Upon Further Review- Miami vs. FSU (Offense)

Upon Further Review- Miami vs. FSU (Offense)

Lance Roffers
Lance Roffers
Welcome back to Upon Further Review, where we will review the plays from the most recent Miami Hurricanes matchup. This week is the week of weeks; FSU week. If you’ve read my reviews in the past you know that I tend to write them in a way that is free from commentary or opinion, and mostly just what do I see on film. This week will be a little different. This week there will be venom. I will add my opinion and commentary and will leave it out of my portfolio for professional gigs.

This game was an absolute battle and exactly what you love to see in a rivalry game. Both teams played as hard as they could and it was truthfully a vicious game. On to the game.

From the very start both teams were trying to exert their dominance on the other one. Pre-game trash talk from both sides and you could just feel the energy in the stadium.

First play, Boulware and Mahoney are overpowered and knocked backwards. St. Louis can’t control his blocks, his man comes off and combines with Boulware’s man to make a stop after two off-tackle. FSU playing from our side of the LOS on 1st down.
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2nd down we run power with a FB lead and for the most part do the jobs. Gauthier is on the ground, but at least he keeps fighting and gets the block successfully. Gray doesn’t actually make this block at all, but Homer makes the LB miss and picks up decent yards.
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The 3rd throw is a timing pass but the OL gives Perry time and a perfect throwing lane. Perry is throwing this ball as soon as his back-foot hits the ground in a 5-step drop. Once Harley hits the same 5-yard milestone he is to turn this slant in sharply. Ball is slightly behind him but he has to make this catch. Punt. If the ball is thrown out front he might have had something here because he has separation. Should’ve been easy money and is the start of a nightmarish first half for Perry.
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Low punt from Spicer, #39 (Long snapper) gets de-cleated on coverage and Knowles takes a poor angle and lets returner outside. Solid return. (Not pictured)

FSU takes a 7-0 lead.

Burns #99 is their only DL who can really get after the QB with speed. Donaldson struggles with speed at RT. If you’re going to play Donaldson at RT, asking him to handle Burns 1-on-1 all game is a poor strategy. Donaldson barely gets his hands on Burns before he pressures Perry on a completion to Langham on the stop-route.
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Run an inside-give to Dallas off the Read-Option and St. Louis blocks down on the DT with Boulware getting to the second level. St. Louis is completely overpowered here and Dallas makes something out of nothing to get the 1st down.
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1st down was just all kinds of bad. Donaldson is whipped by Burns. Mahoney is immediately beaten inside by Christmas. FSU sends a blitz off the edge and St Louis kicks out to get him. Boulware has to kick out and get this free rusher up top (#21) but doesn’t. Dallas is ready to take the second LB blitzing but by then it’s too late. Perry is swallowed by the rush. The stunt problems return for this OL- especially on the left-side.
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2nd &17 and we do a pretty cool run play. We “trapped” their DT who was just charging upfield all game. Gauthier stepped to his right as if he was pulling and then stopped behind Mahoney. As the DT rushes upfield, Gauthier turns and shoves him further upfield away from the runner. Pulled Brevin around and Donaldson got downfield. Wiggins took this man’s soul on this block (#27). They correctly picked the flag up for a horse collar on this play. It was jersey only and not the inside of the shoulder pads.
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1st down we run inside-zone to Burns’ side and he plays it perfectly. Dallas finishes the run, but gets only 2. 2nd down both T’s get forklifted and shoved back into Perry’s lap off of bulrushes. Perry can’t step into a sideline throw to Thomas and it’s overthrown. (Not pictured)

3rd and 8 and Perry throws a laser where only his man can get it. Cager has this ball perfectly right in his hands here. The CB accepts lots of love but you can see Cager has already dropped this ball even if a defender weren’t there. Instead of a first down in FG range, we have to punt. Cager has to step up and be big. No more excuses.
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Spicer with an awful punt. Please go back to Feagles, who at least has the talent to overcome his issues. (Not pictured)

Punt return and I’m here to pick nits. You cannot run a double returner return and not catch the ball. Dallas is faking as if he’s catching it here but the ball lands right behind him and rolls another 15 yards. Can’t have it. Go catch the ball even if it’s a fair catch. We get the ball at the 18-yard line here.
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We’ve got the OL I want to see us run more of except for subbing Boulware in for Jahair Jones. 78/77/74/55/51

Incomplete on 1st down. Homer for 7 on 2nd. Not shown because it broke in with the Kavanaugh vote results. (Not pictured)

3rd down and Dee Wiggins shows me something. FSU is in press-man on the boundary and Wiggins jab steps outside and then crosses the face of the CB and gets inside him. He catches the slant that Perry throws perfectly, but then gets smacked by this S coming downhill and holds onto the ball for a 1st down. Then gets up and has something to say about it. Big boy stuff.
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FSU has their S’s just flying downfield on running plays. Jahair gets a tough block as the LB tries to get around him, Jones pushes him inside and opens a hole for Homer, who gets 3. S pops him hard. I think that was Brevin’s man but he didn’t have time to get there. (Not pictured)

Run OZ (Outside Zone) and I don’t see how Donaldson gets to this block with Burns flying up-the-field. Scaife has the athleticism to recover after he’s late off-the-ball (he was pointing at a blitzer when the ball was snapped). Homer gets around the edge and gets right to sticks. He has a bigger play if Hightower gets his block.
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QB sneak it for a 1st down. Perry showing a little toughness. (Not pictured)

