Dawson

[Memnon]

A fanbase is going to cry and point fingers after a loss, no matter if they're warranted or not. But facts are facts.

It's also just so ******* infuriating how snakebitten this team is, and while I will say that often a team takes the personality of its coach (penalties/dumb decisions being the talking point here), how the god**** football bounces is NOT indicative of a coach.

Rueben Bain screams around the edge, flat ***-whips the LT, blows up Maye in his own endzone, and an OL out for a leisurely Sunday stroll just scoops up the ball and meanders out of the endzone and all is well. Business as usual.

Matt Lee has been the literal #1 center in America per PFF, he makes ONE bad snap, it's not even THAT bad, ball bounces off TVDs hand, he tries to cover it, ball is kicked, goes right to UNC. This team just cannot catch a break, it seems like ever.

But back to Dawson, the last drive before the half was very good, and while I thought we should have gotten the ball into the endzone for a shot at a TD, we kick a FG to go up 17-14, on the road in a hostile environment at night against an undefeated team. We come out of the half, and Tez Walker puts Jaden Davis into the broiler, and it's 21-17. No worries, offense is playing well, go answer the score. We get the ball, run for 3, pass for 8 for a first down, pass for 9, GREAT call on 2nd an 1 from near midfield with a quick flea-flicker, George is wide open, a better throw probably gets 20+ if not more but OK it's a gain of 14 and we are rolling at their 40 yard line. Bad snap, ****** bounce, completely unforced turnover. ****. But guess what? The defense bails us out! We get a stop, and take over at our own 14. OK, whew. We're good. Nope....1st down throw, TVD never sees Ced Gray dropping underneath the curl route, and of course as a 245 lb linebacker catches a ball well over his head with the talent that would've made the 2022 Miami Wide Receiver room drop their panties. Because of course he does. And now the game is over. Turnovers on back to back plays, ON FIRST DOWN, neither of which are the fault of the OC. Add that to the fact that your most experienced back fumbles, AGAIN ON FIRST DOWN, as he's literally falling into the endzone....and we just refuse to ever do anything or get any breaks that make any kind of sense.

Dawson has been fine. The fact that some of you watched last season and aren't blown away by the improvement is kind of terrifying, but this is CIS, after all. Can he be better? Yes. The GT game was very puzzling, for sure. But we are basically in the top third of the country in every single offensive metric at the halfway point and have played ball well enough to be 5-1. Now go score 27+ against Clemson and win and shut some people up.

Dawson is literally, the least of our problems. Like Dead last on the list.

 

[Memnon]

Iowa is averaging 247 yards and 20.9 ppg and 6-1.

If Iowa played any of the teams we've played minus Bethune & Temple they wouldn't be 6-1.

The B1G is literally a 3 team conference, the rest is pure unadulterated garbage that don't have competent Offenses.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Dawson is literally, the least of our problems. Like Dead last on the list.

Literally.

 

[Bender]

A fanbase is going to cry and point fingers after a loss, no matter if they're warranted or not. But facts are facts.

It's also just so ******* infuriating how snakebitten this team is, and while I will say that often a team takes the personality of its coach (penalties/dumb decisions being the talking point here), how the god**** football bounces is NOT indicative of a coach.

Rueben Bain screams around the edge, flat ***-whips the LT, blows up Maye in his own endzone, and an OL out for a leisurely Sunday stroll just scoops up the ball and meanders out of the endzone and all is well. Business as usual.

Matt Lee has been the literal #1 center in America per PFF, he makes ONE bad snap, it's not even THAT bad, ball bounces off TVDs hand, he tries to cover it, ball is kicked, goes right to UNC. This team just cannot catch a break, it seems like ever.

