The Good, Bad and Ugly

Cribby
5 min read

Comments (194)

Even though we lost, this team looked a lot closer to what I expected than the team that showed up against MTSU.

Hoping Colbie Young becomes the player he looked like on those 3 catches, and that TVD and Gattis get going with consistency.

Still a ton of holes and the season’s pretty much a wrap as far as completing for anything big, but we can still continue to improve the cosching and execution, win some games, and at least have a team that shows up and plays solid football. Will help with recruiting if we can have something positive with the team.
 
At least we didn’t get our **** pushed in like OU. In before moral victories. Yeah, okay. Tell the Sooners what they would have rather had—sbutout and 49 points or a field goal delta with a chance to tie/win with :30 in the game.

We showed improvement and fight since MTSU. Sooners packed it in.
 
Folks
We have mediocre players
That’s all
We are what we are
We have C Flagg as a Mike
We have Stevenson and Ivey at CB
We have NO PaSS RUSHERS
We have immobile QB who played decent but yards without points don’t mean chit
We have one average RB in the ole miss kid
We have 5 at WR who is prob most explosive player but he’s average when looking at other programs
We have a big TE that can’t block me
We have a FAT soft Oline that can’t beat up on anyone
And we have a kicker whose not half as good as his brother

Yeah the play calls are t great but players make plays

We dont have good players and it will be proven when the NFL draft occurs

Georgia puts 11 defensive guys in NFL and they got 11 more

We need a new roster
 
I give Gattis credit for changing the offense between the 20's towards TVDs strengths. The WRs and TEs stepped-up big in this game.

However, as much as you want to praise Gattis, it is still the same plays being called at the goaline. We can't run the ball especially at the goaline, yet Mario and Gattis keep calling the same predictable run plays that we can't execute. This is just insanity at this point. Predictable run plays on downs 1-3 against a run blitzing goaline defense.

How about a 1st and goal play action pass for an easy TD?

If we convert our 1st and goal possessions to TDs, we are 5-0 right now despite all the other team deficiencies.
I’m not gonna defend Gattis in any way shape or form

But man UNC run defense has been miserable

If I’m a coach I’m like look ****ers…I’m gonna run it…do your jobs

Not debating your post or saying you’re wrong at all but that was just UNC wanting it more than us and that was brutal to watch
 
It’s a what have you done for me business and wins is all folks care about but I came away pretty positive. After all the negativity from MTSU then getting down two td’s there was some resolve today. They could’ve packed up shop after the early onslaught. On top of that adversity we lost three OL and Ts left early with the same issue. There was also some growth from the most maligned group on the team the receivers. Which leads me to the good.

Good

1. Gattis

I have to give some props to Gattis albeit it took four games to mold the offense to the players. He used more space and far better pace today. Majority of the alignments today had more space and implementing more Rpo played a big part.

2. TVD

Ironically after TVD has a sit down with the OC and qb coach about adjustments to the offense we saw the real TVD. As I’ve been saying quality coaches play to the kids strengths not the other way around. Great bounce back game after everyone was trying to make him the lone scape goat.

3. Receivers

I saw multiple guys grow up today and some show up and introduce themselves to CFB. Ladson, Brashard , Redding and my man Colbie Young took big steps. There was some confidence gained by that group and I look forward to watching their growth.

4. Sagapolo

Coming off an injury with no burn he was thrown into a tough spot and held up pretty **** well. I thought he deserved a shout out.

Bad

1. Run blocking

After seeing drastic improvement the first few games we’re now back to seeing the same issues from years past. No push from the interior OL which is forcing Miami to be one dimensional. I know teams have been outnumbering us at times because of the pass game issues but today there was times it wasn’t numbers , it was just guys getting their butts whipped. It’s very discounting to see that performance against a very suspect front.

2. Drops

There was a minimum of four drops today that left yards on the field. The rb’s and te’s need to be better in the pass game. 85 had a great day but his third down drop was huge , there was tons of grass in front of him because of the blitz. Tvd lofted a dime out there while staring down the heat. If coaches put you in that position you have to make the play. Same with Knighton on the fumble. It’s inexcusable.

4. Tackling

The missed tackles in space continues to be a problem. There’s so many tackle attempts where guys refuse to wrap up. The amount of YAC teams get off missed tackles is just insane. I’d love to see the stats with yards after contact by opponents.

Ugly

1. The redzone

The big bad wolf continues to be an issue even though we were gifted multiple first downs by UNC on one drive. Yet the coaches contour to be hard headed forcing the run especially inside the five. We can’t move teams so why continue to force it leaving points off the board. I know Mario is a former OL but at some pount he has to swallow his pride and realize this offense is better suited to finesse. At least until he gets his guys in. This is by far some of the worst redzone play calling I’ve ever seen.

