An evidence-based review of our L vs TAMU (via images)

[AK_Cane]

Just finished a play by play game review. Not sure I'm interested in debating some of the narratives out there right now. Have seen a ton of confirmation bias as reactions and I'm trying my best to avoid the same. I *am* interested in trying to keep things to facts. Going to do my best to avoid leaps of logic and keep this to plain observations. Open to your help, too. Will focus mostly on the offense.

We gained 392 yards.
We ran 77 plays.
We averaged 5.1 yards/play. (that's around 80th in the NCAA, which lines up with about the rest of our year so far)
We were 5/14 on 3rd down conversions (that's about 36%, which is in the 70s).
We were 0/1 on 4th down conversions.

Here's what I found (click the thumbnails for larger view):

View attachment 208699

- Had to add this to a mostly "offensive" review of the game. Ivey takes a lot of heat when he's lackadaisical or his instincts fail him. He personally got us off the field twice last night. On two big 3rd downs, he played an in-breaking WR aggressively, used his long arm, and made plays. Let's keep the same energy on good and bad. He deserves credit for perhaps his best game as a Cane.

View attachment 208700

- Not necessarily "offense," but this PR made the list. Stevenson made an awful play here. It happens. I'm not sure why it was such a surprise. Despite his age and leadership, he made some risky punt return decisions (didn't he jump to catch one?) last week.

View attachment 208701

- I contemplated making "DROPS" a thread of its own. Here's one of the two clearest and most impactful of the game. Parrish made a mistake. It happens, too. Unfortunately, this one cost us a bunch as you can see by how the field was setup. For all the gripes about Gattis' RZ playcalling and overall approach, this was one of his very slick calls.

On the DROPS TOPIC, there was another obvious one: BSmith's to end the game. Other than that, I counted Key Smith on a crossing route where TVD had two LBs blitzing and threw the ball slightly high, though it's unclear on re-watch if the pass was broken up by the DB or just bounced off Key's hands. Parrish also had a possible "drop" on the last series on an angle route, though again it may be argued as a PBU by a defender. Even if we count those, that's 4. Are people counting the 16 yard completion as a drop because Key Smith might have let it slip on that under throw? It was counted as a reception.

**Plainly, I could not collect matching data to the "6-8" drops most people are claiming on the board. If you can help me identify them, maybe we can increase substantive, fact-based discussions.**

@cway313 has identified Redding drops. I don't have video/image confirmation yet, but will correct as the info becomes available. Again, just trying to keep it 100.

View attachment 208704

- Again, not "offense," but points-related. This blocked FG hurt.

View attachment 208705

- Without a headset or being inside the film room, difficult to fully say what the heck happened on this play. George comes across the formation on a crosser that he turns upfield (doesn't appear by design, but who knows). TVD locks in and gives the Safety ample time to get all the way across and disrupt the play. Did George get lost with the ball in the air? Should TVD have thrown George open toward the sideline? I read people called George lazy or soft on this play, and maybe that's true, but it looked like a sloppy mess if you watch the entire play closely.

View attachment 208706

- Don't know who you "blame" on this, necessarily. Saw another poster mention this is on Key Smith for being "soft." Thought that was a weird accusation, as this play ended up as an incompletion Key Smith essentially never touched. TVD threw the ball before the break and the timing was just completely off. This is more about expecting TVD and Key Smith to have this rapport to throw a precise, timing-based route.

View attachment 208707

- This play design was intended for a big vertical play. Key Smith feigns the run action/block and then takes off. TVD rolls right and just misses. Yes, Key Smith "touched" the ball. Not sure if people are counting this is as drop. He literally is horizontal while diving and nips it with one hand. The ball, as the announcers noted, was not given a lot of air/touch. Whose "fault?"

For the record, let me be clear that I don't think our WRs are "good." Clearly, they're not good enough to do what we need. I just like to keep things to facts and evidence. Where they struggle MORE seems to be in creating separation or scaring defenders to provide cushion. To me, that's an unreasonable ask of a bunch of WRs of whom have maybe 1-2 speed guys. More realistically, we have to scheme them open and, if they THEN drop the ball (like the last play), they deserve the "wrath."

