Offense:
Tyler Van Dyke - 17/24 220yds 3TD’s at 70%cmp, 2att 39yds rushing
Henry Parrish - 16att 139yds & 2TD’s
Don Chaney - 9att 61yds
Mark Fletcher - 11att 51yds
Xavier Restrepo - 7rec 41yds & 2TD’s
Jacolby George - 5rec 90yds
Colbie Young - 2rec 33yds & 1TD
Nathaniel Joseph - 2rec 28yds
Brashard Smith - 1rec 28yds
Offense gained 543 total yards (220 passing & 323 rushing), off 67 plays At 8.1 yards per play, getting 24 1st downs going 5/11 on 3rd down, with 32:34 in Time of possession.
Great first drive; good mix of run & pass with Restrepo finishing it off with Slot fade for the TD.
Great play call on the QB keeper option on TVD’s 37yd run in the 2nd quarter, the RB did a good job selling it as we’ll.
Another aggressive call by Dawson & gutsy throw by TVD hitting Young on the 28yd TD on 3rd down & 4. Terrific acrobatic catch by Young, adjusting his body in mid air & getting full extension while high-pointing the ball & making a great move to get in the end zone. Best WR on the team, undoubtedly has NFL potential IMO. Gotta give credit to MariZO for that find once again.
Great game by #21 whoever that is... Can we be honest here? Why the fck does he keep getting the ball??? He’s not the best or the most talented RB on the team, so why is he always getting the bulk of the carries??? I think there’s some clear favoritism going on & I have a huge problem with it. I want whoever is making this decision to keep playing #21 fired! Give me Chaney or give me Death!
Restrepo another game as Mr. Consistency, making great catches moving the chains & being a Red Zone threat catching TD’s. He’s also a willing tenacious Blocker despite being only 5’9/5’10. He’s going to get compared to the likes of Welker & Edelman, rightfully so. He definitely has a future in the league as the quintessential Slot WR. Idk or care what round he gets drafted in, he’ll stick in the league as a Special Teamer because of his effort & want-to. Great player, great teammate, great Cane.
Jacolby George had another quiet great game where he’s become a very good playmaker & is being used a deep threat, even though he’s not really known for being a blazer in terms of his raw speed. But what he’s doing is getting open with his route running. His releases off the line & his stems at the top of his routes are creating space allowing for him to get wide open catches & good YAC yardage after the catch. He’s finally come into his potential & playing very well. Props to Kevin Beard on getting this kid up to speed, because both Harrell & Kirk were brought here to take his job, he’s shown up big time in every game this season.
Brashard Smith sighting on that quick-pass motion run. Nate “Ray-Ray” Joseph ran the same play & had a nice run on a tunnel screen. He’s a shift runner with very quick feet & has an extra gear to get down the field. Between Brashard & Ray-Ray, the Slot-Back spot is in great hands if Xavier decides to declare after this season. The future is bright with these two weapons.
OL play continued on their streak of dominance, 1st team OL hasn’t given up a Sack since TAMU & the best lineman might actually be Cam McCormick. They are a big athletic group that can grind you into dust, but also move like Rhinos getting to the 2nd level while clearing a path for the RB’s. Plus, they keep TVD’s jersey squeaky clean with a pristine pocket. Late in the 3rd quarter & TVD’s jersey looks like he’s the 3rd string QB who’s been sitting on the bench all game long, not so much as a grass smudge anywhere to be found.
@OrangeBowlMagic what I keep telling you about the TE’s?
The Offense as a whole is scary dominant. The best Offense we’ve had since 2020 & 2021, the difference is, this Offense can actually run the ball, so it’s way more balanced. The explosive factor with the big chunk yard plays are gonna make us hard to defend because once teams start selling out to stop one aspect of the Offense, they’ll get struck right in the heart by the other; that’s exactly what happened with TAMU. They sold out to stop the run, so we threw it on’em & they had no answer for it, they got caught looking stupid because their slow *** DB’s couldn’t cover a cinder block. Eventually some teams are gonna drop 7 & sit back in Zones, but against this OL the run game is going to gash tf outta them. It’s the classic pick your poison multiplicity Offense we’ve all been waiting for.
Thank God for Dawson
Defense:
Jaden Davis - 5tks
Corey Flagg - 4tks
Te’Cory Couch - 3tks 2INT’s & 1PD
Wesley Bissainthe - 3tks 1TFL
Francisco Mauigoa - 3tks 1TFL & 1PD
Daryl Porter Jr - 3tks 2PD’s
Rueben Bain - 3tks
Jaden Harris - 3tks
Thomas Gore - 2tks 2 sacks & 2TFL’s
Leonard Taylor - 2tks 1 sack & 1TFL
KJ Cloyd - 2tks 1TFL
James Williams - 2tks
Markeith Williams - 2tks
Davonte Brown - 1tk 1PD
Defense held Temple to just 279 total yards at just 4.8 yards per play, keeping them at 5/13 on rd down, 0/3 on 4th down, with 6TFL’s, 3 sacks & forcing 3 turnovers.
Run Defense was absolutely stellar, held Temple to just 2yds rushing in the 1st half & USA a staggering 11yds total for the game. Gave up 194yds passing in the 1st half, but only allowed 74yds passing in the 2nd half.