But back to Dawson, the last drive before the half was very good, and while I thought we should have gotten the ball into the endzone for a shot at a TD, we kick a FG to go up 17-14, on the road in a hostile environment at night against an undefeated team. We come out of the half, and Tez Walker puts Jaden Davis into the broiler, and it's 21-17. No worries, offense is playing well, go answer the score. We get the ball, run for 3, pass for 8 for a first down, pass for 9, GREAT call on 2nd an 1 from near midfield with a quick flea-flicker, George is wide open, a better throw probably gets 20+ if not more but OK it's a gain of 14 and we are rolling at their 40 yard line. Bad snap, ****** bounce, completely unforced turnover. ****. But guess what? The defense bails us out! We get a stop, and take over at our own 14. OK, whew. We're good. Nope....1st down throw, TVD never sees Ced Gray dropping underneath the curl route, and of course as a 245 lb linebacker catches a ball well over his head with the talent that would've made the 2022 Miami Wide Receiver room drop their panties. Because of course he does. And now the game is over. Turnovers on back to back plays, ON FIRST DOWN, neither of which are the fault of the OC. Add that to the fact that your most experienced back fumbles, AGAIN ON FIRST DOWN, as he's literally falling into the endzone....and we just refuse to ever do anything or get any breaks that make any kind of sense.

Dawson has been fine. The fact that some of you watched last season and aren't blown away by the improvement is kind of terrifying, but this is CIS, after all. Can he be better? Yes. The GT game was very puzzling, for sure. But we are basically in the top third of the country in every single offensive metric at the halfway point and have played ball well enough to be 5-1. Now go score 27+ against Clemson and win and shut some people up.

After A&M, people in here were so hyped about Mario, the team, TVD, the OC, and so on...

We're 4-2 now, everyone sucks, everyone needs to be let go, every coach needs to be fired. Its insanity.

 

[cway313]

If Iowa played any of the teams we've played minus Bethune & Temple they wouldn't be 6-1.

The B1G is literally a 3 team conference, the rest is pure unadulterated garbage that don't have competent Offenses.

They probably lose to UNC and Texasam w/Weigman but Miami Ohio and GT are toss ups. I still think its impressive in an age all about offense and scoring. No team has to overcome more to win and yet here we are muddling away.

 

[Bender]

If Iowa played any of the teams we've played minus Bethune & Temple they wouldn't be 6-1.

The B1G is literally a 3 team conference, the rest is pure unadulterated garbage that don't have competent Offenses.

People on this are actually saying Kirk Ferentz does a good job.

Completely and utterly clueless.

 

[TheEye]

If we address the turnovers, Dawson looks like a genius.

 

[Swampcity]

Our QB threw for nearly 400 yards last night. It was 508-482 in total yards and we essentially scored 38 points if you count the Parrish fumble on the goal line. Blame the D if you want to point at any particular one unit but we produced enough last night to have a chance to win.

We are what we are: A second-tier football program.

 

[Swampcity]

If we address the turnovers, Dawson looks like a genius.

So many excuses. This is what a twirl two program does.

 

[caneworld]

This is what gets me.

To my untrained eye something has changed after the bye. The few times we did run “outside” the other night were successful (selective memory or confirmation bias maybe?).

Wario probably got to lean on Dawson to keep him within Bro'ball limits

 

[TheEye]

So many excuses. This is what a twirl two program does.

If you’ve watched for the last two decades you know we are.

 

[Coach Macho]

Anyone who’s watched a tiny bit of football could predict we’d be better on offense than last year.

I think Dawson’s output has turned out to be better than expected so far, but unfortunately, like with the analysis of TVD, we’re in the position to need a savior. I don’t think Dawson or TVD can overcome a handful of current limitations to our overall team/program.

And, it’s impossible to know if Dawson is the person insisting on some of the head-scratching stuff we saw against GT and the ‘too little too late’ approach to going 4WR against UNC.

As for how he can help TVD, I’d say we need to focus on scheming our zone busters and perhaps increase pace to make TVD more comfortable.

I could have lived with 5-1 so long as the GT game didn’t flash multiple root cause flaws I fear we’ll repeat.