Donaldson is probably best at G, but it isn’t going to be a magic elixir either. Here he is thrown to the ground by the DT. Dallas sneaks through the hole and look at Wiggins lining up an absolute missile of a crack-back block to free Dallas up to run for a 1st down. Absolutely love the toughness that 8 plays with. Cager needs to start playing with that toughness or this young man is ready to take that spot.
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Jahair Jones tossed to the side by the NT. Donaldson thrown down by #21. He actually tackles Scaife he is thrown so far. TFL. Man’s game.
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We give on outside zone on 2nd down. Donaldson blocks down so hard on the end he knocks him clean to the ground. Brevin is doing his best dead beetle impersonation here. #90 (Christmas) takes Gauthier’s lunch money on this play and pushes him way into the backfield. He then comes off this block and cleans up the tackle downfield. Wiggins at the top of the screen is coming down for another crack-back block but he misses and the LB fills for a tackle after 4.
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Scaife beaten with a speed rush here. Inside spin move gets St. Louis again here. Homer saves a massive shot on Perry from the blitzer, but the edge is inside and closing fast. Perry feels the pressure from his right side and steps up into the vacant area. Would have loved for Donaldson to notice that they sent pressure to the other side and come back over and help crash that blitzer. Awareness as an OL is a big asset if Donaldson can develop it, but he never touched a soul on this play. Feel in the pocket is something that Perry shows and to Scaife’s credit he pushed this rusher wide and allowed Perry to step up and run for a big first down. Almost every drive has a play that makes a huge difference and this one by Perry makes that list.
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I beat them up pretty good, but you have to highlight some good things as well and Miami does a great job of creating a pocket here. St. Louis pushes his man wide, Scaife owns his man, Homer stones a blitzer, Gauthier and Jones have the NT stuck on the LOS, Donaldson is reaching a bit but gives time. This is the first PI that Wiggins draws. Look at this screenshot, Perry is into his motion to throw this ball right now and Wiggins is 8-yards downfield here. The ball lands in the end zone. One of the biggest differences at QB is the ability to throw with touch and anticipation rather than simply throwing lasers.
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You want to be better on the OL you keep this alignment on the right side. Donaldson has put his DT on the ground here. Look at Scaife! Flat back, leverage, playing with power on the edge. #55 looks like he has Jones here, but Jones slides to his right and turns him and there is a lane for Homer to get 6.
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Next play we run IZ again and Jones releases to the 2nd level. If he just makes the block on the LB it is a TD. Instead Jones lunges and completely whiffs on the block and Homer gets 2. St. Louis blocked down so hard it put the DT on the ground. Donaldson pulled and kicked out the edge, Brevin comes around for the MLB, it was there if Jones just makes this block at the 10-yard line. St. Louis looks like he’s falling down because he’s a burying a guy to the turf right on the hash in the middle of the field.
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3rd & 2 and they run a double-LB run blitz. Brevin leads through the hole and has the SAM in the hole and completely whiffs. The LB meets Homer right in the hole. The OL did their job for the most part, but Brevin messed the play up. Homer fumbled but got it back to bring up 4th down. (Not pictured)

Here is the 4th down play. Jones is whipped immediately by #55 and just tossed aside. I wrote earlier about Donaldson not seeing inside pressure when he doesn’t have anyone to block but look at Gauthier save the day here. You can see him coming down to hit #55 here and keep the lane open for Perry to throw. You can see 18 right at the top of the screen and he already has him for the slant once he’s crossed his face like this. This ball is a bullet right on target. TD. Jones needs to buy Gauthier lunch.
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Kick return and Lingard is knocked well out of his lane which opens up a nice return for the KOR. McCloud makes a nice tackle to get him down. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Scaife at OL.

We run IZ and Boulware misses his assignment. St. Louis takes Burns, Boulware tries to go to 2nd level and releases #55. Boulware was supposed to take 55 and Brevin was releasing to the 2nd level. We’ve got some yards if Boulware blocks his man.
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2nd down and Boulware is beaten by 55 immediately. Perry has Harley wide open on the deep corner route. The timing is off because of the rush and Perry throws an inaccurate ball. Perry got a little jittery there with just a little pressure in his face. Boulware gets away with a hold, but Perry has to make this throw.
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You might think that Scaife got beat on this 3rd down play but what happened is FSU runs a stunt, but their intention was never to get #35 to rush the passer, he is absolutely just supposed to hit Scaife in the hip here. It’s almost as if he’s a RB chipping a DE here. #13 loops off of this and tackles Perry after he tries to run. Perry had no chance to run for the 1st here anyway.
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Punt return and this is bad coverage. Homer is down in coverage perfectly but you don’t want to be stacking defenders behind one another (#53 is too far inside but re-traces and makes the tackle). Flag on the play is beside the point on this poor kick coverage. The LS #39 is supposed to be out by the hash here. He drifts as he’s running down and the defender just seals him inside. He’s the big culprit here. With three defenders stuck inside here the returner has an easy lane to break this outside.
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Punt return and McCloud makes a dumb block in the back penalty on their LS. Blatant and right in the open. That’s one thing that would drive me nuts if I were a coach because it’s so easy to avoid. If he makes the tackle, he makes the tackle, but I’ll take my chances with DeeJay Dallas on a LS. 23-yard penalty in the end. (Not pictured)

1st down and we run the double reverse flea-flicker and it was well-covered. The pass is underthrown on purpose but he needs to put a little more air under the ball and Homer can come back to it and make the easy catch. You ask for these plays and you set them up and when you get the chance you just don’t execute. This is a play that a gif would work better for, but it’s impressive that the OL all handled their assignments, Jeff Thomas threw a block on the edge after flipping it back to Perry and Homer makes a great effort. It’s all there but the throw. This is possibly a TD if Perry gets it out another 5 yards because Levonte Taylor is not even aware of where this ball is. I think Homer caught the ball honestly, but being called incomplete on the field made it where they couldn’t overturn it. (Not pictured)

