Liverpooldawg
09-13-2015, 02:52 AM
First a general one about games like this: You can't assign the blame to one player, one unit, one coach, or one play. In one that close that goes to the wire pretty much everyone could have made one more tackle, one more kick, one more block, one more catch, one more yard, one less penalty, and on and on. There were a lot of obvious ones tonight, there always are. I'm sure there were just as many not so obvious ones.
General observations on this game:
We looked exactly like what we are, a team breaking in a bunch of new starters. That was most obvious in the offensive line but it shows elsewhere too. Most things got better as the game went on, some didn't. More on those later. It was also quite obvious not having film in LSU hurt us. Once we adjusted to what they were doing and what were were able to do with what they were doing we outplayed them, slightly.
Some observations on who we are missing:
The most obvious ones are a no brainier. We have not replaced what we lost on the offensive line, not yet. They found their footing in pass blocking for the short routes in the second half. They still did not pass block well enough to go down field much, and that was the bread and butter of our passing game last year. The run blocking was totally horrible. If that is not corrected this is going to be a really long year. That we did find a little blocking as the game wore one gives a little reason for optimism here I think. We will just have to wait and see. We also missed JRob in the worst way. There were a few times tonight, and one or two were on key plays, where the seam we managed to create he would have made the cut through it and got what we needed through his combination of quickness and power. Shumpert has the power but not the quickness. Y'all have seen me say this before. I know some of his family. They are great people. From everything I know about him he is a great guy and a great student. He does everything that is asked of him from what I know. That being said from the time I saw him play in HS I have never thought he was an SEC tailback. He has the size and power, but not the cutting quickness and speed. Holloway is the exact opposite in his abilities with the same result. I really have no idea about Lee or Williams but I would like to see them get more of a shot. The odds are it would be a classic case of the backups being the best guys on the team, till they aren't the back ups. If that's the case then we may be in a spot of trouble there. Then again, if the line can't block we could have Hershal Walker back there and we would still struggle. On defense Matt Wells amd Preston Smith are who we are missing the most. We defended pretty well up the gut but we were losing containment on the outside. That got better as the game went on so there is hope there. The glaring thing was the run game. That is very worrying.
Coaching:
I think they did a decent job. They adjusted well as the game went on. It goes without saying that the delay of game at the end was a bad error. Mullen took full responsibility for that after the game, rightly so. My only other comment here is that Dak has obviously been told not to run the ball much if at all. If he is hurt then it makes sense. He doesn't look hurt but sometimes you don't know. I saw the speculation that it is to prepare him for the NFL and our needs be damned. I don't buy that. That makes no sense at all. Dan's career doesn't depend on what happens to Dak in the league. It depends on what he does in the job he holds. He isn't evaluated on how his players do at the next level. What I'm afraid might be the reason is that we knew that our line was going to suck at the run game and WILL suck at the run game and we are making the obvious adjustment. My take on that is that even if that is the case you still have to let hm be Dak. There were a few spots tonight he could have taken off and he didn't. That is when he needs to be running behind this line. The set plays and even the read option stuff just wasn't there. It was there ion some of the pass plays. Just my thought.
The atmosphere:
It was a bit lacking but that had more to do with what was going on on the field. The crowd stayed to the end and it was rocking when we were closing the gap in the second half. There looked to be several thousand people in the Junction during the game and the stadium was full. It was all there for a great night but the win.
Bottom line:
It's pretty obvious that the media was right. We did lose a lot and we are not, right now, as good as we were last yrear. I think the potential is probably there to get at least close to that level in most aspects of the game. The place it may not be there is in the running game. If that can't be corrected, and there was little sign of that tonight, we better adjust our definition of a successful season. I said going in that with the questions on the offensive line I could see anything from 5-7 to 10-2. I don't see 10-2 as of now. If we can't run the ball any better than that, we will have to fight like hell to get to 6-6. I see 8-4 as tops and 4-8 isn't out of the question.