View attachment 208708

- A play that's been highly debated already. Some say this "designed" TVD run was a mess of a call. I saw a couple people get on other posters claiming it was an RPO and therefore a bad decision. Let's be absolutely clear, if this was an RPO, there was no pass option TVD looked at...ever. No one on the boundary side, where TVD's eyes flow to, went out for a pass. If this was an option, it was a zone read and TVD kept it.

View attachment 208709

- Here's clearer proof of the above note. On the field side (to the right), we have two receivers. TVD ends up keeping this and running to his left.

View attachment 208710

- Another highly "debated" play. Some say this was a "drop" by Redding. The announcers laid the blame on the OL. Both of those perspectives, live and on re-watch, seem like reaches. This was a beautifully designed clear-out play to get Redding running free. The OL held their own for a nice few ticks here. I consider this incompletion a big miss by TVD - who could have put a tiny bit more air or just thrown a more accurate pass. This was likely a game changing play.

View attachment 208712

- If people want to gripe about a significant limitation of our offense beyond not having enough speed at WR, I think 1b is that our WRs often are "body catchers." While this play above may not be the perfect example because there is a closing defender (which often makes WRs shield and collect the ball with their bodies), I'm using it as an example of how little I see our WRs extend their arms and snatch the ball with their hands. I guess George does it sometimes, from what I've seen. We need more of it.

View attachment 208713

- Because I'm explicitly trying to keep this factual, everyone should give Gattis credit here for the play design. Beautiful clear out to isolate Mallory on a crossing route.

View attachment 208714

- My issue with the result is the same I said in this thread: https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/elijah-arroyo-vs-tamu.179806/. And, in other places. I think these plays are better suited for Arroyo. Once Mallory out ran the out-leveraged defender (by design), he had a one on one. He couldn't win it, unfortunately, and the play's chunk got limited. Kudos to Mallory for coming back in after getting banged up. I still think this is a play we should try with the player who can more likely win an athletic matchup downfield.

View attachment 208715

- Our offense will continue to be widely debated. Including in this thread, I imagine. I'm asking for more of this for TVD. This was a quick out to George, who had been given significant cushion by an inside defender. TVD apparently needs quicker throws. Talked about that after last week's game re: RPOs. This was a nice throw and gain.

View attachment 208716

- This is obviously NOT an image of the drop to seal the game. Instead, this is a dink on a key 3rd down. What I didn't understand is why many posters saw this as a limitation of our WR? The ball was thrown directly into a zone defender. There wasn't anywhere to go. We had some really good man coverages busters during the game, but missed a few chances to bust zone coverages. TAMU was happy to sit there a few times and let us limit ourselves.

Ok, on to the discussion and I can give my own conclusions later.

Body catching was what I took out of this. I will never understand that for we'll over a decade we can't get a receiver to use their **** hands and attack the ball. So frustrating

 

[NC_Canes_11]

We had like 5 drives over 10 plays, including a 16 play drive that started from our 1.

Agree on the low margin for error, generally speaking. But despite that we had a single 3 & out, iirc.

This is what gave me pause on my criticism of Gattis. Overall the scheme does not fit TVD or our receivers, but he proved me wrong on being able to sustain multiple drives. (But Let’s not forget 2 targeting penalties that kept 2 drives alive.) Redzone still sucks, but the running game was great.

My biggest concern is playing from behind. The defense looked great, but I can’t remember one pass that traveled over 15 yards downfield. Everybody we play in the ACC will attack us like USM did (with much more talent), not A&M. Secondary still needs to get much better, or we will be in dogfights. IMO the small margin for error will come back to bite us again.

 

[rascon]

Just finished a play by play game review. Not sure I'm interested in debating some of the narratives out there right now. Have seen a ton of confirmation bias as reactions and I'm trying my best to avoid the same. I *am* interested in trying to keep things to facts. Going to do my best to avoid leaps of logic and keep this to plain observations. Open to your help, too. Will focus mostly on the offense.