You generally hear that QB’s do not like pressure off-the-edge and that’s how you truly disrupt an elite QB, but that’s not the case with most of them. Most of the time QB’s do not like pressure in their face from the interior of the OL. On this play you see a glimpse of the greatness that Perry can bring. Donaldson is beaten inside at the snap but does a nice job of continuing to work and pushes him wide.
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St. Louis is pushed back by Burns, but is giving Perry time. Perry steps up into the pocket and starts working to his right with his eyes downfield. You saw it often with Rosier that the first sign of pressure and his eyes dropped and he was looking to run. This is a dime to Jeff Thomas the very next play after blowing the flea flicker. Excellent job from Thomas to break off his route and give his QB a target to run to when he breaks the pocket.
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Just a heck of a play by Burns here. St. Louis is beaten off-the-snap but he recovers to push him around the edge. If Perry isn’t throwing the ball at that precise second this isn’t a sack/fumble, but he is and Burns gets one of those long arms on the ball. I’ll be glad when he goes pro. Scaife has had a clean sheet at RT. Side note: The announcer for the game had me in tears. He called the FSU turnover purse making the players look like “Dora the Explorer.” Then after the break when Brock Huard says you called it Dora the Explorer, the guy doubles down and says, “Well, it’s her Sunday bag. It’s her nice one.” I couldn’t laugh when the play happened, but now it’s the best thing I’ve heard a national announcer say on a national broadcast.
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Scaife/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson at OL.

FSU kicks a FG to take a 10-7 lead.

FSU fakes a LB B gap blitz and he steps back at the snap but he is coming. Scaife blocks down and is too eager to do so. Boulware has the block on his own and if Scaife takes the LB here this is a nice gain. Instead the LB runs right into the gap and tackles Dallas after 2.
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Donaldson back at RT and immediately Burns blows a big play up. If Donaldson can just give him another second on this play it is a big play to Dallas. He’s got Mahoney leading out front and all of the defenders running away from this play with Brevin. Donaldson is not a T and it just needs to be accepted. If there is good downfield blocking this even could’ve been a TD. Two defenders over there with three blockers. You know the S would be chasing from backside but one missed tackle might be a house call.
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Donaldson got moved to RG after that play above and we moved Scaife to RT and put St. Louis in at LT. Look at Donaldson immediately bully the DT to the ground and stand over him. Scaife pushes Burns wide and we complete the pass. Harley makes a mistake and doesn’t run this square-in route far enough upfield and when he catches it he’s not quite to the sticks. You can see him on the 1st down line here. He needs to be two-yards further up-the-field when he makes his break. Dugans will be on him about this. Wiggins covered up Brevin on the play anyway, so it would’ve been a penalty if he runs the route better.
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Punt. Homer overruns this one. He’s screaming down the field and is the only one who gets down in position to make a tackle. McCloud here has to do a better job of getting ahead of this blocker so he’s not sealed inside here. Really, we are just too slow and not getting off enough blocks here. Our coverage on punts shouldn’t be Homer or bust. 44-yard return.
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Kickoff is the play that Thomas takes the ball out of the end zone and gets dragged down by his facemask. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson your OL.

FSU takes a 17-7 lead.

1st down we throw the long out to Cager, who has an easy first down if he goes down and catches the low throw. It’s dropped, needs to be caught for sure, but a pretty poor throw.
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Next play is absolutely a ball that Rosier could never have completed. This ball is a missile into the honey spot of the defense between a CB and S and over a nickel CB for good measure. Overturned on review.
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1st down is a screen to Homer and this should’ve been a big play. Gauthier gets there and for some reason he doesn’t block the LB. Instead he just lowers his shoulder into him. Use your arms Tyler! Boulware controls his guy and if Gauthier gets to his guy look at that lane that Homer has behind Gauthier. Homer had a poor run in my mind as he cut this in-between Boulware and Gauthier and gets very little extra.
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Part of being an OT is just understanding blocking and the scheme with which you are in. Donaldson has to know we are going to chip Burns here with Homer, but for some reason he is trailing the entire time instead of being under control here. He overruns it and when Homer chips Burns he actually re-directs him right into the open space to pressure Perry, who has to throw it away. Wish Boulware had noticed it but he’s looking for work to the other side.
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3rd down and #21 just steals Gauthier’s soul on this play. Do you see Homer at the very top of the screen just coming out of his break and Perry feels this pressure and is having to get rid of it now. If he can wait just a half tick longer it’s an easy completion as Homer broke wide open on the out route. Perry throws it early and it’s wide. Not a good throw by Perry.
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The 4th down play I just wasn’t a fan of doing that. Barely midfield, down 10, out of timeouts. You run Dallas onto the field very late coming out of a timeout. Dallas runs out and tells Harley the call and then lines up in the slot. So much confusion on the play. I probably would’ve just punted the ball personally. Boulware obviously believes this is a screen pass or a swing pass to Homer as he releases way downfield already and is trying to get that LB covering Homer. Wiggins does win the slant early but doesn’t press his leverage nearly enough. He flattens out the slant and allows the CB to make up ground and tip the ball away. Wiggins at the bottom of the screen has him beaten right now. That slant has to be a lot sharper into the middle of the field instead of a slant initially and then flattened out later. I’m guessing Perry was expecting that as well because he threw the ball further into the middle of the field and it wouldn’t have been completed against air. It would’ve been a penalty even if we completed it but at least we could’ve punted it then.
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FSU kicks a FG and has a 20-7 lead.

