders are within 5 yards of the LOS. Now do the same on 3rd down. On early downs and especially on 3rd down we are far to light and off and soft. It's so easy for a "rookie" qb to know where to go with the ball when we give it away pre snap. If we are going to play 1 or 3 or whatever...line up in bump and effectively take away the quick hitch, out, slant and back up into 3. Or show are HARD 2 presnap and move to 3 at the snap. It's the #1 reason ANY qb can look good against us. we don't disguise pre snap.
my starters *a few are out of left field
que - 13 (love that number btw)
f - brooks
H - Hall and WIllis
X - Hazelwood
Y - Mims
Z - Woods
line - the core 7 guys
this side of the football needs to get tougher. ISU and OSU will beat us up otherwise
Dline - same core. give 40 more run and coe as well.
Mike - 28
Will - 13
Nickel - 24
SS - 12
FS - 5
cb - 9 and 7
*I know, I know...you think I'm crazy, but this group can all tackle and track the ball. On passing downs I probably flip 24 to 13's spot. and bring in 10 to play in the hole, not on top of the defense. But 5 is a safety for me. High safety. 12 is a bonafide SS for me and plays well in the box (Better than DTY even) 7 and 9 are all conf guys in a few years. they need to play physical and be bullies and 24 plays well chasing. putting him opposite the TE on the edge of the box is a better spot for him (just a guess).
I'm typing from my phone so sorry for the punctuation (for the technical community)
Post your take below and what you agree with and think I'm "Crazy" for stating...don't worry I can take it
#Boomer