We gained 392 yards.
We ran 77 plays.
We averaged 5.1 yards/play. (that's around 80th in the NCAA, which lines up with about the rest of our year so far)
We were 5/14 on 3rd down conversions (that's about 36%, which is in the 70s).
We were 0/1 on 4th down conversions.

Here's what I found (click the thumbnails for larger view):

View attachment 208699

- Had to add this to a mostly "offensive" review of the game. Ivey takes a lot of heat when he's lackadaisical or his instincts fail him. He personally got us off the field twice last night. On two big 3rd downs, he played an in-breaking WR aggressively, used his long arm, and made plays. Let's keep the same energy on good and bad. He deserves credit for perhaps his best game as a Cane.

View attachment 208700

- Not necessarily "offense," but this PR made the list. Stevenson made an awful play here. It happens. I'm not sure why it was such a surprise. Despite his age and leadership, he made some risky punt return decisions (didn't he jump to catch one?) last week.

View attachment 208701

- I contemplated making "DROPS" a thread of its own. Here's one of the two clearest and most impactful of the game. Parrish made a mistake. It happens, too. Unfortunately, this one cost us a bunch as you can see by how the field was setup. For all the gripes about Gattis' RZ playcalling and overall approach, this was one of his very slick calls.

On the DROPS TOPIC, there was another obvious one: BSmith's to end the game. Other than that, I counted Key Smith on a crossing route where TVD had two LBs blitzing and threw the ball slightly high, though it's unclear on re-watch if the pass was broken up by the DB or just bounced off Key's hands. Parrish also had a possible "drop" on the last series on an angle route, though again it may be argued as a PBU by a defender. Even if we count those, that's 4. Are people counting the 16 yard completion as a drop because Key Smith might have let it slip on that under throw? It was counted as a reception.

**Plainly, I could not collect matching data to the "6-8" drops most people are claiming on the board. If you can help me identify them, maybe we can increase substantive, fact-based discussions.**

@cway313 has identified Redding drops. I don't have video/image confirmation yet, but will correct as the info becomes available. Again, just trying to keep it 100.

View attachment 208704

- Again, not "offense," but points-related. This blocked FG hurt.

View attachment 208705

- Without a headset or being inside the film room, difficult to fully say what the heck happened on this play. George comes across the formation on a crosser that he turns upfield (doesn't appear by design, but who knows). TVD locks in and gives the Safety ample time to get all the way across and disrupt the play. Did George get lost with the ball in the air? Should TVD have thrown George open toward the sideline? I read people called George lazy or soft on this play, and maybe that's true, but it looked like a sloppy mess if you watch the entire play closely.

View attachment 208706

- Don't know who you "blame" on this, necessarily. Saw another poster mention this is on Key Smith for being "soft." Thought that was a weird accusation, as this play ended up as an incompletion Key Smith essentially never touched. TVD threw the ball before the break and the timing was just completely off. This is more about expecting TVD and Key Smith to have this rapport to throw a precise, timing-based route.

View attachment 208707

- This play design was intended for a big vertical play. Key Smith feigns the run action/block and then takes off. TVD rolls right and just misses. Yes, Key Smith "touched" the ball. Not sure if people are counting this is as drop. He literally is horizontal while diving and nips it with one hand. The ball, as the announcers noted, was not given a lot of air/touch. Whose "fault?"

For the record, let me be clear that I don't think our WRs are "good." Clearly, they're not good enough to do what we need. I just like to keep things to facts and evidence. Where they struggle MORE seems to be in creating separation or scaring defenders to provide cushion. To me, that's an unreasonable ask of a bunch of WRs of whom have maybe 1-2 speed guys. More realistically, we have to scheme them open and, if they THEN drop the ball (like the last play), they deserve the "wrath."

View attachment 208708

- A play that's been highly debated already. Some say this "designed" TVD run was a mess of a call. I saw a couple people get on other posters claiming it was an RPO and therefore a bad decision. Let's be absolutely clear, if this was an RPO, there was no pass option TVD looked at...ever. No one on the boundary side, where TVD's eyes flow to, went out for a pass. If this was an option, it was a zone read and TVD kept it.

