Tour2ma Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 O-line Grades: Week 9 vs. TB Episode IV: A New Hope 13-ish series (if you count the clock eating at the end) with 26 1st-half plays and 39 2nd-half plays... 65 total. That's a little more like it... 1st Half: S1 - 9:43; S2 - 4:06; S3 - 0:21; (Q2) S4 - 8:40; S5 7:34; S6 - 2:00 2nd Half: S7 - 15:00; S8 - 4:50; S9 - 2:42; (Q4) S10 - 14:45; S11 - 9:42; S12 6:58; S13 - 1:39 Revelations of the week: It is possible... I repeat, possible... that young Shanny's solution to our talent deficit at Center is a healthy does of classic, power blocking. I saw more power blocking this week than I remember seeing in all our prior, 2014 games put together. Four plays featured dual double teams maintained for the play's duration... and it started with our first play. We also pulled more this week including on some wide runs that looked a lot more like "student Body L/R" than Wide Zones. And by and large the power plays worked... at least they worked better than the Wide Zone runs we tried. Maybe this is stop gap, until our new Center gets in rhythm, or maybe it's a concession that we've lost our zone lynch-pin... Either way it's our "New Hope"... But just in case... Pssst... Shanny... your spare lynch-pin is at LG... Rant of the week: NFL Linesmen of the Official variety... I do not know what the hell they were looking at, but they neither called TB's D-line for lining up in the neutral zone nor our O-line for not being on the line. Their ultra wide DEs had hands on and heads over the virtual blue line many times. All looked well with our alignment until I started noticing that our TEs would shift off the line and end up dead even with whatever OT was on their end of the line. General Notes: Shanny is still adding plays. This week saw the debut of an H-back Power-I and a pulling OG as part of a PAP look. The footsteps Ben Tate hears are Terrence West's as he gains ground towards the starting job. West is running and blocking harder. Pass catching and ball security may keep giving Tate an edge on the job, but not much longer. Tate has to pick up his game. One sobering note: West got nicked late... looked like a rib got bruised. Gerald McCoy... is as quick off the ball as any D-line we've faced this year. Numerous times when I'd freeze frame at the snap only two hands had moved: our Center's and McCoy's. Line discipline was back. Schwartz's half-the-distance holding penalty was the only call against us. Weekly Box Count... Now Sponsored by Stockboy... 1st : 8+ - 2; 7 - 12; 6 - 10; 5 or less - 2 2nd: 8+ - 16; 7 - 18; 6 - 5; 5 or less - 0 Ttl : 8+ - 18; 7 - 30; 6 - 15; 5 or less - 2 When facing 8+ we beat it (gain of 4 or more) 2 times; lost (gain of 0 or less) 7 times and tied 9 times. Long gain was 25 off a PAP. We threw at an 8+ man front 7 of the 18 times we saw it completing 4 for a net of 35 yds, 1 TD and 1 sack. The lone "sack" occurred when Greco tripped Hoyer to the ground. Weekly Special Request: The line scores for the play that featured West's major league blitz pick up were: JT 0; BT 0; NM 0; JG 0; MS 0 Probably less exciting than the requestor was expecting... The Grades Joe Thomas: 1st +6-1 net +5; 2nd +8-2 net +6 ; Game Totals: +14-3 net +11 Another solid game for Joe. Nothing spectacular this week... just solid play after solid play for the most part. Joe led the two Student Body plays I mentioned above with Bito close on his heels. One worked for 9 yards in no small part due to a fine seal by Dray (S12P1); the other was disrupted when Dray was pushed backwards and ended up in a loss (S12P7). Joe was our only O-line that I saw move McCoy by himself (S2P1). He was beaten to the inside twice; in one instance he clearly missed the snap count. Escape of the week goes to Joe... West's blast block of the blitzing LB landed them at Joe's heels while he was still engaged with his D-line assignment... too close for comfort. Joel Bitonio: 1st +7-3 net +4; 2nd +13-4 net +9 w/ 2D+; Game Totals: +20-7 net +13 What started slow turned into a sterling game for Bito this week earning him his first weekly laurels. Early on he looked like a rookie who did not belong... mid-way thru our first drive in the 2nd half he looked like he owned the place. No better demonstration of his ownership than S12P6 when Bito chipped a D-line and then blasted a LB to the ground. Needless to say it was one of his Dbl+. Bito pulled 4 times this week... all in the 2nd half. One pull was as part