Here's the reality of our team

Last night was just a perfect storm more than anything else. Like many upsets.

If stopping this system means rushing three and dropping eight, hoping that our QB makes the wrong reads and forcing the ball into coverage even when reads are open and knocking out Kylin we're going to win a lot of games. Washington did the rush three strategy but they also had a dominant D-line and we're not going to see that a lot. Really didn't last night either- it's not like there was a ton of pressure on KJ or anything like that.

Yes, Leach will adapt- but it won't be running the QB or a bunch of zone read plays. It will be adapting by making KJ either make the right reads or sit. No reason to change our identity and start installing things when the plays are there to be made with what is already there.

I thought Marks and Johnson looked OK- they'll be good but they're still adapting to the SEC. We've got to get Shavers, Osirus, Payton, and Austin Williams more involved than we did.

The defense looks better than most expected and that's a good thing. No one will mistake them for 1999 or 2018 but they won't be mistaken for 2003 or 2016 either. They play hard and just have to clean up the busts a little bit in the secondary.

ST has been very good aside from Tucker Day struggling and Walley muffing the punt. Walley will be a good player for us- it wasn't that long ago that Osirus was dropping a key pass against Florida. We have to build our team better so that we don't have to rely on freshmen as much.

Marks and Johnson are studs.

They are going to be good. They're just young right now. I remember us shutting down Leonard Fournette at the same stage of development in 2014. I'm not saying that they are Fournette caliber- just that they will get better.

We just faced one of the worst defensive fronts we will see all season. If we can't handle it (we didn't) we won't handle many fronts in this conference. SEC defensive coordinators love the idea of a team throwing twenty passes a drive. They know they'll beat that and we won't get many series if we are successful with really long drives. I'll give you we are still early in the new program, but he's going to have to make changes.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

We just faced one of the worst defensive fronts we will see all season. If we can't handle it (we didn't) we won't handle many fronts in this conference. SEC defensive coordinators love the idea of a team throwing twenty passes a drive. They know they'll beat that and we won't get many series if we are successful with really long drives. I'll give you we are still early in the new program, but he's going to have to make changes.

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2 games into Leach's tenure and fans are demanding changes. LOL

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

We just faced one of the worst defensive fronts we will see all season. If we can't handle it (we didn't) we won't handle many fronts in this conference. SEC defensive coordinators love the idea of a team throwing twenty passes a drive. They know they'll beat that and we won't get many series if we are successful with really long drives. I'll give you we are still early in the new program, but he's going to have to make changes.

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He's not going to change what he does. Just isn't.

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Originally Posted by Homedawg

He's not going to change what he does. Just isn't.

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Oh, I know

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Originally Posted by Homedawg

He's not going to change what he does. Just isn't.

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I'm not expecting him to change so much as he needs to understand that he'll need some new wrinkles when teams throw things like an 8 man zone at him. It concerns me that he's seen this before from Washington and still hasn't found a way to counter it. It's very early though, and there's no doubt this offense needs more time. Leach said before the LSU game that it was a work in progress. But if he can't figure out Arky's defense, he's going to see a lot more of it.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

We just faced one of the worst defensive fronts we will see all season. If we can't handle it (we didn't) we won't handle many fronts in this conference. SEC defensive coordinators love the idea of a team throwing twenty passes a drive. They know they'll beat that and we won't get many series if we are successful with really long drives. I'll give you we are still early in the new program, but he's going to have to make changes.

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Our offense had plenty of yards and first downs. The defense played well. The turnovers killed us.

Their front rarely got pressure. We will get better. We will be ok. Their D is a lot better than they are credited for.

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Originally Posted by Joebob

I'm not expecting him to change so much as he needs to understand that he'll need some new wrinkles when teams throw things like an 8 man zone at him. It concerns me that he's seen this before from Washington and still hasn't found a way to counter it. It's very early though, and there's no doubt this offense needs more time. Leach said before the LSU game that it was a work in progress. But if he can't figure out Arky's defense, he's going to see a lot more of it.

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Washington didn't just win because they played 8 guys in coverage. They were able to get pressure with three. And that's key because I don't think we lost because Arkansas got a lot of pressure. We lost because we forced the ball into coverage and didn't hit the checkdowns. If we hit the checkdowns we score more and it has to be respected- even moreso when Kylin is the checkdown.

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Originally Posted by Turfdawg67

2 games into Leach's tenure and fans are demanding changes. LOL

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Cooter has a point ... the entire world knew that our only running play is a draw - and that did nothing to pull the LB's up closer. I was hoping Leach would put Schrader in on a couple third downs - I think we are going to miss that element of the QB taking off for a 3rd down conversion

Our O Line has to be more aggressive. Way to soft, looks slow also to me.