View attachment 208709

- Here's clearer proof of the above note. On the field side (to the right), we have two receivers. TVD ends up keeping this and running to his left.

View attachment 208710

- Another highly "debated" play. Some say this was a "drop" by Redding. The announcers laid the blame on the OL. Both of those perspectives, live and on re-watch, seem like reaches. This was a beautifully designed clear-out play to get Redding running free. The OL held their own for a nice few ticks here. I consider this incompletion a big miss by TVD - who could have put a tiny bit more air or just thrown a more accurate pass. This was likely a game changing play.

View attachment 208712

- If people want to gripe about a significant limitation of our offense beyond not having enough speed at WR, I think 1b is that our WRs often are "body catchers." While this play above may not be the perfect example because there is a closing defender (which often makes WRs shield and collect the ball with their bodies), I'm using it as an example of how little I see our WRs extend their arms and snatch the ball with their hands. I guess George does it sometimes, from what I've seen. We need more of it.

View attachment 208713

- Because I'm explicitly trying to keep this factual, everyone should give Gattis credit here for the play design. Beautiful clear out to isolate Mallory on a crossing route.

View attachment 208714

- My issue with the result is the same I said in this thread: https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/elijah-arroyo-vs-tamu.179806/. And, in other places. I think these plays are better suited for Arroyo. Once Mallory out ran the out-leveraged defender (by design), he had a one on one. He couldn't win it, unfortunately, and the play's chunk got limited. Kudos to Mallory for coming back in after getting banged up. I still think this is a play we should try with the player who can more likely win an athletic matchup downfield.

View attachment 208715

- Our offense will continue to be widely debated. Including in this thread, I imagine. I'm asking for more of this for TVD. This was a quick out to George, who had been given significant cushion by an inside defender. TVD apparently needs quicker throws. Talked about that after last week's game re: RPOs. This was a nice throw and gain.

View attachment 208716

- This is obviously NOT an image of the drop to seal the game. Instead, this is a dink on a key 3rd down. What I didn't understand is why many posters saw this as a limitation of our WR? The ball was thrown directly into a zone defender. There wasn't anywhere to go. We had some really good man coverages busters during the game, but missed a few chances to bust zone coverages. TAMU was happy to sit there a few times and let us limit ourselves.

Ok, on to the discussion and I can give my own conclusions later.

Great observations.
Gattis should tweak and scheme more plays for 1 or 2 wrs with others clearing or serving as eye candy. Shallow crosses, angle/option routes out of the backfield are there for the taking, with or without play action.

And so right about not having any ball snatchers. Too many body catchers.

 

[ZuCrew]

From what I saw, it was I feared... I'm not ready to give up on the man yet but I scanned the Michigan boards a while back and the reoccurring sentiment that came up was the Gattis wasn't totally responsible for the playbook the year they made the playoff. 3 game in, I'm starting to see some smoke. I wasn't a fan of the play calling deep in the redzone. While I the WR's are officially the "weakness" of the team. I would have liked to see more trust placed on their end instead of a run plays on 3rd and long. We ain't there yet personnel wise to call those kind of plays. I'm going to reserve judgment until midseason but the play calling need to air it out more. We could have definitely won this game had we made better decision play wise and given the WR's a fighting chance.

 

[5Rings&an Asterisk]

That was a very winnable game against an overrated team and we lost in part because we played too conservative. We spotted them a td on that muffed punt. Mario was determined to run the ball, but that affected Van Dyke and the receivers from finding a rhythm. I get a Brock Berlin like vibe from Van Dyke. Berlin needed to be in the shotgun. Van Dyke was inconsistent last week until the two minute drive at the end of the half. Van Dyke was better in that fourth quarter when we started putting the ball up a more. Not great. He missed a couple, but he seemed a little better.

 

[IndayArtHauz]

This is what gave me pause on my criticism of Gattis. Overall the scheme does not fit TVD or our receivers, but he proved me wrong on being able to sustain multiple drives. (But Let’s not forget 2 targeting penalties that kept 2 drives alive.) Redzone still sucks, but the running game was great.

