Obli's Observations - I have some thoughts

[Obliviax]

• This looked just like the Illinois game...heavy run, the opponent ran a ball control offense....while not covering the spread, a comfortable win
• As I stated before, the grass looked really bad and not from football. Weird.
• I thought Quinton Martin looked really good. PSU went to him early on a flat pass, which surprised me, and Martin ran over a defender while showing good quicks.
• Allar seemed nervous to start but the staff got him to settle down. I think he missed 2 of his first 4 throws and was also sacked do we were 2 of 5 pass player.
• Once that settled down, Allar was 17 of 24 for 237 yards, 10 yards per completion, a TD and zero INTs. Martin had 3 receptions for 18 yards and Clifford surpassed 100 yards passing with 107 on three receptions.
• Rushing, Allen had 21 carriers. The rest of the team had 5 not counting Allar who, I don't think, had a single running play that wasn't supposed to be a passing play.
• I thought UCLA's QB looked really good. He is a soph making his first start and I thought he did well. Overall they had 260 total yards to our 322 and won the TOP with almost 33 minutes (to our 27).
• we had 8 drives. Punt, Punt, TD, TD...half....FG, TD, Punt, FG (OK, we had a :15 drive to end the game so we technically had nine drives) Summation is that of the 8 drives, we scored on five.
• Great to make Field Goals...kid looked confident and they all were no-doubters.

• I saw us use tempo more. That seemed to be a new wrinkle. Several times we ran no-huddle but that isn't new. What seemed to be new was us running out the skill players from the huddle. Then sprinting the OL to the LOS and snapping the ball before the D was ready. It didn't seem like it was really effective but I don't recall seeing it
• We also ran a QB sneak/tushpush with almost 3 yards to go. We made it but it was weird to run that play with that far to go.
• we aren't getting turnovers. Zero turnovers against ILL and UCLA. The good news is we didn't turn if over either.
• I feel like the Allen defense is less aggressive. Perhaps that is why we are not getting the Turnovers. Maybe USC will be different.

 

[lazydave841]

Zero turnovers against ILL

Had 2 vs Illinois.

 

[tboyer]

• This looked just like the Illinois game...heavy run, the opponent ran a ball control offense....while not covering the spread, a comfortable win
• As I stated before, the grass looked really bad and not from football. Weird.
• I thought Quinton Martin looked really good. PSU went to him early on a flat pass, which surprised me, and Martin ran over a defender while showing good quicks.
• Allar seemed nervous to start but the staff got him to settle down. I think he missed 2 of his first 4 throws and was also sacked do we were 2 of 5 pass player.
• Once that settled down, Allar was 17 of 24 for 237 yards, 10 yards per completion, a TD and zero INTs. Martin had 3 receptions for 18 yards and Clifford surpassed 100 yards passing with 107 on three receptions.
• Rushing, Allen had 21 carriers. The rest of the team had 5 not counting Allar who, I don't think, had a single running play that wasn't supposed to be a passing play.
• I thought UCLA's QB looked really good. He is a soph making his first start and I thought he did well. Overall they had 260 total yards to our 322 and won the TOP with almost 33 minutes (to our 27).
• we had 8 drives. Punt, Punt, TD, TD...half....FG, TD, Punt, FG (OK, we had a :15 drive to end the game so we technically had nine drives) Summation is that of the 8 drives, we scored on five.
• Great to make Field Goals...kid looked confident and they all were no-doubters.

• I saw us use tempo more. That seemed to be a new wrinkle. Several times we ran no-huddle but that isn't new. What seemed to be new was us running out the skill players from the huddle. Then sprinting the OL to the LOS and snapping the ball before the D was ready. It didn't seem like it was really effective but I don't recall seeing it
• We also ran a QB sneak/tushpush with almost 3 yards to go. We made it but it was weird to run that play with that far to go.
• we aren't getting turnovers. Zero turnovers against ILL and UCLA. The good news is we didn't turn if over either.
• I feel like the Allen defense is less aggressive. Perhaps that is why we are not getting the Turnovers. Maybe USC will be different.

Allen's is less of a pressure defense, more of a positional defense. I loved Manny Diaz defense but it did perform better against 3rd tier teams and not so well Ohio State and Michigan. There might be benefits to Allen's less aggressive D against elite teams.

I think the PSU corners have played well, especially given they're transfers. Safety's a work in progress after losing Winston. It is weird for the whole team to have only 1 INT to this point. Maybe that will change this weekend.

 

[olelion]

Allen's is less of a pressure defense, more of a positional defense. I loved Manny Diaz defense but it did perform better against 3rd tier teams and not so well Ohio State and Michigan. There might be benefits to Allen's less aggressive D against elite teams.

I think the PSU corners have played well, especially given they're transfers. Safety's a work in progress after losing Winston. It is weird for the whole team to have only 1 INT to this point. Maybe that will change this weekend.

The Diaz scheme was susceptible to any good running game. Wannstedt maybe described Diaz's scheme best, "...cover the run on your way to the passer".

 

[bcspsu]

The Diaz scheme was susceptible to any good running game. Wannstedt maybe described Diaz's scheme best, "...cover the run on your way to the passer".

The thing that I noticed about Moss in the Wisconsin game is that he's very adept at avoiding the pressure, which is omnipresent, just enough to find an open receiver. Therefore, the line needs to maintain their rush positions and integrity and not converge at one spot. Also, this is going to be a game in which the d-backs are going to have tackle very well because their receivers are going to make catches; you need to make them go on long drives.