My view of the team as we enter conference play

[cvilleelkscoach]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

 

[BBG65]

Excellent analysis and I pretty much agree with you.

 

[RJB]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

Good Post. Question - In your opinion, was last year's OL playing better than what we have seen so far in 2017?

 

[Grant Green]

Thanks. Good post. Unfortunately, that was my fear regarding OL and LB.

 

[sluggo72]

'From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.'

I worry about the RB's vision from the pistol, with the QB being so close to him and standing up (isnt this why the FB in the I was normally in a three point stance). I agree I think it would be much easier for SB to read his blocks, plus it now threatens both side of the LOS for the defense to defend They dont know if he is going strong or weak. When he is in the side car, he is usually going opposite of where he stands.
Relative to the OL, I am worried about Bates, alot. I thought he was the one guy we wouldnt have to worry about, but some of his play, imo hasnt been up to his standards.

This all said, PSU is still the team to beat in B1G, and if we take care of business there, the playoffs will take care of themselves.

 

[BBrown]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

Nice post.
I thought Trace worked out some of his overthrow issue on Sat. INMO he was much better.
I get what your saying about the OL run blocking and agree. But some of the other "experts" I've read felt that it might be more of a communication issue than anything else. INMO the OL last sat. was just used as more of a practice and testing personal. I wonder if it was Iowa last week if Mahon could have played?
I'd love to see Barkley in the Pistol. I'd also love to see a "split backfield" with any of the other backs but don't think it will happen.
+100 on Farmer. I had him pegged as my break out defensive player of the year and right now I'm disappointed with what I've see and not just from him from all the LBR's. Cabinda has played way too much to be missing so many tackles.
I also was expecting more out of Chavis.
Hopefully all those things will start to get fixed next week.
I've seen 2 of Iowa's games and INMO, they don't have the speed on defense to keep up with us. Barkley should have a field day around the edge.
To me Iowa and pitt are almost interchangeable.
With Iowa having the slight advantage at QB, and DL and maybe RB. I think Wadley is very good (how dinged is he?) but I also thought the pitt RB was very good too. I thought the pitt wr's might be better than Iowa's.
Bottom line is we still have work to do if we want to win the B1G.

 

[uPBRmeASAP]

Good post. The loss of Bell is really showing with the linebackers

IMO, they need to move Brandon Smith into a starting role. He's the only naturally instinctive LB on the team and he knows how to shed blocks. Cabinda has been a ghost unless he is running sideline to sideline. Teams are going right at him.

 

[PSU&Trout]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

Excellent post. you are saying what a lot of others

Nice post.
I thought Trace worked out some of his overthrow issue on Sat. INMO he was much better.
I get what your saying about the OL run blocking and agree. But some of the other "experts" I've read felt that it might be more of a communication issue than anything else. INMO the OL last sat. was just used as more of a practice and testing personal. I wonder if it was Iowa last week if Mahon could have played?
I'd love to see Barkley in the Pistol. I'd also love to see a "split backfield" with any of the other backs but don't think it will happen.
+100 on Farmer. I had him pegged as my break out defensive player of the year and right now I'm disappointed with what I've see and not just from him from all the LBR's. Cabinda has played way too much to be missing so many tackles.
I also was expecting more out of Chavis.
Hopefully all those things will start to get fixed next week.
I've seen 2 of Iowa's games and INMO, they don't have the speed on defense to keep up with us. Barkley should have a field day around the edge.
To me Iowa and pitt are almost interchangeable.
With Iowa having the slight advantage at QB, and DL and maybe RB. I think Wadley is very good (how dinged is he?) but I also thought the pitt RB was very good too. I thought the pitt wr's might be better than Iowa's.
Bottom line is we still have work to do if we want to win the B1G.

Nice post.
I thought Trace worked out some of his overthrow issue on Sat. INMO he was much better.
I get what your saying about the OL run blocking and agree. But some of the other "experts" I've read felt that it might be more of a communication issue than anything else. INMO the OL last sat. was just used as more of a practice and testing personal. I wonder if it was Iowa last week if Mahon could have played?
I'd love to see Barkley in the Pistol. I'd also love to see a "split backfield" with any of the other backs but don't think it will happen.
+100 on Farmer. I had him pegged as my break out defensive player of the year and right now I'm disappointed with what I've see and not just from him from all the LBR's. Cabinda has played way too much to be missing so many tackles.
I also was expecting more out of Chavis.
Hopefully all those things will start to get fixed next week.
I've seen 2 of Iowa's games and INMO, they don't have the speed on defense to keep up with us. Barkley should have a field day around the edge.
To me Iowa and pitt are almost interchangeable.
With Iowa having the slight advantage at QB, and DL and maybe RB. I think Wadley is very good (how dinged is he?) but I also thought the pitt RB was very good too. I thought the pitt wr's might be better than Iowa's.
Bottom line is we still have work to do if we want to win the B1G.