My biggest concern is playing from behind. The defense looked great, but I can’t remember one pass that traveled over 15 yards downfield. Everybody we play in the ACC will attack us like USM did (with much more talent), not A&M. Secondary still needs to get much better, or we will be in dogfights. IMO the small margin for error will come back to bite us again.

The more I look at the stats and rewatch the game the more insane it is. The 27 first downs without a TD stat belies the TWENTY SEVEN FIRST DOWNS, multiple drives that started inside the 20 or the 10. 1-2 3 & outs (penalties helping that on a few occasions). Then also literally like 5 passes that traveled beyond 5 yards in the air. Also no sacks and next to no TFLs given up.

I don’t know how anyone is all out on Gattis, or how they can use today to suck Lashlee off because he was good half the time and made them feel pretty. ****ed at him for the RZ? Yep. ****ed about the TE usage? I get it. Everything about him is trash tho, when half the freaking game is running and we are wildly over performing expectations there? Nah, I don’t get that.

 

[Meast21]

There are some very easy RPO concepts we know TVD can execute comfortably, especially with Knighton and Mallory in the game/pattern. Those would have been very successful in steadying the offense. Too bad.

This is biggest gripe with Gattis. Instead of coming in and copying a lot of Lash's concepts that are PROVEN to work with TVD, he threw all that out and dropped his giant complex big10 playbook on the team. And i'm still left asking why? Is he stubborn? Does he think his offense is vastly superior? Why not copy a few plays/concepts proven to work for your QB and team? It literally makes no sense.

Gattis is not as bad as some takes but he deserves to be questioned here. Would kill for a reporter to ask him a question on this

 

[Insanecane]

Great observations.
Gattis should tweak and scheme more plays for 1 or 2 wrs with others clearing or serving as eye candy. Shallow crosses, angle/option routes out of the backfield are there for the taking, with or without play action.

And so right about not having any ball snatchers. Too many body catchers.

He did. TVD made bad reads, stared down his receiver, and threw wobblers. When he did make a good throw it was dropped or knocked away.

 

[k9cane]

Here’s my thoughts.

If you ask TVD to read one side of the field or just decide between 2 options he can be really good.

When you ask him to see the entire field he’s struggles.

There were one on one opportunities last night where he could have attempted jump balls and back shoulder throws.

(I’ve always felt his accuracy on deep shots is not great and he often doesn’t put the ball in the spot where a WR can make a play.)

I think everyone was expecting him to get better and play like a top pick.

With what we’ve seen on film he’s really not ready for the NFL today.

But credit to TAMU they found one thing that made TVD very uncomfortable and over the course of the game he started to panic.

And it was dropping 8 into coverage the more they did it, the more he started bailing, not trusting his protection and even had a scramble on a 3rd and 24 literally about two seconds into the play.

They took away his first read and he never really figured it out.

Now on to coach Gattis

I actually like how he called the game. I liked how mitigated their pass rush even though the pace was slow.

But yes he can help TVD out with more “easy” reads mixed in.

—-

The Wr

More separation would be nice. But I wouldn’t mind just seeing more accurate balls place in an area that gives them a chance to make a play before I just write them off.

Ive said from the beginning -- and like you, I thought he called a good game in general -- Gattis has to find a way to make this more of a TVD-friendly offense. Maybe even go a bit more up tempo at times

 

[rascon]

He did. TVD made bad reads, stared down his receiver, and threw wobblers. When he did make a good throw it was dropped or knocked away.

Agreed. i said “more“ lol. I thought we had our biggest opportunities with those plays. Our deeper routes were too vanilla yet we tried forcing square peg too much.

The shallow crosses was there all night, and needed more TE on out and up/wheel routes and rb on angle/option routes. Yes there were drops, but we could have went back to it more often.

And the moment they lost two dbs early, we should have rotated WRs more in running deep crosses/levels concepts and further tired their dbs. Instead the run deep outs, deep hitch or other squared off routes which didn’t threaten or stress their safeties very much. Their dbs were slowing up at the end, but our playcalling could have expedited that.

 

[Meast21]

If the receivers, TVD, and Gattis can't get on the same page within the next 2 weeks we're going to be in big trouble.

