TBtheGB's thoughts and assessment

#1

TBtheGBwiththeTD

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#1
So I have had a full night's sleep and some time to settle down and process what I saw. Here is what stood out to me:

- The Biggest thing that stood out is when we handcuff Josh Dobbs and don't let him play free, anyone with a pulse can beat us. The game plan was clearly to not use his athleticism or attack much downfield. The game plan was so vanilla.

- Building on point one, Debord didn't adjust from the vanilla game plan of run right run left and assume we win up front. We were not only not winning up front, but we were losing. Jalen Hurd had no room to work and it bogged the offense down all night.

- App State controlled the game and pace and we allowed them too. Our game plan played into theirs. They wanted to run clock. Instead of keeping them off balance, like we did the first drive, we ran simple off tackle stuff and ran clock ourselves. We helped them shorten the game and we should have payed the price.

- The BIGGEST red flag to me is the OL. They drastically out sized their opponent and they simply couldn't control the LOS. If the OL does it's job in either regard we win easily. They will have to be much much better in a hurry for us to reach our goals.

- Moving on to a few positives. I think the WR's, especially Williams and Malone, showed some promise. They were left out of much of the game plan, which was not their fault. I thought that when called upon they showed they can make plays and be better than what we've had the last two years.

- I think the defense is the real deal. We didn't show too much and that offense is experienced and very tricky to deal with. We completely controlled them, especially in the second half and OT.

- In particular I thought Barnett and Sutton did their thing, even though App State tried to make it impossible for Barnett to affect the game. Abernathy and Mcdowell were both pleasant surprises. I feel better about LB depth now and I think Abernathy showed why he was named starter.

- The only issue I saw that wasn't very fixable was the OL. I think they can and will be better, but this isn't a group that played overly well last year either. I know Debord and Dobbs were bad last night and that's being friendly, but they will be better.Dobbs has proven he can make big game plays and I trust Debord to wake up from this and get more aggressive.

- All in All we won and the season is still alive. All of our goals are still within reach. App State impressed me. That offense was very multiple and complex. It was a tough offense to prepare for and I thought we responded well. All my real issues are on offense and there needs to be real and vast improvements made.

- Side Note: Alvin Kamara getting 9 touches in a competetive game is never ok. I don't care about "the flow of the game." Get your best players the ball.
 
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#4
#4
So I have had a full night's sleep and some time to settle down and process what I saw. Here is what stood out to me:

- The Biggest thing that stood out is when we handcuff Josh Dobbs and don't let him play free, anyone with a pulse can beat us. The game plan was clearly to not use his athleticism or attack much downfield. The game plan was so vanilla.

- Building on point one, Debord didn't adjust from the vanilla game plan of run right run left and assume we win up front. We were not only not winning up front, but we were losing. Jalen Hurd had no room to work and it bogged the offense down all night.

- App State controlled the game and pace and we allowed them too. Our game plan played into theirs. They wanted to run clock. Instead of keeping them off balance, like we did the first drive, we ran simple off tackle stuff and ran clock ourselves. We helped them shorten the game and we should have payed the price.

- The BIGGEST red flag to me is the OL. They drastically out sized their opponent and they simply couldn't control the LOS. If the OL does it's job in either regard we win easily. They will have to be much much better in a hurry for us to reach our goals.

- Moving on to a few positives. I think the WR's, especially Williams and Malone, showed some promise. They were left out of much of the game plan, which was not their fault. I thought that when called upon they showed they can make plays and be better than what we've had the last two years.

- I think the defense is the real deal. We didn't show too much and that offense is experienced and very tricky to deal with. We completely controlled them, especially in the second half and OT.

- In particular I thought Barnett and Sutton did their thing, even though App State tried to make it impossible for Barnett to affect the game. Abernathy and Mcdowell were both pleasant surprises. I feel better about LB depth now and I think Abernathy showed why he was named starter.

- The only issue I saw that wasn't very fixable was the OL. I think they can and will be better, but this isn't a group that played overly well last year either. I know Debord and Dobbs were bad last night and that's being friendly, but they will be better.Dobbs has proven he can make big game plays and I trust Debord to wake up from this and get more aggressive.

- All in All we won and the season is still alive. All of our goals are still within reach. App State impressed me. That offense was very multiple and complex. It was a tough offense to prepare for and I thought we responded well. All my real issues are on offense and there needs to be real and vast improvements made.

- Side Note: Alvin Kamara getting 9 touches in a competetive game is never ok. I don't care about "the flow of the game." Get your best players the ball.

Well done.
 
#6
#6
So I have had a full night's sleep and some time to settle down and process what I saw. Here is what stood out to me:

- The Biggest thing that stood out is when we handcuff Josh Dobbs and don't let him play free, anyone with a pulse can beat us. The game plan was clearly to not use his athleticism or attack much downfield. The game plan was so vanilla.

- Building on point one, Debord didn't adjust from the vanilla game plan of run right run left and assume we win up front. We were not only not winning up front, but we were losing. Jalen Hurd had no room to work and it bogged the offense down all night.