Great motor by Bain & Gore getting off their blocks & getting after EJ Warner to force the fumble. Leonard Taylor was getting penetration (pause) all day against the interior OL disrupting the QB’s rhythm & flushing him out of the pocket numerous times, which helped lead to multiple INT’s by forcing the QB to make bad decisions. That’s the tenor of this Defense, creating havoc upfront to speed up the QB’s processing & thus putting him at disadvantage & increasing the odds of making mistakes.
The one major flaw is when he drops the Viper in coverage & has a DE covering the flats, it’s left us exposed for Wheel routes against pretty much everyone we’ve played thus far & a big play to the RB or TE almost always happens whenever they make that call (except when Harvey got a PBU against TAMU). Gotta figure an augmentation on that, maybe use one of the LB’s in that spot instead of it always being a DE?
Gore, Bain & Taylor all played very good games getting collapsing the pocket & beating the man in front of them. They held down the fort while Mesidor & Deen are out, but we have some really good depth along the DLine at DT. The major question remains who will be the difference maker at Edge rush? I still think it will be rush by committee & not necessarily one guy being gamebreaker, it will be more of a group effort in the pass rush.
Speaking of the LB’s, Bissainthe, Mauigoa & Flagg all played very well, especially against the run. This LB group has such a speed disparity from our past LB groups, it makes such a huge difference in terms of scheme & being able to get off field on 3rd downs. Mauigoa, Bissainthe & Cloyd are the best LB trio we’ve had since Quarterman, Pinckney & McCloud. Big credit to Coach Nicholson, his group has played fast & aggressive all year.
Couch with 2 more nice heads up INT’s, he’s done a good job playing at STAR in Zone Coverages. When he has to cover in Man is when we see the old Couch, but when he’s essentially playing as the 3rd Safety in Nickel, he can sit back, read the QB’s eyes & just follow the ball. He’s doing a great job forcing turnovers.
Daryl Porter had a solid game in coverage, he wasn’t really tested much, but in the short area routes where they tried him, he was able to get back to the ball & show active hands. He’s our best pure cover Corner IMO.
I’ve raised concerns about the CB group & the Secondary overall in the early part of the season because despite wins in all of these games, Miami of Ohio & TAMU both had WR’s who put up numbers against us (Gage Larvadain 8rec 80yds & Evan Stewart 11rec 142yds) & today was no different. Amad Anderson finished with & put up 99yds in the 1st half. Now obviously, we’ve been able to get away with it because our Offense is moving the ball at a frenetic pace & scoring at will, so it’s not affecting the overall outcome of games, but all I’ll say is, when we play teams with some real Dangerous WR’s that have Speed, this is gonna be a problem if it’s not fixed. Because I can assure you, UNC is gonna ATTACK this Secondary & force them to stop the pass, hopefully they’ll be up for that challenge...
Getting Killa Kam should make a sizable difference as well.
One thing I really liked in the 3rd quarter was on a punt, Restrepo didn’t field the punt because it was a short kick & a bouncer, Restrepo identified the ball & called out to not touch it like he’s supposed to, but was surrounded by multiple Temple ST-gunners. One of them decided to push X down obviously out of frustration from us kicking their *** even though Restrepo had clearly called for fair catch & wasn’t going to catch the ball. But what I liked the most about this play & why I highlighted it, is that James Williams immediately ran over & shoved the Temple guy off of X & helped X off the ground ushering him to the sideline. Seems like a very insignificant play, but to me it showed leadership & unity as team. It showed that JW20 being the sh*t-talker is not just bravado, but that he’s willing fight for his brothers & that as a team they’ve gelled as a cohesive unit that has each other’s back regardless of what side of the ball they’re on. Long story short, it means they’re bought in & they’re playing for each other, which is even more important than just playing for the Coaches or playing time... That’s a big big difference from what we saw last year & previous years.
Overall another great win. We’ve basically blown out every team we’ve played this year, our margin of victory has been 25.8 over 4 games with an average range of 37. That means we’re whooping *** & taking names like a top 10 team. Obviously, ACC play will be a different story, but it’s a really good sign that we’ve played so well in the easy part of the schedule, that’s exactly what good teams are supposed to do.
We’re handling business & beating who we’re supposed to beat which is such a change from what we’ve seen Nader previous regimes over the last 2 decades. No more nail-bitters against average G5 teams, you beat these fckers in the 1st half & make‘em quit early, that way you can get your guys in & get them some good reps.
We’re in control of our destiny, all we have to do is cleanup our mistakes, get healthy & keep playing at our best on a weekly basis. We’re going to have some tough games during this stretch with UNC, FSU, Clemson, NC ST & LVille still on the docket, but there isn’t anybody left on the schedule that we can’t hang with. Nobody has a massive talent or schematic advantage over us, that doesn’t mean we’re going to win every game left, but the point is, we’ll be in the fight in every one of’em. Just have to take everything one game at a time, keep trekking & we’ll see how everything shakes out in the end...
But in the meantime in between time, #RevengeTour24 will kick back off in October, but we get a nice 2 week bye to heal up & then get GTech out the way. Time to put the ACC & the rest of the Nation on notice by smoking the Wasps setting the hive on fire, then we invade Chapel Hill...
Go Canes!