It's going to be a Jekyll and Hyde type of season. Just get ready. A lot of learning. Good thing our defense has been there but I imagine they are going to have their bumps in the road too so just get ready. Just remember what everyone says before the LSU game about giving the team time to make mistakes and learn. Look at Leach first seasons at his other stops. We can't expect to have everything down perfectly. With the way everything went down, we should have expected bumps in the road. I think the game this week will give us more of an idea of how the season will go in ways of improving each game/not making the same mistakes.

Our O-line played fine. KJ was in the box 6-7 seconds with no pressure and they only allowed one sack. We got beat because of KJ. He was a 14 point swing by himself. That doesn’t include his INT’s on Arks side of the field. He was terrible and costs us the game.

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Originally Posted by Dawgology

Our O-line played fine. KJ was in the box 6-7 seconds with no pressure and they only allowed one sack. We got beat because of KJ. He was a 14 point swing by himself. That doesn’t include his INT’s on Arks side of the field. He was terrible and costs us the game.

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Yeah he had plenty of time but seemed hesitant a lot, almost like he didn't understand what he was looking at, he's gotta clean it up or we're gonna have a long season. I believe he'll get it together though. Those 4 empty trips on arkys side of the field(2 in the red zone) and the pick 6 were the difference in the game.

I think Leach can win 7 games a year in a normal schedule. But I can't watch a damn offense that relies on 3 to 5 yard passes and 10 min drives. That boring as hell just like pounding the ball every play. It's really no different except the opportunity for errors is higher.
Lose to KY this week and I've lost interest in this season. Losing to bottom feeding SEC teams isn't acceptable even in year one. We've got enough talent to beat those teams.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

We just faced one of the worst defensive fronts we will see all season. If we can't handle it (we didn't) we won't handle many fronts in this conference. SEC defensive coordinators love the idea of a team throwing twenty passes a drive. They know they'll beat that and we won't get many series if we are successful with really long drives. I'll give you we are still early in the new program, but he's going to have to make changes.

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That worst rush defense did a pretty good job against Georgia's RBs

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

I think Leach can win 7 games a year in a normal schedule. But I can't watch a damn offense that relies on 3 to 5 yard passes and 10 min drives. That boring as hell just like pounding the ball every play. It's really no different except the opportunity for errors is higher.
Lose to KY this week and I've lost interest in this season. Losing to bottom feeding SEC teams isn't acceptable even in year one. We've got enough talent to beat those teams.

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We stop UK's rush and we'll win. Long, sustaining drives may work out for us against them.

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Originally Posted by Dawgology

Our O-line played fine. KJ was in the box 6-7 seconds with no pressure and they only allowed one sack. We got beat because of KJ. He was a 14 point swing by himself. That doesn’t include his INT’s on Arks side of the field. He was terrible and costs us the game.

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This. Had Leach put in any other Qb on the roster we win that game. They dared us to run the ball via handoff or Qb improvising and he still wouldn't do it.

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Originally Posted by FISHDAWG

Cooter has a point ... the entire world knew that our only running play is a draw - and that did nothing to pull the LB's up closer. I was hoping Leach would put Schrader in on a couple third downs - I think we are going to miss that element of the QB taking off for a 3rd down conversion

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No doubt, but it's hard to make a case for adjustments when your #1 RB gets knocked out of the game after one 7 yd run.

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

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It will get better the more they run it.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

I watched washington state vs cal from 2014 last night and cal played rush 3 drop 8 all night. Connor Holliday threw for over 500 yards and they scored 59 points, they lost 60-59. The difference was Holliday was making quick decisions with no hestiations and hitting the open man and exploiting the open windows in the zone coverage. The difference between Holliday and Costello, decision making and decisiveness on where to go with the ball.

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Bingo.

It had ZERO to do with scheme. Leach's offense works perfectly fine when the other team drops 8 into coverage. I don't think it was so much that KJ couldn't read the coverage, it was he was just horrific making decisions. The plays were there to be made all night long. It wasn't like Arky just absolutely threw a blanket over the plays and there was nothing there. If KJ is more decisive and takes what is there and WIDE OPEN, then we're not having these conversations today. We would have won. Maybe it would have been a little closer than expected but we woulda escaped with the win. Hopefully, KJ picks up on those things and the decisiveness comes more and more with game reps.

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Originally Posted by HailStateSZN19

Bingo.

It had ZERO to do with scheme. Leach's offense works perfectly fine when the other team drops 8 into coverage. I don't think it was so much that KJ couldn't read the coverage, it was he was just horrific making decisions. The plays were there to be made all night long. It wasn't like Arky just absolutely threw a blanket over the plays and there was nothing there. If KJ is more decisive and takes what is there and WIDE OPEN, then we're not having these conversations today. We would have won. Maybe it would have been a little closer than expected but we woulda escaped with the win. Hopefully, KJ picks up on those things and the decisiveness comes more and more with game reps.

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Yeah he double clutched and hesitated all night long, gotta be decisive. It's those split second decisions that make this offense go. Lot of timing involved in this offense and if you hesitate those windows close fast.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

Yeah he double clutched and hesitated all night long, gotta be decisive. It's those split second decisions that make this offense go. Lot of timing involved in this offense and if you hesitate those windows close fast.