St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson is the OL.

1st down, you can’t take this sack. We run a play-action rollout pass and try to sneak Brevin underneath but they pick it up beautifully. Burns is unblocked on the edge and he’s just a condor out there. Perry tries to avoid him and Burns grabs him. Perry fumbles the ball but it bounces right back up to him. That could’ve been disastrous and we can’t have Perry being loose with the ball. You either have to throw this away when Brevin is covered or hit Homer at the bottom of the screen releasing into a pattern as a check-down. Not sure if there is a LB sitting on the flat over there though.
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2nd down and Boulware is supposed to down block on the DT and Mahoney is supposed to turn this man outside. Both lose their blocks immediately on the IZ run. Mahoney is pushed two yards back and Homer has nowhere to go. I write a lot about taking on blocks and the OL will make the tackle for you a lot of times and Mahoney should get credited with a tackle here.
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3rd down and my goodness what a mess. The left side of the line is perfect. Boulware is passing this stunt off to St. Louis but is giving him a shove to reduce his momentum forward then moving down to Burns who is stunting inside. Gauthier is set to help so the OL protection was obviously slid to Burns’ side (as it should be). Mahoney has #21 and he absolutely destroys him. Donaldson has the LB in case he comes on the blitz (but he backs out). Brevin and Homer have a double team on the edge. The protection is there. This should be a clean pocket. #21 does a beautiful arm-over and runs in and sacks Perry. Donaldson immediately turns and starts yelling at Mahoney as if he blew that one. It seems from his reaction that he expected Mahoney to take him, and he got absolutely beat, but I wish Donaldson had seen the LB back out and immediately hit the DT from the side.
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Really bad punt by Spicer. It hops and rolls and Matthews picks it upback at the 26. Oh Knowles. He is sliding away from the returner here and completely opens up this lane. Why? Why is he running away from the returner and towards other defenders here? He should be going the opposite direction of where he is and forcing the returning towards his help. Amari Carter at the top of your screen gets knocked down and actually blocks #7 to the ground. This punt is defended if Knowles just moves over to the ACC logo. This is a huge mistake by Knowles.
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Down field Bethel and Dallas get completely blocked though and need to get off the blocks and make a tackle. Matthews clearly stepped out-of-bounds twice though. Heel on the first one, toes on the second one. Do better dude standing right there being paid to see these things.
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Down field Bethel and Dallas get completely blocked though and need to get off the blocks and make a tackle. Matthews clearly stepped out-of-bounds twice though. Heel on the first one, toes on the second one. Do better dude standing right there being paid to see these things.
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Comments (59)

St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Donaldson/Scaife as your OL for the first time in the game.

1st down and the edge rusher completely fakes Scaife out. He rushes upfield and fakes an inside move, Scaife sets hard and the edge runs right by him. Scaife never touches him. Rest of the OL does their job and Perry escapes the pocket and picks up a 1st down.
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Run a lead-draw on 1st down to Homer and everyone gets their block, Gray comes down and does enough to get that LB. Might be the best block I’ve seen him make. Brevin gets his guy and Donaldson kicks his man out and Scaife gets his guy, though you’d like to see his head up so he sees what he’s blocking. Get 7 here. Donaldson is so much better at G.
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Next they run a play-action dropoff to Gray and it’s wide open. Excellent block by Homer. That is something that our skill position players all do very well is block. Homer/Dallas and the WR’s really put effort into their blocking and it’s a huge plus for this offense. (Not pictured)

Next play is when Gray gets blown up and as he says later, “has his bell rung.” This LB knocks him flat on his back because he tried to block way too high. Never bends his knees. Look at what the line has done here. If Gray gets this block this is a huge run. Brevin, Boulware, St. Louis have the left-side of the OL completely caved in. Gauthier, Donaldson, and Scaife have their men bullied out. Gray has this LB and if he gets him out of the hole it’s a gash run. LB got up and immediately went looking for Gray and was barking right in his face.
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Tried to run OZ on 2nd down and Gauthier gets blown up by #90. Completely pushed into the running lane. #55 beats St. Louis inside and there is just nothing Homer can do here. Edge is set if he tries to go around Scaife and #11 is long-arming Scaife into oblivion. Something to note is just how good of a job Brevin is doing as a true freshman at blocking. He’s way ahead of where Mallory is as a blocker and that’s a big reason he plays so much. Gauthier and Scaife were badly beaten on this play. Woof.
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3rd down is an inside give to Homer who picks up 4. Brevin is ticked as he walks off the field shaking his head. (Not pictured)

Punt. Good coverage by the punt team. McCloud, Knowles, LS #39, and #7 goes behind the returner in case he lets it bounce to try and keep it out of the end zone. Better job. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Jahair/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson as your OL.