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

Excellent post. You are saying what a lot of others have but maybe from a more knowledgeable standpoint. Iowa is a worry but not so much because of Iowa but because of our line play. It's big boy time now.
B Brown makes a good point regarding speed. I watched all of Iowa's games and they are good, no question but slow across the board. We are fast. My be the difference for us.
Again appreciate you posting in such a cool, knowledgeable way.

 

[Lionguy32]

Did you see the same problems in the Akron game? The team looked unbeatable in that game, but weaknesses have definitely come to light in the past 2 games. Was Akron just that bad, or did something change?

 

[PSU&Trout]

Did you see the same problems in the Akron game? The team looked unbeatable in that game, but weaknesses have definitely come to light in the past 2 games. Was Akron just that bad, or did something change?

For some reason I watched a good portion of the Iowa State /Akron game. ISU handled them almost as easily as we did. Almost. Akron is not very good.

 

[emrtmakesshiteup]

Question for the coach! Just how much practice time per week, assuming it was installed spring and pre-season, would it involve Trace under center with one or two backs behind? Even an athletic guard. It really concerns a lot of us that we are going to get stuffed 3rd or 4th and 1! You can still pass from that formation if deception is warranted!

 

[KnightSlayer]

For some reason I watched a good portion of the Iowa State /Akron game. ISU handled them almost as easily as we did. Almost. Akron is not very good.

Really? Akron had 293 yards passing against Iowa St. They had 86 yards passing against PSU. We both shut down Akron's run game.

 

[cvilleelkscoach]

Question for the coach! Just how much practice time per week, assuming it was installed spring and pre-season, would it involve Trace under center with one or two backs behind? Even an athletic guard. It really concerns a lot of us that we are going to get stuffed 3rd or 4th and 1! You can still pass from that formation if deception is warranted!

That's just not going to happen as long as Morehead is our OC and I'm OK with that. As the oline improves, this concern will go away. It's all about that first step for the oline and then sustaining the block. I think we may see some other plays in short yardage that will help us out too.

 

[sss]

So what did you see from last year's OL and mesh handoff, McSorley footwork that led you to believe we would run Iowa off the field? Is the OL blocking poorer this year? Is the footwork worse?

 

[BFPSU]

Nice post-I will give the O-line a little bit of a pass this week as they were missing Mahon and were playing Fries in his first start and they moved Gonzalez to the opposite guard. Bates has been a little disappointing to me. As some others have pointed out, I wonder if bates should be at guard and Mahon at OT.

 

[ram2020]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

This is really good, thank you Coach. I can't deal with the fact that our offense is so poor running the ball in short yardage spots. It will kill us this year at some point. I hate that hate that Barkley takes all of his handoffs flat footed and stationary. Teams know how to run blitz and are way too effective at stopping a run play where the mesh point is 5 yards behind the LOS. I really wish we could run a qb sneak or a straight handoff to Barkley moving towards the line. It has the added bonus of our lineman not having to hold their blocks as long.

Good point about the secondary making too many tackles. How can we correct this and play better run defense with the talent we have? More run blitzing? Put more guys in the box?

 

[sluggo72]

Question for the coach! Just how much practice time per week, assuming it was installed spring and pre-season, would it involve Trace under center with one or two backs behind? Even an athletic guard. It really concerns a lot of us that we are going to get stuffed 3rd or 4th and 1! You can still pass from that formation if deception is warranted!

one of the problem is, not how much practice time, but where will you get the practice time? The NCAA limits how much you can practice, so what will you choose to practice less in order to do this? You have to practice the QB/C exchange so what will you cut out in order to do this? When you bring 2 guys in the backfield, you most likely bring another defender in the box as well. So you have 2 schemes to block, and how to you have time to do so? The pros do it, they have unlimited time.
I like the QB under center, but as coach has said, with JoeMO you arent going to see it, just not their style, just like JVP wasnt going to use the run and shoot.
the third and 1 thing is not unique to PSU. Lots of spread teams struggle for the same reason.
One of the biggest things that has changed is, many OL's dont 'fire out' off the ball. They root and scoot, trying to get a whole body in front of a man. They dont lead with their head, they lead with their hands. Save the brain, save the game!