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It's new to him and he has the toughest job to learn. He will get better.

My concern is When!

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Originally Posted by Jack Lambert

It's new to him and he has the toughest job to learn. He will get better.

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I believe so too. We'll definitely know more saturday.

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Originally Posted by bulldawg28

This. Had Leach put in any other Qb on the roster we win that game. They dared us to run the ball via handoff or Qb improvising and he still wouldn't do it.

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"If" Leach would have changed QB's Barry Odom would not have stayed in the zone.

My question is, did anyone else think something was wrong with KJ's arm? It appeared as if he was shot putting the ball more often than not, which leads to over throws (Pick six) and dirt balls (like the one on 4 & 1).
Hopefully I was looking way to hard for a reason for being off.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

I believe so too. We'll definitely know more saturday.

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I keep hearing it takes time for it to take off. I suspect it will look better Saturday. I would bet that KY does exactly what Arkansas did but Leach will the QB better.

I guess I saw a different O line than some. Pass protection was ok because we had 5 on 3. But run blocking sucked all game especially during crunch time. There were no D linemen for the Hog on their backs all game.

I gave our offensive line a D, hell if I was playing QB against the Hogs I could stand back there several seconds!

It's easy to forget that even after we looked great on offense against LSU, that was our team's first game ever using this system and they faced a DC that made zero adjustments against them. Once defenses started making adjustments, growing pains were inevitable in hindsight. I'm not sure losing to Arkansas was inevitable, but there certainly was a perfect storm of crap that contributed to that happening. It just is what it is, we had to learn a lesson the hard way unfortunately.

As others have said, zone defenses don't render the Air Raid totally useless, it just makes it really important to execute the little plays and not force bad decisions. We didn't do a good job of that and that's why we lost. I expect us to get better at that as time goes on, probably even this week to some degree. But while this offense is supposedly quick and easy to install, I think it's going to take some time and additional experience for us to really execute it effectively. Even though Costello is a fifth year senior, he's been with our team since June and has played a grand total of two games in this system. Even for an older guy there can be growing pains.

That's why I'm really curious to see what guys like Rogers and Robertson look like the next couple of years. They have experience with this system from high school, so once they get some college experience under their belts they could be lethal in this offense after a year or two. Costello is a one year stop gap that hopefully works out great but at the end of the day it's just a one year deal. And Kylin in this offense is only a one year deal too. It's possible that this whole thing is very much a work in progress for a couple of years until we have a roster that is well versed and has a lot of experience in this system. Until then, I expect you'll see stops and starts where one week we look great and the next week we may look terrible. It's going to be a week by week thing until our guys really get used to what they have to do in this offense, and it could mean we have a very so-so record this season.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

Marks and Johnson are studs.

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I agree. I thought they both looked good. Marks has a nice burst and Johnson hits hole hard, legs never stop moving. We got two good backs for several years. What happened to Lee W? He didn't really show me much last year, worried he may not make it.

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Originally Posted by GoDawgz

"If" Leach would have changed QB's Barry Odom would not have stayed in the zone.

My question is, did anyone else think something was wrong with KJ's arm? It appeared as if he was shot putting the ball more often than not, which leads to over throws (Pick six) and dirt balls (like the one on 4 & 1).
Hopefully I was looking way to hard for a reason for being off.

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I was wondering is his arm that weak? I think fatigue kicked in. Throwing over 80 passes a day M-Thu then playing Saturday caught up to him.

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Originally Posted by bulldawg28

I was wondering is his arm that weak? I think fatigue kicked in. Throwing over 80 passes a day M-Thu then playing Saturday caught up to him.

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Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

When dumping it off, we need to hit guys in stride, not with their backs to the defense. What happened to the shallow cross?

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Originally Posted by GoDawgz

Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

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His arm strength isn't elite... it's ok. His decision making was a tad slow. Which is what I saw in scrimmage. But it got better in LSU game. So it could be just a timing and trust deal.

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Originally Posted by tenureplan

When dumping it off, we need to hit guys in stride, not with their backs to the defense. What happened to the shallow cross?

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Ran it plenty the other day. But against a zone it's a different deal.

I would like to invite fellow elitedoggers to go on YouTube and closely look at the pick6. Our receiver was reading the coverage, especially the corner-back as the ball sailed over his head. Consider extracting this play and rendering it in slow motion as I did. The receiver was totally unaware that the ball was thrown directly over his head which means no body extension to possibly make a play. Our receiver did not know that the pass was intercepted? It does not matter what you run in the passing game if the receivers are not bad ass battlers and able to see things in a timely manner. Great passing game teams have receivers who battle and win, very few get separation.

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Originally Posted by GoDawgz

Definitely could have some rubber arm going on. It just didn't look the same as the week before. Hopefully this isn't a lingering issue..... like Stevens' injury's last year.

Next game!

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He throws that many passes every practice. Nothing wrong with his arm.