Inside give to Dallas for nothing. (Not pictured)

Next play we finally go into our bag of tricks as things are getting dicey. Dallas takes an OZ look and runs to the sideline. It’s a pass to Dee Wiggins and the young buck gets his second PI of the day in the end zone. (Not pictured)

We run the QB draw out of empty and Perry misses the lane. Mahoney blocks down across the formation and Jones blocks down the other side and open a big lane. Safety comes down but we have Dallas there to block him. Perry has to cut off the hip of Jahair here and behind Dallas and he walks into the end zone.
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2nd down is the lob that is a pretty poor throw by Perry. The one where we have all seen the picture of Wiggins getting his foot down for the catch. Missed by everyone really. (Not pictured)

3rd down and it’s the drop from Cager. Catch. The. Ball. Man. Cager’s biggest problem is he lets the ball get into his body so often. He needs to get his long arms extended and snatch the ball. Go get it young man. Don’t wait for the ball to come to you. No need for him to wait for this ball to come all the way to his body like this. Snatch it and it’s an easy TD. Announcer gives the CB credit but he did nothing here. Cager stands up motioning to run that play back again because he knows he had it easily.
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Notice the difference. TD.
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Same OL.
TD to Thomas. This is a dime, folks. Perry is starting to feel it and so am I. Thomas is at the 9-yard line and not even into his corner portion of his post-corner route at this point and Perry is letting this go. Fakes the post, turns inside to the corner, finds the ball, spins around and catches it, TD. Thomas is a dude. Great pocket OL.
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Sad fans sad.
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FSU shank. They called Nesta for a hold, which is weird because he was the one smashing into the up-men blockers on the punt. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Jahair/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson your OL.

1st down we try to go to block Jahair on the DT, bring Brevin down into Burns and pull St. Louis around to block the LB. Jahair gets immediately jolted back into the backfield and it stops St. Louis from pulling, who runs into Brevin and is tripped up. LB runs in unabated and tackles Dallas for a loss. FSU is sending their LB’s and S’s so hard into the run game we are going to have to hit something downfield to get them to back off some. We simply have not punished them enough for how aggressive they have been in the running game.
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2nd down and Jahair is just whipped right at the snap. Jahair we can’t have this, barely gets a hand on him. Don’t know why Homer misses this though. He needs to have his head on a swivel and come help.
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We make a change after this play at OL. St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Donaldson/Scaife

Scaife then false starts. Next snap and Perry panics. There is no need to be dropping eyes and trying to escape this pocket. This is about as clean a pocket as you could ask for and he’s bailing right when he gets the snap. Throws it away as the spy is crashing down and the outside rusher that Scaife has spins back inside. You weren’t picking up 3rd & 24, but maybe you get better field position.
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Punt. Awful punt by Spicer as he kicks the ball out-of-bounds at the 48. (Not pictured)

OL is back to St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson.

Boulware is beaten immediately by DT and it forces Perry to throw it before he is ready to a wide-open out-route for Thomas.
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2nd down we try the bubble and Burns with his freakish length knocks the pass down. FSU was jumping the route anyway. It might have even been pick-6’d. (Not pictured)

3rd down and it’s the throw of the season. Perry throws a bullet down the seam and Thomas jumps up out of nowhere and plucks the ball. Boulware at LG found work and stole some poor edge defenders soul. Re-watching this right now I have goosebumps. Ric Flair Whooooooooooo!
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Next play. The dagger. Brevin to the house. Perry became my QB. You want pressure. Two throws (IN-A-ROW!!!) Here is your pressure. Single-high S. Flex Brevin out to slot. Earlier in the game they noticed this formation kept them in base defense. See base again and immediately flex Brevin out wide onto a LB. In single-high this is stealing with Brevin on a LB. Run your deep clear out to the other side with Jeff Thomas because you KNOW that S is going to cheat to his side because of his speed. Perry knows where he is going before the snap but he stays calm and looks to Thomas the whole way and moves that S over. Then throws a dime to Brevin who carries the man into the end zone. GO. FREAKING. CRAZY.
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Jeff Thomas with a huge return on the punt. Thomas runs outside and three defenders pursue and two get out of their lane, Thomas reverses field and Wiggins crack backs and blocks two dudes at once. Dallas then gets another crack-back block and seals the edge for Thomas who gets almost to midfield.

78/50/74/62/55 as OL again.

IZ and Homer gets 3. On 2nd we run OZ and he gets 5. 3rd & 2. On 3rd down it was if they had our play call because we tried to slant right and run Homer off-tackle and the LB is hitting the gap before Boulware had a chance. OL didn’t get enough push and Homer had no chance. (Not pictured)

Punt was poor. Very short. (Not pictured)

Punt return by Dallas was huge. While we might bemoan the struggles of our ST’s in this game, the last two returns- when they really mattered- they came through. McCloud, Knowles, Blades all got nice blocks. (Not pictured)

Jahair in at LG and Boulware over to RG.

Sit down Mr. LB. Travis Homer with the hit stick. “How do those shoulder pads taste.” Each announcer with a zinger today.
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1st down and Boulware was blown up. No gain. 2nd down and Perry is pressured immediately. Brevin wouldn’t have had any gain anyway. (Not pictured)

3rd down and ball is a little low. It’s down in the belt buckle for Cager and he really struggles with going low to make catches. We’ve seen that during his time here. If he catches it, he scores. If the ball is up just a tick, he scores. Cager lets the ball into his body way too often. Just hands catch the ball and he would be much more consistent.
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Bubba misses the kick. Woof. (Not pictured)

78/50/74/62/55 is the final OL grouping.

Miami grinds the clock out on the next possession and FSU never gets another chance. Miami could’ve scored another TD at the end but showed intelligent mercy and downed the ball. Drive before a TD was dropped by Cager as well. In reality, while the score was 1-point, there was no doubting who the far superior team was in this game. They completely destroyed the FSU offense in the 2nd half and much of what they did get was when we had a bit of a 2nd-string defense into the game. We never saw that again after that drive that had some near-misses.