of a PAP design... first I've noticed this. Nick McDonald: 1st +4-11 net -8 w/ 4D-; 2nd +6-12 net -6 w/ 1D-; Game Totals: +10-23 net -13 First off... the spectacular, early blow up of McD by McCoy (S1P3) was "enhanced" by Bito's right foot tripping McD (look close at the gif, you'll see it). Not that he wasn't on his way to Hoyer's lap, if not the ground, anyway. To prove he did not need Bito's help, he got himself planted again two plays later (S1P5). For the balance of the Q1 he actually played "decent", +2-0 ball. Q2 brought back-to-back bad on S5P2&3. First an LB ripped him on his way to stuffing West for a 4 yd loss. Then he was too slow to plug a gap allowing a QB hurry. In a nutshell I see power in McD's game if he has a little space/ time to gear up for a drive block. Under such circumstance he even managed to turn McCoy one time... a nice effort there. But if McD is beaten to the punch or is not square to his assignment, there's trouble in his immediate future. Same is true if he can set for pass protection, but if driven back at the snap, he can't halt the surge. He does generally keep his head on a decent swivel in pass protection and can pick up a stunt into his area, but lacks the quicks to move and help. John Greco: 1st +8-6 net +2 w/ 1D-; 2nd +8-9 net-1 w/ 2D- ; Game Totals: +16-15 net +1 John's totals surprised me this week. Even as I was watching tape it was not occurring to me that he was having issues anywhere near the magnitude the above numbers seem to indicate. John had some late pulls that bombed... it's just not his thing. In the worst example was pulled slowly enough that he tripped the ball carrier, Tate (S3P3). Fix is easy enough here... stop pulling him. Of more concern is he got ripped inside twice (S7P8 & S10P3), the latter courtesy of Mr. McCoy. Mitchell Schwartz: 1st +3-4 net -1 w/ 1D-; 2nd +5-11 net -6 w/ 4D-; Game Totals: +8-15 net -7 Mitch's 2nd negative week in a row... Most issues emerged around his old weakness, pass protecting against a speed rusher. Near the end of the 1st half (S6P5), a speed rusher got the edge and stiff-armed Mitch on his way to a sack. Alternately the speed set up inside rips ... Mitch handled two of these with holds... one hold was called (S10P1)... one was not (S1P7). While Mitch generally had a better afternoon run blocking he had a couple D-'s on run plays. Both were for not setting an edge one way or the other, i.e., neither inside not outside, leaving a defender free to make a play (S11P1 & S12P4). Other Blockers: TEs: Surprise guest star... Dray: +8-5 net -3 w/ 1D+ & 2D- Busy day for our new , go-to TE. I do not see the load getting any lighter soon. His D+ came for a pretty reverse seal... that the DE should have seen coming in Dray's stance. Barn: +3-2 net +1 Light day for effectively who is our #2 TE now. McQuistan: What? You did not notice him in as a TE next to JT in our goal line offense? Me neither until I watched the tape... Give the man a + for his part in collapsing half their D-line. RBs: Overall a better day blocking and pass catching than running... Small: +7-5 net +2 w/ 1D+ The kid is starting to grow on me. He really busted a couple blocks. Put one LB on the ground. Made a catch albeit short of the goal on our 2-pt try. Still not seeing everything... but I see progress. Tate: +3-1 net +2 Day featured two nice, blitz pick ups... West: +4-1 net +1 w/ 1D+ "The Block"... need I say more? Actually, yes, as West had another nice blitz pick-up... it just wasn't as sexy... Crow: WRs: Slim pickings this week... Gabe: +1-0 net +1 Nice downfield block of a DB on the first, Student Body left... Benji: +0-1 net -1 Not exactly built for blocking, but he tries... doesn't succeed, but he tries... Austin: +0-1 net -1 Built for blocking, but not interested in it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Can I make a special request for you to grade Oniel Cousins? Just out of curiosity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiamat63 Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 So..... Bito to Center, Greco to LG, Schwartz to RG and whom to RT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 So..... Bito to Center, Greco to LG, Schwartz to RG and whom to RT? Terrance West. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrb12711 Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Tour, when you watched the run plays did you notice if we ran ANY counters or against the unbalanced line? I really seemed to notice the whole game the LB's for TB shifted to one side or another on obvious runs plays. It became an our guys against theirs game and it obviously didn't succeed. I feel strongly that running a counter or a draw here or there could help greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Can I make a special request for you to grade Oniel Cousins? Just out of curiosity... Sorry... no time for that. Tour, when you watched the run plays did you notice if we ran ANY counters or against the unbalanced line? I really seemed to notice the whole game the LB's for TB shifted to one side or another on obvious runs plays. It became an our guys against theirs game and it obviously didn't succeed. I feel strongly that running a counter or a draw here or there could help greatly. I don't remember a single counter step by our backs the entire game... or the entire season for that matter. Closest I can think of is the middle zones we run (the plays where there is an odd looking toss straight back to the RB). Very often there's a cut back on these counter to the flow of the entire line. West had a nice run on one such play vs. TB. That may have been the only time we ran it this week. I want to say that TB's LB alignment mirrored our TEs. While I was not watching for this specifically, I recall TE motions when TB's LBs realigned with the motion. But seems like other times they did not... I know we ran only one draw. You'd think our PAP bootlegs should help dissuade pursuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrb12711 Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Sorry... no time for that. I don't remember a single counter step by our backs the entire game... or the entire season for that matter. Closest I can think of is the middle zones we run (the plays where there is an odd looking toss straight back to the RB). Very often there's a cut back on these counter to the flow of the entire line. West had a nice run on one such play vs. TB. That may have been the only time we ran it this week. I want to say that TB's LB alignment mirrored our TEs. While I was not watching for this specifically, I recall TE motions when TB's LBs realigned with the motion. But seems like other times they did not... I know we ran only one draw. You'd think our PAP bootlegs should help dissuade pursuit. Thanks for that. It just seems to me that at least mixing in one or two counters would keep the defense honest. It's clear they need to try something cause what they are doing now is not working well at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canton Dawg Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Thanks for that. It just seems to me that at least mixing in one or two counters would keep the defense honest. It's clear they need to try something cause what they are doing now is not working well at all. I agree, TB seemed to overpursue and was ripe for a counter tray or some type of mis-direction play(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 I agree, TB seemed to overpursue and was ripe for a counter tray or some type of mis-direction play(s). There were a couple times out of the I (classic counter formation) that Small's path and our RB's path diverged, but hard to tell what is design vs. impromptu read. I do know that once vs. TB two LBs read Small and another, nice, cut-back lane opened up... unfortunately Tate (I think) chose to follow Small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gipper Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Tour.....is there any indication that Braxston Cave would have been a better choice to fill in at OC than McDonald? Or is there just nothing that can be viewed that would give you the ability to compare? (in which case then you have to rely on the coaches to make the right choice to put in there.....and if that is the case, how poorly must Cave be performing if he can't beat out McDonald in practice?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Tour.....is there any indication that Braxston Cave would have been a better choice to fill in at OC than McDonald? Or is there just nothing that can be viewed that would give you the ability to compare? I have nothing on Cave other than Pro Day/ Combine data. Based upon that he looks like a slightly stronger version of McDonald. Based on the numbers athletically both look inferior to Painter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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