- App State controlled the game and pace and we allowed them too. Our game plan played into theirs. They wanted to run clock. Instead of keeping them off balance, like we did the first drive, we ran simple off tackle stuff and ran clock ourselves. We helped them shorten the game and we should have payed the price.

- The BIGGEST red flag to me is the OL. They drastically out sized their opponent and they simply couldn't control the LOS. If the OL does it's job in either regard we win easily. They will have to be much much better in a hurry for us to reach our goals.

- Moving on to a few positives. I think the WR's, especially Williams and Malone, showed some promise. They were left out of much of the game plan, which was not their fault. I thought that when called upon they showed they can make plays and be better than what we've had the last two years.

- I think the defense is the real deal. We didn't show too much and that offense is experienced and very tricky to deal with. We completely controlled them, especially in the second half and OT.

- In particular I thought Barnett and Sutton did their thing, even though App State tried to make it impossible for Barnett to affect the game. Abernathy and Mcdowell were both pleasant surprises. I feel better about LB depth now and I think Abernathy showed why he was named starter.

- The only issue I saw that wasn't very fixable was the OL. I think they can and will be better, but this isn't a group that played overly well last year either. I know Debord and Dobbs were bad last night and that's being friendly, but they will be better.Dobbs has proven he can make big game plays and I trust Debord to wake up from this and get more aggressive.

- All in All we won and the season is still alive. All of our goals are still within reach. App State impressed me. That offense was very multiple and complex. It was a tough offense to prepare for and I thought we responded well. All my real issues are on offense and there needs to be real and vast improvements made.

- Side Note: Alvin Kamara getting 9 touches in a competetive game is never ok. I don't care about "the flow of the game." Get your best players the ball.


Great Post!! :good!:
 
#8
#8
Good analysis, TB, thanks for it.

In particular, you kept circling back to the OL, which I think is absolutely justified. Hope the coaching staff keeps circling back to the OL, too, over the next 8 days. Fixing that to the extent we can has got to be Job #1.
 
#10
#10
Every play we ran was so slow developing.

IMHO too much misdirection in one play slows it down so much it doesn't matter if it's well executed because someone from the defense is in our backfield.
It's like waiting for molasses to pour in January, then BOOM the play is blown up. Linemen get a hole open and it's gone before whoever is finally going to have the ball to run with gets there.
 
#11
#11
IMHO too much misdirection in one play slows it down so much it doesn't matter if it's well executed because someone from the defense is in our backfield.
It's like waiting for molasses to pour in January, then BOOM the play is blown up. Linemen get a hole open and it's gone before whoever is finally going to have the ball to run with gets there.
That is how I see it also.
 
#12
#12
I think you'd agree with all of it if you did.

Probably, but I'm already worn out with analysis. And if you ask me why I clicked on the thread then, the answer is I have no idea. No offense to the OP
 
#13
#13
Good post. The most glaring issue, IMO, was that Debord called the game in a way that favored App St. They are a small, fast, fundamentally sound D. Trying to run the offense sideline-to-sideline was a mistake, as were the slow developing plays that allowed App St. to use their speed and quickness to break up the play. This offense has to be adaptable to their opponent, which they have the talent to be. This was a game where UT should have used their advantages which were power and size. They should have pounded them in to submission far earlier than they did, it was clear by the end that App St. was struggling to handle the pounding. This O needed to be the '95 Cowboys, lean on the run game to set up the pass. App St. wanted to make it a track meet and let TN spread the ball around. TN tried to pass to set up the run, but neither was established until the end.

Hopefully DeBord needed to shake off some rust as much as the players did. App St. threw a lot of punches, UT deserves credit for continuing to grind. Hopefully it was a wake up call to play your game and not your opponents game.
 
#14
#14
It is very difficult to understand the lack of performance from a VERY experienced O Line. There is NO MORE youth excuse. Those guys did not play well last night and that is being extremely nice. There is no excuse for an experienced O-Line to get beat by a smaller D-Line.

DeBoring and company better fix the O-Line immediately or we are in trouble.
 
#15
#15
Offensively, the biggest concern to me was the offensive staff's lack of recognition of what was/wasn't working. We ran off tackle right and left way too much behind a rFR making his first start (first action at all, really) and a 2nd-stringer at the other tackle spot. We got nothing on the vast majority of those runs and kept trying to go to the well. We were more successful running behind the guards and C, especially as the game wore on and fatigue and conditioning became more of a factor.

In the passing game, we did little to utilize the middle of the field outside of a couple passes to Malone (1 complete, 1 incomplete) and the few pop passes to Wolf. I saw few other slants, curls, post routes (incomplete pass to Smith after review). Everything else went outside. I am not sure if this is on play-calling or recognition by Dobbs, but he can't be nearly as effective as a passer if we take away a third of the field with our fear of him throwing over the middle. If it is Dobbs who is afraid or reluctant to go over the middle, then he'll never develop beyond what we have already seen, and this team will not reach its potential.
 
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