I know that was long but that is my first real comment on what I think about this team. I purposely waited to see us in a game against a good opponent because I really had little idea what to expect, mainly because of the line. The second half gave me a little hope. The line may yet gel. If it does we still have a chance to win some games. We might even slip up on somebody. Work, adjust, and keep the faith Dawgs!
General observations on this game:
We looked exactly like what we are, a team breaking in a bunch of new starters. That was most obvious in the offensive line but it shows elsewhere too. Most things got better as the game went on, some didn't. More on those later. It was also quite obvious not having film in LSU hurt us. Once we adjusted to what they were doing and what were were able to do with what they were doing we outplayed them, slightly.
Some observations on who we are missing:
The most obvious ones are a no brainier. We have not replaced what we lost on the offensive line, not yet. They found their footing in pass blocking for the short routes in the second half. They still did not pass block well enough to go down field much, and that was the bread and butter of our passing game last year. The run blocking was totally horrible. If that is not corrected this is going to be a really long year. That we did find a little blocking as the game wore one gives a little reason for optimism here I think. We will just have to wait and see. We also missed JRob in the worst way. There were a few times tonight, and one or two were on key plays, where the seam we managed to create he would have made the cut through it and got what we needed through his combination of quickness and power. Shumpert has the power but not the quickness. Y'all have seen me say this before. I know some of his family. They are great people. From everything I know about him he is a great guy and a great student. He does everything that is asked of him from what I know. That being said from the time I saw him play in HS I have never thought he was an SEC tailback. He has the size and power, but not the cutting quickness and speed. Holloway is the exact opposite in his abilities with the same result. I really have no idea about Lee or Williams but I would like to see them get more of a shot. The odds are it would be a classic case of the backups being the best guys on the team, till they aren't the back ups. If that's the case then we may be in a spot of trouble there. Then again, if the line can't block we could have Hershal Walker back there and we would still struggle. On defense Matt Wells amd Preston Smith are who we are missing the most. We defended pretty well up the gut but we were losing containment on the outside. That got better as the game went on so there is hope there. The glaring thing was the run game. That is very worrying.
Coaching:
I think they did a decent job. They adjusted well as the game went on. It goes without saying that the delay of game at the end was a bad error. Mullen took full responsibility for that after the game, rightly so. My only other comment here is that Dak has obviously been told not to run the ball much if at all. If he is hurt then it makes sense. He doesn't look hurt but sometimes you don't know. I saw the speculation that it is to prepare him for the NFL and our needs be damned. I don't buy that. That makes no sense at all. Dan's career doesn't depend on what happens to Dak in the league. It depends on what he does in the job he holds. He isn't evaluated on how his players do at the next level. What I'm afraid might be the reason is that we knew that our line was going to suck at the run game and WILL suck at the run game and we are making the obvious adjustment. My take on that is that even if that is the case you still have to let hm be Dak. There were a few spots tonight he could have taken off and he didn't. That is when he needs to be running behind this line. The set plays and even the read option stuff just wasn't there. It was there ion some of the pass plays. Just my thought.
The atmosphere:
It was a bit lacking but that had more to do with what was going on on the field. The crowd stayed to the end and it was rocking when we were closing the gap in the second half. There looked to be several thousand people in the Junction during the game and the stadium was full. It was all there for a great night but the win.
Bottom line:
It's pretty obvious that the media was right. We did lose a lot and we are not, right now, as good as we were last yrear. I think the potential is probably there to get at least close to that level in most aspects of the game. The place it may not be there is in the running game. If that can't be corrected, and there was little sign of that tonight, we better adjust our definition of a successful season. I said going in that with the questions on the offensive line I could see anything from 5-7 to 10-2. I don't see 10-2 as of now. If we can't run the ball any better than that, we will have to fight like hell to get to 6-6. I see 8-4 as tops and 4-8 isn't out of the question.
I know that was long but that is my first real comment on what I think about this team. I purposely waited to see us in a game against a good opponent because I really had little idea what to expect, mainly because of the line. The second half gave me a little hope. The line may yet gel. If it does we still have a chance to win some games. We might even slip up on somebody. Work, adjust, and keep the faith Dawgs!