 

[LaJolla Lion]

I tend to think people are overly critical of their own team when the expectations are title or bust. There are some issues, but most teams have more and don't have the talent PSU has. UM was WAY more talented than Iowa and they lost there. Winning on the road at night in conference is hard to do. Look how long OSU struggled with IU and OSU has recruited better than anyone not named Bama and has a 10th year starting QB. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Gitzit]

The only thing that concerns me is Trace letting the Heisman hype around him make him nervous. He admitted he had "jitters" in the pitt game.I hope he settles down in the big games to come.
Who is missing off last year defense? The same DT are still there, but the DE are gone, plus Bell, and 6. Seems more like a DE problem, and missing Bell than DT problem.
I mostly listen to Steve and Jack and Jack brags about Koa's play, so I don't know about your assessment of him. Hard to discount those tackling statistics though .Maybe Bells absence is making a big difference. Remember when he went out of the rose bowl.

On a side note, 55 Shelton looked really good at the end of the game, albeit against Georgia State. But he held his own against double teams and was beating double teams..

 

[mrtailgate]

Thank you. Of all the things you list, some would seem to be very correctable. But the intensity issue us a bit more concerning. They will face a determined lot this week in a hostile environment. Getting on the road and having to face adversity might be just what the doctor ordered. I expect an increase in intensity all around this week.

 

[AWS1022]

The good news is if a high school coach sees it, I'm sure our coaches can see it. It's hard not to be sloppy when you beat a team 56-0. When I coached basketball and baseball some of our worst games were against teams where we had way more talent. We still won big but there was little focus.

 

[BisbeeMike]

The key factor in this game coming up will be depth. We have more depth than ever before, and it will play a part in this game with Iowa. Conference openers are tough on the road, but in reality it doesn't matter too much about catching someone at a certain time, UNLESS that team is somebody like an Iowa or a Wisconsin, who seem to get better later in the year. We catch not one, but two breaks in this game: 1-We play at night on a hot day, to make the temps a bit easier in what would have been a very very hot day game, and 2-We catch Iowa earlier in the season, rather than late, which is traditionally when they are at their very best.

 

[ftlpsu]

IMHO-being a former defensive high school coach in the 954....we do have LB'er issues.

As far as the other issues, I think the following;

1. Kids playing down to their competition
2. Coaches experimenting with the O-Line personnel cuz they can against weaker competition-"let's see what we got"
3. Trace isn't setting his feet as he is trying to or used to making throws on the run which he is best at.
4. No Godwin-thus DC's are saying stack the box blitz the mesh point and stop SB before he gets going. Who is our GoTo-Receiver? Not who you think our GoTo-Receiver is but who Trace feels is his GoTo-Receiver??? I dont think there is one yet. Blacknall?
5. Playbook has been conservative--not for not wanting to show anything simply old school coaching. Gotta execute on the bread and butter-you can take that risk against weaker competition.

With that said-I think we really play well at Iowa and the kids play with that same passion we saw post-Minny game....

 

[KnightSlayer]

Nice post-I will give the O-line a little bit of a pass this week as they were missing Mahon and were playing Fries in his first start and they moved Gonzalez to the opposite guard. Bates has been a little disappointing to me. As some others have pointed out, I wonder if bates should be at guard and Mahon at OT.

You're going to have to explain that one to me. I saw him get beat one time in the pitt game where his man got to the QB. Other than that, I see him handling whoever is in front of him. I saw Gonzalez miss an assignment that blew up a play in the backfield and, I saw Mahon get pushed into the backfield a couple of times and also was too late on a pull to stop a blitzing LB that caused a loss.

The biggest offensive problem with the pitt game, which I'm not worried about going forward, was Trace missing wide open receivers and running out of a perfectly good pocket.

 

[PSUcup1]

You're going to have to explain that one to me. I saw him get beat one time in the pitt game where his man got to the QB. Other than that, I see him handling whoever is in front of him. I saw Gonzalez miss an assignment that blew up a play in the backfield and, I saw Mahon get pushed into the backfield a couple of times and also was too late on a pull to stop a blitzing LB that caused a loss.

The biggest offensive problem with the pitt game, which I'm not worried about going forward, was Trace missing wide open receivers and running out of a perfectly good pocket.

Bates had a very poor block on saturday night that almost led to a safety for GA St

I agree about the Pitt game. If Trace wasnt awful (and he was awful) in that game, we score 47 points and there is much less angst among the fans

 

[KnightSlayer]

Bates had a very poor block on saturday night that almost led to a safety for GA St

I agree about the Pitt game. If Trace wasnt awful (and he was awful) in that game, we score 47 points and there is much less angst among the fans

Not sure that was a bad block by Bates. The play looked like it was designed to go between Bates and Gonzales. Bates blocked the left shoulder of the DE and was pushing him towards the sideline. A LB filled the whole and Barkley tried to bounce it outside which took him right into Bates block. Maybe Bates was supposed to block his guy the other way. I'm not sure to tell the truth.