2. Blowing coverages

In all my years of watching football I’ve never seen this rate of coverage busts. I mean multiple huge gainers two weeks ago and then more today. I expected to see a bunch of shell coverages , keeping the ball in front of the db’s but we still found away to give up free points. Once we stopped blowing coverages and missing tackles the game plan was good enough to win. When we made them drive the ball the ball things improved. There was thirteen points score after the early onslaught.

3. Starting slow

This continues to be an issue. Every week we start slow or are sleep walking and that puts you behind the eight ball . I feel like I’ve been griping about this for years.

4. Third down conversions

The momey down in football on both sides of the ball is third down and we continue to struggle with them defensively. If we can’t figure a way to get off the field on third downs the losing will continue.

Coming out of this i actually see a silver lining for the first time all year. All I’ve wanted was to see improvement from the staff and players. I know that sounds crazy but the macro has always been more important than the micro. We at-least know the staff all though hardheaded they’re willing to adjust. Even if it’s only because they had to. Now we need to see a steak of wins , moral won’t cut it going forward.

I think the starting slow reason is Mario/Gattis want to see if they can run their push and ploughing offense and then when it doesn’t work cause the Oline sucks they’re forced to open it up and run a little tempo like they did today.

The Oline sucks and the only reason they looked decent the first couple games was the bad competition.

As to the tackling I see too many kids throwing their bodies at guys thinking they’re just going to fall over.You see this more and more in the nfl and I guess that’s where they pick up their bad habits.This us up to the staff to stop or sit their asses till they decide they want to wrap up.


If Gattis decides that 3rd and short is a running down with this awful excuse for an Oline we will be in big trouble.Most teams leave at least one receiver with a large cushion where with TVD it ought to be like stealing to pick up 2-3-4 yds on 3rd down.

The silver lining in this is if Mario/Gattis will smarten up and stop trying to run the ball 40-50 times a week with an Oline that can’t block the offense might actually be able to carry the defense cause I don’t think it can be fixed this year.made a little better maybe.Fixed? Nope don’t have the players

But the biggest thing in all this is if Mario and staff can hold this class together as well as fill the class out with good/great players while we are losing cause honestly 7-5 or 6-6 is where we look to be headed and that’s is being being somewhat hopeful as to who we can or can’t beat going forward.

As to the defense well let’s just say it needs A LOT of help and some of Steele’s scheming isn’t helping things a bit.If he continues to just send 4 and is unable to get pressure then UNC won’t be the only one we will have trouble stopping.
 
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good write up.

I actually need to blame gattis less tbh. I think its more of a HC meddling than a sole OC issue based on Marios post game comments. I thought gattis did mostly well to get tvd comfortable and it worked.

UNC is awful on D. we couldn't move the ball on the ground but that didnt shock me bc we can't run consistently against FBS teams this year.

im glad they still fought and glad no one folded. I feel like TVDs start and the offense overall kept the team involved and in it until the D finally forced some turnovers. end of half was great for both players and coaches.

more awful in game decisions that end up hurting us at the end (fumble on the players and wasted timeout on the coaches).

overall, this UNC team isnt good. even their writers said that all week. its just the best offense in the coastal and probably conference but they're not good.

were also not good from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint either.

the biggest question mark going forward is what approach do we take offensively w TVD next week? we know what wrks for him and the WRs and what doesn't. we saw Mario wasn't thrilled having to play this way to stay in a game but the run first 1940 mantra gets your *** blown out by mack ******* brown.

mack brown still owns every coach here
 
The bad: questionable decision making and play calls

Kam Kinchens. Deep safety on cover 2. Rule #1 is let nobody behind you. Huge mental lapse.

1st and goal from the 1. No points. How about a QB sneak?

4th down at midfield. QB draw. Stuffed.

3rd down and 9 on defense. Obviously a passing down. Steele drops Harvey into coverage and they convert which leads to FG. Difference in the game.

Final drive. TVD throws to Skinner who can't get out of bounds. In that situation he should have either thrown the ball away or ran out of bounds himself or thrown the ball to the sidelines where Skinner had to fall out of bounds to catch it Poor coaching and decision making. Never complete a pass for a yard gain in that situation unless you KNOW they're getting out of bounds or the first down. Cost us a chance at tying or winning the game.
 
It’s sad if we come out next week and regress. I take emotion out of this and try to be realistic. I get some people have to use emotion and small picture thinking.
I think you nailed it. I wonder what the blown coverages were about… I’d add the adjustments made on defense were impressive. Miami beat Miami again. I’m an optimist. It just beats the alternative. We have two hard games left, FSU and Clemson. If we keep improving we should drop one of those two. Keep this class together, hammer the portal for our biggest needs at LB, DE and WR.
 
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