OL is now officially in flux. We played seven different combinations of linemen in this game. Every player shuffled or went out of the game except for Gauthier at C. Boulware had a tough game. Jahair had a tough game. Mahoney had a tough game. Scaife had a tough game. St. Louis gave up a sack/fumble. Donaldson at G was really our best lineman in this game. He was pretty poor at RT, but got better there as the game went along. Time to settle on a set lineup here.

Wiggins didn’t catch many passes in the game, but he was just huge in drawing three pass interference penalties. Thomas was a man in this game. I thought he was out for the season and he made about 5 huge plays after that injury. Jaquan is a difference maker on this defense.

But, above all else, we have a QB. Perry made some throws under duress that were the kind of throws that can lead you to championships. The future is bright young man.

For the coaches; Richt has had a lot of trouble winning big games in his career. Keep in mind it’s hard to win games against good teams, but in this one he was absolutely not afraid. We went for it on 4th down repeatedly. He simply didn’t want FG’s in this game. First TD came on 4th down. Second TD came on 4th down. We went for it on 4th down just before halftime. We went for it on 4th down with 2:13 to go in the game when a FG means only a TD can beat you. My point is that Coach Richt was not one bit afraid in this game. Does he need to diversify his offense? Yes, I believe he does. Do we need to settle on an OL and play them to get consistency? Yes, he does. That OL had better not include Jahair Jones either. Here he is getting yelled at for missing another assignment on the run that Homer bounced outside and got the game sealing 1st down.
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But I saw some glimpses of what this team and program can become in this game. The defense is already there, the offense has some work to do. What a win, fellas. Thank you for how hard you played in this game.

Finally, thank you to this young man. Ahmonn Richards gave his career to this team and this program and this game. At the end of the game, in spite of all that, he’s the first one to find Perry and give him love.
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Good **** my guy, thanks for this stuff.

7 different OL combos is crazy. Has anyone asked Rix or Searels why they do that?
 
Why does jones keeping getting in? I think every time you mentioned him in the line up he was getting beat!
 
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I'm baffled why they keep chopping and changing the Oline.

Especially as they're clearly observing it in real-time - as you've shown by Donaldson being blown up at RT on the first play of a drive then shifted inside to RG. They simply must have promised him a shot at playing OT because there's no other reason to put him out there. He's far too slow.
 
OL is just painful. Bad recruiting.
Bad recruiting by the last guy - it takes a couple of years for most high schoolers to get their body right to play Oline at the college level.

We know Donaldson is a stud OG. Scaife is looking like a very good OT. We're all high on Reed and Gaynor. It's being addressed.
 
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Bad recruiting by the last guy - it takes a couple of years for most high schoolers to get their body right to play Oline at the college level.

We know Donaldson is a stud OG. Scaife is looking like a very good OT. We're all high on Reed and Gaynor. It's being addressed.

Richt has done a poor job as well. None of the OL from 2016 are contributing, only one from 17. Yeah it takes guys a few years sometimes..but our talented OL recruits are immediately better than guys like Jahair Jones and Mahoney. We should have taken 4 or 5 last year and of course we need to land better recruits at the position too. Zach Dykstra doesn’t help.
 
Richt has done a poor job as well. None of the OL from 2016 are contributing, only one from 17. Yeah it takes guys a few years sometimes..but our talented OL recruits are immediately better than guys like Jahair Jones and Mahoney. We should have taken 4 or 5 last year and of course we need to land better recruits at the position too. Zach Dykstra doesn’t help.
Yup! Only future starters we have for sure right now are Gaynor, Reed, and Scaife. By your second full class you should be able to say you have 5-6 guys who could start.
 
Richt has done a poor job as well. None of the OL from 2016 are contributing, only one from 17. Yeah it takes guys a few years sometimes..but our talented OL recruits are immediately better than guys like Jahair Jones and Mahoney. We should have taken 4 or 5 last year and of course we need to land better recruits at the position too. Zach Dykstra doesn’t help.
We only got one OL in 2016 - that was Richt's first year here. He had to salvage a recruiting class.

I think we've been a little light at OT the last couple of years, but if Scaife can play OT then that fixes a lot of those recruiting misses.

I've no idea how good Dykstra is - I'm not ready to write him off just yet.
 
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thanks again for your hard work and dedication it is appreciated. i've watched the game several times and have a few observations. our center and guards all got thrown around like rag dolls by the DTs. i don't know enough whether it is faulty technique or lack of upper body strength, but it is concerning. they look weak and easily beatable. our OTs are not quick enough to impede the speed rush. they are improving, but they are far from championship caliber.
 
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St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Donaldson/Scaife as your OL for the first time in the game.

1st down and the edge rusher completely fakes Scaife out. He rushes upfield and fakes an inside move, Scaife sets hard and the edge runs right by him. Scaife never touches him. Rest of the OL does their job and Perry escapes the pocket and picks up a 1st down.
View attachment 66049

Run a lead-draw on 1st down to Homer and everyone gets their block, Gray comes down and does enough to get that LB. Might be the best block I’ve seen him make. Brevin gets his guy and Donaldson kicks his man out and Scaife gets his guy, though you’d like to see his head up so he sees what he’s blocking. Get 7 here. Donaldson is so much better at G.
View attachment 66050

Next they run a play-action dropoff to Gray and it’s wide open. Excellent block by Homer. That is something that our skill position players all do very well is block. Homer/Dallas and the WR’s really put effort into their blocking and it’s a huge plus for this offense. (Not pictured)

Next play is when Gray gets blown up and as he says later, “has his bell rung.” This LB knocks him flat on his back because he tried to block way too high. Never bends his knees. Look at what the line has done here. If Gray gets this block this is a huge run. Brevin, Boulware, St. Louis have the left-side of the OL completely caved in. Gauthier, Donaldson, and Scaife have their men bullied out. Gray has this LB and if he gets him out of the hole it’s a gash run. LB got up and immediately went looking for Gray and was barking right in his face.
View attachment 66051