 

[sluggo72]

Not sure that was a bad block by Bates. The play looked like it was designed to go between Bates and Gonzales. Bates blocked the left shoulder of the DE and was pushing him towards the sideline. A LB filled the whole and Barkley tried to bounce it outside which took him right into Bates block. Maybe Bates was supposed to block his guy the other way. I'm not sure to tell the truth.

View embedded media

IMO SB bounced that when he was supposed to go up inside. I think they were trying to run inside zone, look how Bates basically is turning his guy out, the problem ins the LG, I believe is Fries, he goes for the backside LBer, and lets the LBer in front of him run thru. When that guy runs through, SB bounces outside, and the DE comes off of Bates block easily (as he should). I hope Fries was wrong. IMO Bates should have had the DE, Fries on the LBer, and the C and RG combo the NT and the backside LBer, then I think you would have had a play.

 

[PSUcup1]

Not sure that was a bad block by Bates. The play looked like it was designed to go between Bates and Gonzales. Bates blocked the left shoulder of the DE and was pushing him towards the sideline. A LB filled the whole and Barkley tried to bounce it outside which took him right into Bates block. Maybe Bates was supposed to block his guy the other way. I'm not sure to tell the truth.

View embedded media

yeah, the LB is the one who disrupts the play

but Bates was still knocked off balance and had a poor block IMO

 

[sluggo72]

yeah, the LB is the one who disrupts the play

but Bates was still knocked off balance and had a poor block IMO

not many would share that opinion in this case. SB was to go inside, and both he and Bates get in trouble when he bounces outside. If it was called as an outside run, Bates would have attacked the guys outside pad, not his inside pad.

 

[jefro52]

This may not be a popular post but have at it, I'm interested in your views too. I've coached football for nearly 2 decades so maybe I watch the game with a more critical eye, but I'm somewhat concerned with what I have seen up to this point. I will also add I had the good fortune to see a full practice about a week and a half prior to the season. While I will not comment on what I saw, I will draw a couple comparisons. I'm only commenting on the problem areas in my view.

Let's start with offense as I have mostly been an offensive coach, OC and play caller in my coaching career. While I love the size of the oline and believe we have a strong group of athletic guys on the line, their performance has been poor with run blocking up to this point. Takeoff and first contact look fine, where it is falling apart is the inability to sustain their block. This isn't high school where you can make first contact pancakes when you weight 300 plus pounds. You must sustain the block. Like the clock in the head of a QB to avoid a sack. It's the same with an oline man. A minimum of 3 seconds is needed along with movement. It's not happening and why we are not seeing the consistency we need to running the ball. I also want to see some meanness in this group. Finish blocks, push off at the whistle, own your opponent.

Traces over throwing issue. We saw a similar issue in the spring, I saw it at practice. Trace needs to do a better job transferring his weigh to his front foot. This will reduce the over throws. This happens frequently with QBs who move around a bit and getting sloppy with their foot work. My view is QBing is all about the feet. I teach young QBs without the ball the first few days just to get them to focus on their feet. The fact Trace seldom misses short shows he is not transferring his weight strongly enough. Too much front foot means under throws. From a personal view, I would also like to see Trace climb the pocket more when possible versus bailing laterally during his scrambles.

From a personal preference, I would like to see Barkley in the pistol a little bit. While it would impact some of the geometry of the offense, I think he would see the blocks better and have him moving forward during the mesh. If not, use a moving mesh point as Meyer first started using with Tebow at Florida.

From a defense point of view it's all about the A and B gap. The defense is doing a poor job protecting the A and B gaps. Our 1 and 3 techs and Mikes are not getting it done. Look for Iowa to exploit this weakness. We don't have any 1s or 3s that demand double teams so it is making it easy to scrape to the second level without much help needed on the first level. Look at the number of tackles our DBs have piled up. The front 7 is needing too much run support from the secondary.

Koa Farmer has been ineffective. We really need to find a better OLB who can provide better leverage on the edge than him. 3 of our 4 guys in the secondary have more tackles so far than Farmer. With the exception of Bowen, our linebacker play has not been good.

Tackling, lots of tackling issues. Interesting, in watching other games, I'm seeing similar things. I'm beginning to wonder if the lack of two a day practices and the deduction of contact in practice is beginning to directly impact the quality of play, particularly, tackling.

All this is added up concerns me about Iowa and the conference schedule. This team must play its best game to date to beat Iowa.

What did you think of the team this time last year?