I just finished up a pretty thorough review of the GSU game. I spent quite a bit of time on the first two games as well. Here's where I think we're at heading in to Iowa.
Offensively we're in a great place. I love our personnel (think we'll look back at this year at realize just how loaded we were). We have two really, really good QBs. We have a generational superstar at RB and three other kids who are good football players (I remain a Mark Allen fan). We have the best pass catching TE in the country backed up by a solid kid in Holland. We have a two deep at WR that we haven't had since I don't know when. How many years would we have been happy to start Blacknall/Polk/Charles? I think our offensive line has thus far played better than what our fans generally believe. I really like the individual blocking performances, especially in pass protection. There are a lot of convincing wins going on in individual battles. So even when one guy either doesn't have a convincing win, or even gets flat-out beat, or the other team sends more than we can block, Trace often has room to step up and escape and do Tracelike things.
I do think the offensive line can play better. I do think they can fire off the ball a little better to speed up the combination block process a little. We need to get off that help block a little faster to get on the LBs who are obviously shooting the gaps (the ones we create on purpose) faster than we can react to. We have plenty of strength along the line, but I'd like to see better initial aggression and burst right off the snap. Let's just get that blocking tempo up a little, and I think it will make a difference. I also think Trace can help out by being more aggressive with his pull the ball reads.
Moorhead has clearly opened up the playbook this year and I think he's found a rhythm and is 100% comfortable with his personnel. I love his passing game concepts. Guys are open all over the place. He's getting one on one matchups that he wants. Honestly, it looks like we could just gun it all game long and score a ton of points. The one issue remains how do we handle the way teams are trying to shut down our inside run game. He's a good coach, I have a feeling it will get worked out. Amazingly, there's still plenty of room to grow with this offense and this group of players.
Defensively, the scoreboard has been kinder than the film. That's not to say we simply ignore the fact that teams aren't scoring much against us, but I do think it's fair to say that the actual performance hasn't been quite as good as what the scoreboard would indicate. People will say "well all that matters is how many points we gave up", which is stupid if we're trying to predict how we'll fare against better teams. Evaluating the actual performance matters.
The strength of our defense is pretty obvious. We have good DB's and can get after the QB in obvious passing situations. We're a year away from being absolutely electric rushing the passer. Matos is good already and will likely be really good in short order. Next year he'll be scary. Miller is really good. Brown was just starting to have a breakout season, really impressive stuff, really hope he's not out for the year. Buchholz has been good. Toney is Maybinesue off the edge, will be a terror in future years. Those are the five DE's that stand out the most on film. I'm not sure what to make of our DT situation. We pushed Akron around, got bullied by numbers against Pitt, and then didn't bounce back in the way I expected against GSU. Still lots of double teaming our DT's and our box LB's aren't filling fast enough. Not impressed with the instincts of our box LBs at all (besides Smith, who very clearly reads the game better than anyone else at his position). There are simply too many bad snaps against the run right now. I don't think it's a DE issue. It's in the middle. Right now it's just too easy for teams to double our DT's and still get on our LBs. Too many big holes being created (seemingly on purpose at times, but our LBs need to get downhill much faster if we're going to create those gaps). The 3 techs are are both explosive kids. But Cothran isn't making enough splash plays to justify his lack of gap integrity. Givens is making those plays, so I think you take the good with the bad at this point with him. I do like that they're showing more double 1 tech looks (Windosr and Chavis). But generally speaking, we need to figure out who we are up the middle, and make some decisions about how we can better use what we have personnel wise.
Special teams have been fantastic. Enough said.
Offensively we're in a great place. I love our personnel (think we'll look back at this year at realize just how loaded we were). We have two really, really good QBs. We have a generational superstar at RB and three other kids who are good football players (I remain a Mark Allen fan). We have the best pass catching TE in the country backed up by a solid kid in Holland. We have a two deep at WR that we haven't had since I don't know when. How many years would we have been happy to start Blacknall/Polk/Charles? I think our offensive line has thus far played better than what our fans generally believe. I really like the individual blocking performances, especially in pass protection. There are a lot of convincing wins going on in individual battles. So even when one guy either doesn't have a convincing win, or even gets flat-out beat, or the other team sends more than we can block, Trace often has room to step up and escape and do Tracelike things.
I do think the offensive line can play better. I do think they can fire off the ball a little better to speed up the combination block process a little. We need to get off that help block a little faster to get on the LBs who are obviously shooting the gaps (the ones we create on purpose) faster than we can react to. We have plenty of strength along the line, but I'd like to see better initial aggression and burst right off the snap. Let's just get that blocking tempo up a little, and I think it will make a difference. I also think Trace can help out by being more aggressive with his pull the ball reads.
Moorhead has clearly opened up the playbook this year and I think he's found a rhythm and is 100% comfortable with his personnel. I love his passing game concepts. Guys are open all over the place. He's getting one on one matchups that he wants. Honestly, it looks like we could just gun it all game long and score a ton of points. The one issue remains how do we handle the way teams are trying to shut down our inside run game. He's a good coach, I have a feeling it will get worked out. Amazingly, there's still plenty of room to grow with this offense and this group of players.
Defensively, the scoreboard has been kinder than the film. That's not to say we simply ignore the fact that teams aren't scoring much against us, but I do think it's fair to say that the actual performance hasn't been quite as good as what the scoreboard would indicate. People will say "well all that matters is how many points we gave up", which is stupid if we're trying to predict how we'll fare against better teams. Evaluating the actual performance matters.
The strength of our defense is pretty obvious. We have good DB's and can get after the QB in obvious passing situations. We're a year away from being absolutely electric rushing the passer. Matos is good already and will likely be really good in short order. Next year he'll be scary. Miller is really good. Brown was just starting to have a breakout season, really impressive stuff, really hope he's not out for the year. Buchholz has been good. Toney is Maybinesue off the edge, will be a terror in future years. Those are the five DE's that stand out the most on film. I'm not sure what to make of our DT situation. We pushed Akron around, got bullied by numbers against Pitt, and then didn't bounce back in the way I expected against GSU. Still lots of double teaming our DT's and our box LB's aren't filling fast enough. Not impressed with the instincts of our box LBs at all (besides Smith, who very clearly reads the game better than anyone else at his position). There are simply too many bad snaps against the run right now. I don't think it's a DE issue. It's in the middle. Right now it's just too easy for teams to double our DT's and still get on our LBs. Too many big holes being created (seemingly on purpose at times, but our LBs need to get downhill much faster if we're going to create those gaps). The 3 techs are are both explosive kids. But Cothran isn't making enough splash plays to justify his lack of gap integrity. Givens is making those plays, so I think you take the good with the bad at this point with him. I do like that they're showing more double 1 tech looks (Windosr and Chavis). But generally speaking, we need to figure out who we are up the middle, and make some decisions about how we can better use what we have personnel wise.
Special teams have been fantastic. Enough said.
