- Joined
- Jul 21, 2012
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during the day, i am a corporate and entertainment lawyer (hence the Celia avatar). At night, I am a football fool. However, my eyes work well, still.
As I do every year, a week or two before fall practice commences I re-watch the prior year’s games in preparation for the upcoming season. It refreshes my memory of last year’s improvements and failures and allows me to watch the game without the passion and often anger that skews my initial viewing. Something like re-reading the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Yes the play has a prologue ("Two households both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene . . ." )(If you listen to Giorgio Moroder, you know), the only one of Shakespeare's 37 plays that has a prologue (actually has two).
So here are 10 areas to improve upon after re-viewing last year's games (not in any order of importance)(I won’t mention some obvious things like poor WR play/drops):
1. Special Teams. Manny fixed the punting and kicking problem, but we are still terrible at punt returns and kickoff returns. And whenever Harley did break a decent run, just about every time we got called for holding or blocking in the back. On one particular block in the back where Harley picked up 30-40 years, Knighton pushed a defender in the back literally in front of the ref although Harley was way upfield of defender . This is an area that needs drastic improvement.
2. From Very Good to Elite. King left a ton of throws on the field. A TON. Easy crossing routes in front of the line of scrimmage, come backs and obviously deep ball throws, although he improved on deep balls as the season progressed. He was very good so if he hits on the throws that he should, he can be elite.
3. Dud to Start. We start virtually every game with 2-3 penalties. Every F@cking Game. Every one. This usually leads to negating good plays or it provides the opposing offense with a first down conversion. This is one of the reasons we start slow each game. This needs to get fixed. Fix this and we should start better each game.
4. Tackling. Our tackling remains poor, ****-poor. Lots of missed tackles every single game by everyone and sometimes lazy effort. I’ve seen better tackling at the annual lourdes-carrolton touch football game. Not sure how to fix this problem at this stage.
5. Rushing D Exposed. Our poor defensive formations and the concept of being hyper aggressive are used against us very well by opponents, leading to teams running the ball well, culminating in the UNC annihilation. Our rush D was ranked around 75 last year. Unacceptable. I’m hooping Simpson and Shoop are able to fix this.
6. No Simple Execution. Our execution of simple plays at critical times is poor. The first that comes to mind is the bowl game when we were down 37-34 on our final offensive drive. Perry hits Pope in the stomach, in the stomach, on a bomb at the 10 yard line and Pope drops it. Like that play, we had 3-4 each game, resulting in missed first down conversions and points.
7. Picks. We should have had 1-2 more interceptions per game. None of our defensive players know how to intercept the ball. They don’t know how to make a play on the ball and can’t catch worse a ****. I’m hoping TRob and DVD can teach the DBs how to make plays on D and the take the ball away.
8. Navaughn. He played very little, but when he did we ran the ball a lot behind him and for a reason. He is hard to handle and just his presence will improve the OL a good amount.
9. Lashlee’s Run Calls. Lashlee improved our offense dramatically, the numbers and the eye don’t lie. However, some of his run calls, especially on third down, were atrocious. 10-15 run plays were Enos style bullsh!t. Don’t know what he was thinking.
10. Reminded me of 2017. After watching us barely beat Pitt, Virginia. Virginia Tech and NC St., last year it reminded me a lot of 2017 when all the winning created an illusion that we were good, until Pitt happened. We were a better team in 2020 than in 2017 but we certainly didn’t play that way many times, especially in those four games. We need to play better in easier games and handily beat the teams that are inferior to us.
[bonus point after further reflection]
11. after further thought, we made noodle arm quarterbacks looks like heisman trophy candidates. the UVA quarterback couldnt start at the lourdes carrollton touch football game, but he looked like Dak against us. Same with the NCST QB. reminded me of the Wisconsin bowl games where those quarterbacks looked like All Americans. part of the reason why is that we play such a soft man to man or soft zone coverage (i think coach macho called it spot dropbacks or dropping back into a spot disirregardless (shout out to west kendall) of where the receiver is in your zone)) that they pick us apart. i hope this changes with T Rob and DVD.