Receivers getting not separation and their inability to create after the catch (if they catch the ball) is concerning. With X out, I'd like to see B. Smith (yes I know he dropped the 4th down pass) and Jacolby George get more burn. They seem to be the only ones that can get open and create plays with the ball in their hands.

I've always liked Keyshawn Smiff but for whatever reason he doesn't take over games. I think we've seen Redding is a bit heavy footed with inconsistent hands. Maybe it's time to kick the tires on Isaiah Horton?

Whatever it is, we need to get the passing game fixed quickly before ACC play.

This. Other WR thoughts:

K Smith seems to have the most speed and talent but yet never catches more than 1-2 passes a game. Cmon man.

Ladson did he even play? LOL to transfer from Clemson to ride the bench here while starters drop balls. Maybe he sucks but would like to see him get a few series. A guy with some actual size

C Young and I Horton - at least 1 if not both need to see the field and steal some snaps against MSU. Let's see if they're gamers and can step up. I know you gotta earn it in practice and all but our starters seem to earn it in practice and dont show up.

Brinson - did he play much? Another hyped up 4 star south florida WR to do nothing. whats his deal?

Redding - strikes me as legit hard worker but snaps need to cut in half for now

And lastly, why doesnt Arroyo get 4-5 throws to him a game minimum?

 

[LuCane]

- Here's the Redding 1st half drop I previously missed. It was a clear drop.

The other balls he "dropped" probably have more to do with his inability to separate, as they were broken up by defenders. But, that begs the question: why the **** are we targeting him 10 times if he's not producing sufficient separation? Guess that will be worked out in the coming weeks.

 

[Meast21]

View attachment 208739

- Here's the Redding 1st half drop I previously missed. It was a clear drop.

The other balls he "dropped" probably have more to do with his inability to separate, as they were broken up by defenders. But, that begs the question: why the **** are we targeting him 10 times if he's not producing sufficient separation? Guess that will be worked out in the coming weeks.

What your opinion on each WR at this point?

 

[Sigma_Cane_7]

My biggest issue was the lack of urgency at the end of the 1st half. I did not like it from the beginning though I know it was due to the special teams performance. But you play to win, not to lose by a little.

 

[AUcane]

We had like 5 drives over 10 plays, including a 16 play drive that started from our 1.

Agree on the low margin for error, generally speaking. But despite that we had a single 3 & out, iirc.

Definitely a silver lining with this team. There are legit arguments against this system but maybe more specifically, the issue is with situational play calling. Sustaining multiple long drives against a good defense is promising.

 

[Canedude08]

This is biggest gripe with Gattis. Instead of coming in and copying a lot of Lash's concepts that are PROVEN to work with TVD, he threw all that out and dropped his giant complex big10 playbook on the team. And i'm still left asking why? Is he stubborn? Does he think his offense is vastly superior? Why not copy a few plays/concepts proven to work for your QB and team? It literally makes no sense.

Gattis is not as bad as some takes but he deserves to be questioned here. Would kill for a reporter to ask him a question on this

The fact that people think the Gattis playbook is some impossible concept is all I need to know about our fanbase. It's not a bubblegum, details don't matter system, and there's a reason why it's run by major programs. Guess what, that stuff Lashlee runs, is midmajor stuff. Name a major program that is winning at a significant level that doesn't even truly attempt to run the ball, or can't run the ball. EXACTLY. You need to be able to get short yardage, you need to be able to do something outside of chuck the ball deep.

 

[Canedude08]

View attachment 208739

- Here's the Redding 1st half drop I previously missed. It was a clear drop.

The other balls he "dropped" probably have more to do with his inability to separate, as they were broken up by defenders. But, that begs the question: why the **** are we targeting him 10 times if he's not producing sufficient separation? Guess that will be worked out in the coming weeks.

If you can't get separation, you have to be able to make contested catches. Redding can't do that. He is awful in regards to contested catches. Outside of X the entire receiving corps is awful in that area. How can you be a mediocre route runner and unable to make catches under pressure? It doesn't make sense.

