Interesting notes from game...
Tennessee
#98 DT Daniel McCullers
- Batted a pass and caused an incompletion.
- Coming out of his stance too high.
- Pushes RG back a yard into the backfield, grabs RB, and brings him down to the ground for a gain of about two.
- Not giving good effort with any consistency.
- Looks like he has really long arms. Huge frame.
- Rarely gives any ground in the run game. Very stout at the POA.
- Can push the pocket when he wants too. Incredible power on bull rush.
- Regularly seeing double teams from the center and RG.
- Misses arm tackle on RB in space.
DEFENSIVE STATS: Three tackles (two solo)
OVERVIEW: Daniel McCullers looks like a prototypical nose tackle prospect. Although I would like to see more consistent effort from him, his talent and power when he wants to go hard are undeniable.
#74 LT Antonio Tiny Richardson
- Looks like he possesses good length.
- Knee bender. Shows very quick feet in pass protection.
- Showing strength at the point of attack in run game.
- DT comes outside on T/E stunt and shoots gap between Richardson and the LG. Richardson struggles to diagnose it and engage with the DT. The DT gets inside of him and through the gap between he and the LG. The DT hits QBs arm just as he throws the ball.
- Overextends, slightly drops his head, and gets beat to the inside. QB moved out of QB beforehand however and had no problem getting pass off before rush getting to him.
- ROLB blitzes off edge and Richardson helps LG block the three-technique DT. OLB explodes off LOS untouched and gets in QBs face immediately and forces a quick throw. Looked like miscommunication on OL.
- Does a great job of helping LG inside, keeping eyes outside, and quickly sliding out in space to pick up blitzing CB.
- Allows DT #66 inside of him on T/E stunt. Seemed that he expected the LG to block him. #66 ran right through the B-gap and forced the QB to throw the ball quickly short of the first down marker
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OVERVIEW: Tiny Richardson showed quick feet and excellent length in this matchup. Although he got beat a couple of times on stunts, Richardson played very well in pass protection and in the run game.
#20 RB Rajion Neal
- Fumbles on his first run of the game.
- Receives hand off on Jet Sweep, shows some speed in space and gains about 12 yards.
- Catches pass in flat, gains about five yards before going out of bounds.
- On third down, catches ball in flat, makes a defender miss, and accelerates upfield for a first down.
- Takes handoff on Jet Sweep, makes defender miss at LOS, gains about two yards.
- Catches screen pass, makes defender miss with spin move, gains around seven yards.
- Gains six yards on what looked like an inside zone running play on third and five.
- Could not find much running room all game long.
RUSHING STATS: 12 carries for 42 yards and one fumble
RECEIVING STATS: Four catches for 23 yards
OVERVIEW: Rajion Neal showed some burst on a Jet Sweep for 12 yards, but aside from that, he had a tough day overall. He fumbled on his first carry of the game and could not find much running room on 11 of his 12 carries.
#45 LB A.J. Johnson
- Reads backfield and takes his time to react (probably in case of QB pulling ball out on RO fake), pursues RB to sideline, closes in, and brings him down for a gain of about one.
- Runs downfield to cover seam route by slot receiver but gets there just an instant late.
- Ends up on ground after getting cut while pursuing outside zone run. Recovers quickly and combines with teammates to make the tackle after a six-yard gain.
- Sits back to read where ball is going at first but then pursues RB up the middle and combines with teammates to bring down RB after a gain of about eight.
- Initially follows backfield flow to left, but recognizes screen pass to right, and pursues receiver. Combines with teammates to bring down ball carrier after a gain of about eight.
DEFENSIVE STATS: Seven tackles (two solo)
OVERVIEW: Overall, A.J. Johnson looked tentative in this matchup. Oregon often chose to read him in the read option game and he was regularly a step or two late reacting to run plays. I do not believe that this game is an accurate indicator of Johnsons skills due to the offense that Oregon runs.
#70 RT JaWuan James
- Fires out and loses balance on contact, falls to the ground.
- Seals defender #9 inside and eventually knocks him to the turf.
- Makes low block on quickly pursuing LB and cuts him down to open up a hole.
- Gets driven backwards and off balance at POA, defender sheds block and makes tackle after gain of about one.
- Badly misses cut block attempt.
- Has a tendency to play too high.
- Seems to possess a pretty powerful punch in pass protection.
OVERVIEW: JaWuan James showed quick feet and a powerful punch in pass protection, but had some struggles in the run game. He was caught off balance and on the ground too often and also had trouble with sustaining blocks.