Let’s enjoy the season. I think we’ll do better than last year.
("from ancient grudge beak to new mutiny . . . ")
As I do every year, a week or two before fall practice commences I re-watch the prior year’s games in preparation for the upcoming season. It refreshes my memory of last year’s improvements and failures and allows me to watch the game without the passion and often anger that skews my initial viewing. Something like re-reading the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Yes the play has a prologue ("Two households both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene . . ." )(If you listen to Giorgio Moroder, you know), the only one of Shakespeare's 37 plays that has a prologue (actually has two).
So here are 10 areas to improve upon after re-viewing last year's games (not in any order of importance)(I won’t mention some obvious things like poor WR play/drops):
1. Special Teams. Manny fixed the punting and kicking problem, but we are still terrible at punt returns and kickoff returns. And whenever Harley did break a decent run, just about every time we got called for holding or blocking in the back. On one particular block in the back where Harley picked up 30-40 years, Knighton pushed a defender in the back literally in front of the ref although Harley was way upfield of defender . This is an area that needs drastic improvement.
2. From Very Good to Elite. King left a ton of throws on the field. A TON. Easy crossing routes in front of the line of scrimmage, come backs and obviously deep ball throws, although he improved on deep balls as the season progressed. He was very good so if he hits on the throws that he should, he can be elite.
3. Dud to Start. We start virtually every game with 2-3 penalties. Every F@cking Game. Every one. This usually leads to negating good plays or it provides the opposing offense with a first down conversion. This is one of the reasons we start slow each game. This needs to get fixed. Fix this and we should start better each game.
4. Tackling. Our tackling remains poor, ****-poor. Lots of missed tackles every single game by everyone and sometimes lazy effort. I’ve seen better tackling at the annual lourdes-carrolton touch football game. Not sure how to fix this problem at this stage.
5. Rushing D Exposed. Our poor defensive formations and the concept of being hyper aggressive are used against us very well by opponents, leading to teams running the ball well, culminating in the UNC annihilation. Our rush D was ranked around 75 last year. Unacceptable. I’m hooping Simpson and Shoop are able to fix this.
6. No Simple Execution. Our execution of simple plays at critical times is poor. The first that comes to mind is the bowl game when we were down 37-34 on our final offensive drive. Perry hits Pope in the stomach, in the stomach, on a bomb at the 10 yard line and Pope drops it. Like that play, we had 3-4 each game, resulting in missed first down conversions and points.
7. Picks. We should have had 1-2 more interceptions per game. None of our defensive players know how to intercept the ball. They don’t know how to make a play on the ball and can’t catch worse a ****. I’m hoping TRob and DVD can teach the DBs how to make plays on D and the take the ball away.
8. Navaughn. He played very little, but when he did we ran the ball a lot behind him and for a reason. He is hard to handle and just his presence will improve the OL a good amount.
9. Lashlee’s Run Calls. Lashlee improved our offense dramatically, the numbers and the eye don’t lie. However, some of his run calls, especially on third down, were atrocious. 10-15 run plays were Enos style bullsh!t. Don’t know what he was thinking.
10. Reminded me of 2017. After watching us barely beat Pitt, Virginia. Virginia Tech and NC St., last year it reminded me a lot of 2017 when all the winning created an illusion that we were good, until Pitt happened. We were a better team in 2020 than in 2017 but we certainly didn’t play that way many times, especially in those four games. We need to play better in easier games and handily beat the teams that are inferior to us.
[bonus point after further reflection]
11. after further thought, we made noodle arm quarterbacks looks like heisman trophy candidates. the UVA quarterback couldnt start at the lourdes carrollton touch football game, but he looked like Dak against us. Same with the NCST QB. reminded me of the Wisconsin bowl games where those quarterbacks looked like All Americans. part of the reason why is that we play such a soft man to man or soft zone coverage (i think coach macho called it spot dropbacks or dropping back into a spot disirregardless (shout out to west kendall) of where the receiver is in your zone)) that they pick us apart. i hope this changes with T Rob and DVD.
Let’s enjoy the season. I think we’ll do better than last year.
("from ancient grudge beak to new mutiny . . . ")
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