 

[CChe21]

I’ve read where Miami “Dominated and controlled the game”. In the year 2022 having under 400 yards offense and 9 points is extremely average or below. It means your offense has zero playmaking ability nor dynamic attack. You are neither physical (otherwise you could pound it in the red zone) nor explosive.

Time of possession in 2022 is A MEANINGLESS STAT. PERHAPS in 1985 it mattered but now a days snaps and plays ran, tempo and production matter.

The truth is these weee two average teams out there battling it out. One with more talent but Jimbo style coaching and the other with just no idea coaching wise on how to exploit a team offensively and very poor game management from a coaching perspective.

Mario needs to take advantage of the “New Era” vibe and sign STUDS in this class and maybe next class. The negative recruitment from other schools is going to start NOW and they will be accurate until he shifts his offensive philosophy. If he gets to live and die by the sword….he will die. Most coaches do, that’s just reality, and he’s no different.

He has a small window to build what he wants and he MUST MAKE changes offensively. It’s disturbing that he didn’t learn from Saban’s initial mistakes at Bama. I want to possibly believe that Mario simply couldn’t hire the OC he wanted….but…his O at Oregon was the same and they HATED IT because it was polar opposite of what made Oregon, Oregon…..

…….Well, Mario will need to quickly realize what style of offense makes Miami, Miami, and fits with your schedule and player talent pool. The irony is that Mario played under Erickson, who was the 90’s version of Lincoln Riley, Heupel etc

 

[bear]

The Parrish drop in the flat was likely a TD or a long play deep I to the red zone IMO. That am the Stevenson fumble were the killers IMO. Great post

 

[The canesman]

Just finished a play by play game review. Not sure I'm interested in debating some of the narratives out there right now. Have seen a ton of confirmation bias as reactions and I'm trying my best to avoid the same. I *am* interested in trying to keep things to facts. Going to do my best to avoid leaps of logic and keep this to plain observations. Open to your help, too. Will focus mostly on the offense.

We gained 392 yards.
We ran 77 plays.
We averaged 5.1 yards/play. (that's around 80th in the NCAA, which lines up with about the rest of our year so far)
We were 5/14 on 3rd down conversions (that's about 36%, which is in the 70s).
We were 0/1 on 4th down conversions.

Here's what I found (click the thumbnails for larger view):

View attachment 208699

- Had to add this to a mostly "offensive" review of the game. Ivey takes a lot of heat when he's lackadaisical or his instincts fail him. He personally got us off the field twice last night. On two big 3rd downs, he played an in-breaking WR aggressively, used his long arm, and made plays. Let's keep the same energy on good and bad. He deserves credit for perhaps his best game as a Cane.

View attachment 208700

- Not necessarily "offense," but this PR made the list. Stevenson made an awful play here. It happens. I'm not sure why it was such a surprise. Despite his age and leadership, he made some risky punt return decisions (didn't he jump to catch one?) last week.

View attachment 208701

- I contemplated making "DROPS" a thread of its own. Here's one of the two clearest and most impactful of the game. Parrish made a mistake. It happens, too. Unfortunately, this one cost us a bunch as you can see by how the field was setup. For all the gripes about Gattis' RZ playcalling and overall approach, this was one of his very slick calls.

On the DROPS TOPIC, there was another obvious one: BSmith's to end the game. Other than that, I counted Key Smith on a crossing route where TVD had two LBs blitzing and threw the ball slightly high, though it's unclear on re-watch if the pass was broken up by the DB or just bounced off Key's hands. Parrish also had a possible "drop" on the last series on an angle route, though again it may be argued as a PBU by a defender. Even if we count those, that's 4. Are people counting the 16 yard completion as a drop because Key Smith might have let it slip on that under throw? It was counted as a reception.

**Plainly, I could not collect matching data to the "6-8" drops most people are claiming on the board. If you can help me identify them, maybe we can increase substantive, fact-based discussions.**

@cway313 has identified Redding drops. I don't have video/image confirmation yet, but will correct as the info becomes available. Again, just trying to keep it 100.

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- Again, not "offense," but points-related. This blocked FG hurt.