Tried to run OZ on 2nd down and Gauthier gets blown up by #90. Completely pushed into the running lane. #55 beats St. Louis inside and there is just nothing Homer can do here. Edge is set if he tries to go around Scaife and #11 is long-arming Scaife into oblivion. Something to note is just how good of a job Brevin is doing as a true freshman at blocking. He’s way ahead of where Mallory is as a blocker and that’s a big reason he plays so much. Gauthier and Scaife were badly beaten on this play. Woof.
View attachment 66052

3rd down is an inside give to Homer who picks up 4. Brevin is ticked as he walks off the field shaking his head. (Not pictured)

Punt. Good coverage by the punt team. McCloud, Knowles, LS #39, and #7 goes behind the returner in case he lets it bounce to try and keep it out of the end zone. Better job. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Jahair/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson as your OL.

Inside give to Dallas for nothing. (Not pictured)

Next play we finally go into our bag of tricks as things are getting dicey. Dallas takes an OZ look and runs to the sideline. It’s a pass to Dee Wiggins and the young buck gets his second PI of the day in the end zone. (Not pictured)

We run the QB draw out of empty and Perry misses the lane. Mahoney blocks down across the formation and Jones blocks down the other side and open a big lane. Safety comes down but we have Dallas there to block him. Perry has to cut off the hip of Jahair here and behind Dallas and he walks into the end zone.
View attachment 66053

2nd down is the lob that is a pretty poor throw by Perry. The one where we have all seen the picture of Wiggins getting his foot down for the catch. Missed by everyone really. (Not pictured)

3rd down and it’s the drop from Cager. Catch. The. Ball. Man. Cager’s biggest problem is he lets the ball get into his body so often. He needs to get his long arms extended and snatch the ball. Go get it young man. Don’t wait for the ball to come to you. No need for him to wait for this ball to come all the way to his body like this. Snatch it and it’s an easy TD. Announcer gives the CB credit but he did nothing here. Cager stands up motioning to run that play back again because he knows he had it easily.
View attachment 66054

Notice the difference. TD.
View attachment 66055

Same OL.
TD to Thomas. This is a dime, folks. Perry is starting to feel it and so am I. Thomas is at the 9-yard line and not even into his corner portion of his post-corner route at this point and Perry is letting this go. Fakes the post, turns inside to the corner, finds the ball, spins around and catches it, TD. Thomas is a dude. Great pocket OL.
View attachment 66056

Sad fans sad.
View attachment 66057

FSU shank. They called Nesta for a hold, which is weird because he was the one smashing into the up-men blockers on the punt. (Not pictured)

St. Louis/Jahair/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson your OL.

1st down we try to go to block Jahair on the DT, bring Brevin down into Burns and pull St. Louis around to block the LB. Jahair gets immediately jolted back into the backfield and it stops St. Louis from pulling, who runs into Brevin and is tripped up. LB runs in unabated and tackles Dallas for a loss. FSU is sending their LB’s and S’s so hard into the run game we are going to have to hit something downfield to get them to back off some. We simply have not punished them enough for how aggressive they have been in the running game.
View attachment 66058

2nd down and Jahair is just whipped right at the snap. Jahair we can’t have this, barely gets a hand on him. Don’t know why Homer misses this though. He needs to have his head on a swivel and come help.
View attachment 66059

We make a change after this play at OL. St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Donaldson/Scaife

Scaife then false starts. Next snap and Perry panics. There is no need to be dropping eyes and trying to escape this pocket. This is about as clean a pocket as you could ask for and he’s bailing right when he gets the snap. Throws it away as the spy is crashing down and the outside rusher that Scaife has spins back inside. You weren’t picking up 3rd & 24, but maybe you get better field position.
View attachment 66060

Punt. Awful punt by Spicer as he kicks the ball out-of-bounds at the 48. (Not pictured)

OL is back to St. Louis/Boulware/Gauthier/Mahoney/Donaldson.

Boulware is beaten immediately by DT and it forces Perry to throw it before he is ready to a wide-open out-route for Thomas.
View attachment 66061

2nd down we try the bubble and Burns with his freakish length knocks the pass down. FSU was jumping the route anyway. It might have even been pick-6’d. (Not pictured)

3rd down and it’s the throw of the season. Perry throws a bullet down the seam and Thomas jumps up out of nowhere and plucks the ball. Boulware at LG found work and stole some poor edge defenders soul. Re-watching this right now I have goosebumps. Ric Flair Whooooooooooo!
View attachment 66062

Next play. The dagger. Brevin to the house. Perry became my QB. You want pressure. Two throws (IN-A-ROW!!!) Here is your pressure. Single-high S. Flex Brevin out to slot. Earlier in the game they noticed this formation kept them in base defense. See base again and immediately flex Brevin out wide onto a LB. In single-high this is stealing with Brevin on a LB. Run your deep clear out to the other side with Jeff Thomas because you KNOW that S is going to cheat to his side because of his speed. Perry knows where he is going before the snap but he stays calm and looks to Thomas the whole way and moves that S over. Then throws a dime to Brevin who carries the man into the end zone. GO. FREAKING. CRAZY.
View attachment 66063

Jeff Thomas with a huge return on the punt. Thomas runs outside and three defenders pursue and two get out of their lane, Thomas reverses field and Wiggins crack backs and blocks two dudes at once. Dallas then gets another crack-back block and seals the edge for Thomas who gets almost to midfield.