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- Without a headset or being inside the film room, difficult to fully say what the heck happened on this play. George comes across the formation on a crosser that he turns upfield (doesn't appear by design, but who knows). TVD locks in and gives the Safety ample time to get all the way across and disrupt the play. Did George get lost with the ball in the air? Should TVD have thrown George open toward the sideline? I read people called George lazy or soft on this play, and maybe that's true, but it looked like a sloppy mess if you watch the entire play closely.

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- Don't know who you "blame" on this, necessarily. Saw another poster mention this is on Key Smith for being "soft." Thought that was a weird accusation, as this play ended up as an incompletion Key Smith essentially never touched. TVD threw the ball before the break and the timing was just completely off. This is more about expecting TVD and Key Smith to have this rapport to throw a precise, timing-based route.

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- This play design was intended for a big vertical play. Key Smith feigns the run action/block and then takes off. TVD rolls right and just misses. Yes, Key Smith "touched" the ball. Not sure if people are counting this is as drop. He literally is horizontal while diving and nips it with one hand. The ball, as the announcers noted, was not given a lot of air/touch. Whose "fault?"

For the record, let me be clear that I don't think our WRs are "good." Clearly, they're not good enough to do what we need. I just like to keep things to facts and evidence. Where they struggle MORE seems to be in creating separation or scaring defenders to provide cushion. To me, that's an unreasonable ask of a bunch of WRs of whom have maybe 1-2 speed guys. More realistically, we have to scheme them open and, if they THEN drop the ball (like the last play), they deserve the "wrath."

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- A play that's been highly debated already. Some say this "designed" TVD run was a mess of a call. I saw a couple people get on other posters claiming it was an RPO and therefore a bad decision. Let's be absolutely clear, if this was an RPO, there was no pass option TVD looked at...ever. No one on the boundary side, where TVD's eyes flow to, went out for a pass. If this was an option, it was a zone read and TVD kept it.

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- Here's clearer proof of the above note. On the field side (to the right), we have two receivers. TVD ends up keeping this and running to his left.

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- Another highly "debated" play. Some say this was a "drop" by Redding. The announcers laid the blame on the OL. Both of those perspectives, live and on re-watch, seem like reaches. This was a beautifully designed clear-out play to get Redding running free. The OL held their own for a nice few ticks here. I consider this incompletion a big miss by TVD - who could have put a tiny bit more air or just thrown a more accurate pass. This was likely a game changing play.

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- If people want to gripe about a significant limitation of our offense beyond not having enough speed at WR, I think 1b is that our WRs often are "body catchers." While this play above may not be the perfect example because there is a closing defender (which often makes WRs shield and collect the ball with their bodies), I'm using it as an example of how little I see our WRs extend their arms and snatch the ball with their hands. I guess George does it sometimes, from what I've seen. We need more of it.

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- Because I'm explicitly trying to keep this factual, everyone should give Gattis credit here for the play design. Beautiful clear out to isolate Mallory on a crossing route.

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- My issue with the result is the same I said in this thread: https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/elijah-arroyo-vs-tamu.179806/. And, in other places. I think these plays are better suited for Arroyo. Once Mallory out ran the out-leveraged defender (by design), he had a one on one. He couldn't win it, unfortunately, and the play's chunk got limited. Kudos to Mallory for coming back in after getting banged up. I still think this is a play we should try with the player who can more likely win an athletic matchup downfield.

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- Our offense will continue to be widely debated. Including in this thread, I imagine. I'm asking for more of this for TVD. This was a quick out to George, who had been given significant cushion by an inside defender. TVD apparently needs quicker throws. Talked about that after last week's game re: RPOs. This was a nice throw and gain.

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- This is obviously NOT an image of the drop to seal the game. Instead, this is a dink on a key 3rd down. What I didn't understand is why many posters saw this as a limitation of our WR? The ball was thrown directly into a zone defender. There wasn't anywhere to go. We had some really good man coverages busters during the game, but missed a few chances to bust zone coverages. TAMU was happy to sit there a few times and let us limit ourselves.

Ok, on to the discussion and I can give my own conclusions later.

Nice post. We didn’t execute in a hostile environment yet had chances to still win. Execution execution execution.