78/50/74/62/55 as OL again.

IZ and Homer gets 3. On 2nd we run OZ and he gets 5. 3rd & 2. On 3rd down it was if they had our play call because we tried to slant right and run Homer off-tackle and the LB is hitting the gap before Boulware had a chance. OL didn’t get enough push and Homer had no chance. (Not pictured)

Punt was poor. Very short. (Not pictured)

Punt return by Dallas was huge. While we might bemoan the struggles of our ST’s in this game, the last two returns- when they really mattered- they came through. McCloud, Knowles, Blades all got nice blocks. (Not pictured)

Jahair in at LG and Boulware over to RG.

Sit down Mr. LB. Travis Homer with the hit stick. “How do those shoulder pads taste.” Each announcer with a zinger today.
View attachment 66064

1st down and Boulware was blown up. No gain. 2nd down and Perry is pressured immediately. Brevin wouldn’t have had any gain anyway. (Not pictured)

3rd down and ball is a little low. It’s down in the belt buckle for Cager and he really struggles with going low to make catches. We’ve seen that during his time here. If he catches it, he scores. If the ball is up just a tick, he scores. Cager lets the ball into his body way too often. Just hands catch the ball and he would be much more consistent.
View attachment 66065

Bubba misses the kick. Woof. (Not pictured)

78/50/74/62/55 is the final OL grouping.

Miami grinds the clock out on the next possession and FSU never gets another chance. Miami could’ve scored another TD at the end but showed intelligent mercy and downed the ball. Drive before a TD was dropped by Cager as well. In reality, while the score was 1-point, there was no doubting who the far superior team was in this game. They completely destroyed the FSU offense in the 2nd half and much of what they did get was when we had a bit of a 2nd-string defense into the game. We never saw that again after that drive that had some near-misses.

OL is now officially in flux. We played seven different combinations of linemen in this game. Every player shuffled or went out of the game except for Gauthier at C. Boulware had a tough game. Jahair had a tough game. Mahoney had a tough game. Scaife had a tough game. St. Louis gave up a sack/fumble. Donaldson at G was really our best lineman in this game. He was pretty poor at RT, but got better there as the game went along. Time to settle on a set lineup here.

Wiggins didn’t catch many passes in the game, but he was just huge in drawing three pass interference penalties. Thomas was a man in this game. I thought he was out for the season and he made about 5 huge plays after that injury. Jaquan is a difference maker on this defense.

But, above all else, we have a QB. Perry made some throws under duress that were the kind of throws that can lead you to championships. The future is bright young man.

For the coaches; Richt has had a lot of trouble winning big games in his career. Keep in mind it’s hard to win games against good teams, but in this one he was absolutely not afraid. We went for it on 4th down repeatedly. He simply didn’t want FG’s in this game. First TD came on 4th down. Second TD came on 4th down. We went for it on 4th down just before halftime. We went for it on 4th down with 2:13 to go in the game when a FG means only a TD can beat you. My point is that Coach Richt was not one bit afraid in this game. Does he need to diversify his offense? Yes, I believe he does. Do we need to settle on an OL and play them to get consistency? Yes, he does. That OL had better not include Jahair Jones either. Here he is getting yelled at for missing another assignment on the run that Homer bounced outside and got the game sealing 1st down.
View attachment 66066

But I saw some glimpses of what this team and program can become in this game. The defense is already there, the offense has some work to do. What a win, fellas. Thank you for how hard you played in this game.

Finally, thank you to this young man. Ahmonn Richards gave his career to this team and this program and this game. At the end of the game, in spite of all that, he’s the first one to find Perry and give him love.
View attachment 66067

If Cager catches with his hands or Jahir Jones and Mahoney aren't so badly beaten all the time, does Richt still need to "diversify his offense"?
 
If Cager catches with his hands or Jahir Jones and Mahoney aren't so badly beaten all the time, does Richt still need to "diversify his offense"?

There is definitely something to the basic excellence of the offense that Richt runs. Execution will make most plays work, of course, but personally I think we could do a better job of scheming things open and making the QB’s job easier with motion and route concepts. I’d like to see more option routes as well.

We did that a lot with Njoku, so perhaps Richt doesn’t believe we have the personnel to do some of the same things. Perhaps he’s being conservative with true freshmen playing at certain spots.

Like most things, there are multiple sides to the decision making. If there weren’t it’d be an easy decision, right?
 
There is definitely something to the basic excellence of the offense that Richt runs. Execution will make most plays work, of course, but personally I think we could do a better job of scheming things open and making the QB’s job easier with motion and route concepts. I’d like to see more option routes as well.

We did that a lot with Njoku, so perhaps Richt doesn’t believe we have the personnel to do some of the same things. Perhaps he’s being conservative with true freshmen playing at certain spots.

Like most things, there are multiple sides to the decision making. If there weren’t it’d be an easy decision, right?


But if the OL plays the way it does none of that matters. You can't get **** until you conquer the basics, and I think that's what holds back "Richt's playbook". That said, Richt does some **** blocking schemes like the play where we “trapped” their DT with Gauthier and pulled Brevin.

It's easy to say Richt needs to scheme things up, the way most lay people do, but after this meticulous breakdown where you demonstrate glaring repetitive execution errors by the OL that would limit any play-caller, I'm just surprised you'd fall back into the superficial motion/scheme/we need an OC narrative because every play doesn't work to perfection. It seems like the nature of "upon further review" is to gently show lay folk the nuances so they understand "execution will make most plays work".
 
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