I think his prep and adjustments to GT’s defense were a problem. I think he did a pretty nice job all things considered against UNC - had Parrish’s brutal fumble at the goal line been a TD, he puts 24 points up in the first half. Then, the second half had two horrific turnovers that aren’t coordinator related. Not because of the result, but I’ve been asking for more speed in the slot and that came in relative garbage time.

Is he 2 steps ahead? Doesn’t seem like it to me. But, we’re not in the coaching or strategy (do we have these?) meetings, so we can’t know what the overall philosophy is right now.

I maintain that, if we really want to help our improved OL win more matchups, we should do that by emptying defensive boxes via formation, motion, and personnel. Is Dawson choosing to not prioritize that or is there a ‘we want to establish the run first’ order?

Let’s hope we can maintain something near 7 yards per play while improving our 3rd down conversions. To salvage the season, I think we’re gonna need to win a couple more games off of pure offense.

I don't think you're gonna get more 10 personnel with Mario as the HC. I could be wrong.

 

[Coach Macho]

Someone give me a rankings of our o coordinators since Golden. I assume Lashlee is #1 and Gatass is last lol

Dawson has already surpassed Lashlee's offense in year 1.

 

[Coach Macho]

Guidry game planned fine for UNC. Our DB's are trash

Did he game plan for the running game?

 

[Coach Macho]

Idk why he’s not camped in McDaniel’s offense. He could really use some creativity in his run game. He’s struggling without having a mobile QB to help open it up.

How are we struggling to have a run game?

 

[hotshot]

Guidry is a better coordinator

That first half against UNC was a masterpiece.

 

[harphong]

Anyone who’s watched a tiny bit of football could predict we’d be better on offense than last year.

I think Dawson’s output has turned out to be better than expected so far, but unfortunately, like with the analysis of TVD, we’re in the position to need a savior. I don’t think Dawson or TVD can overcome a handful of current limitations to our overall team/program.

And, it’s impossible to know if Dawson is the person insisting on some of the head-scratching stuff we saw against GT and the ‘too little too late’ approach to going 4WR against UNC.

As for how he can help TVD, I’d say we need to focus on scheming our zone busters and perhaps increase pace to make TVD more comfortable.

I could have lived with 5-1 so long as the GT game didn’t flash multiple root cause flaws I fear we’ll repeat.

I think his prep and adjustments to GT’s defense were a problem. I think he did a pretty nice job all things considered against UNC - had Parrish’s brutal fumble at the goal line been a TD, he puts 24 points up in the first half. Then, the second half had two horrific turnovers that aren’t coordinator related. Not because of the result, but I’ve been asking for more speed in the slot and that came in relative garbage time.

Is he 2 steps ahead? Doesn’t seem like it to me. But, we’re not in the coaching or strategy (do we have these?) meetings, so we can’t know what the overall philosophy is right now.

I maintain that, if we really want to help our improved OL win more matchups, we should do that by emptying defensive boxes via formation, motion, and personnel. Is Dawson choosing to not prioritize that or is there a ‘we want to establish the run first’ order?

Let’s hope we can maintain something near 7 yards per play while improving our 3rd down conversions. To salvage the season, I think we’re gonna need to win a couple more games off of pure offense.

"or is there a ‘we want to establish the run first’ order?"

This. I think it's this.

I didn't want to think that Mannio was handcuffing, but and correct me if wrong:

Recall the creativity in the first four games in the running game vs. lining up and running Lashlee ball vs. ACC opponents...

We did clearly come out to establish the run game first against Miami, Bethune and Temple - with the exception of opening up all options when we got down dearly vs. ATM....it worked because we had better athletes and in the ATM game, their tackling and secondary just sucked - we were lucky in that regard..

I really do think the evidence points to Mannio giving SOGs, not SOPs to Dawson on priorities and Dawson is complying.

I really do think that Mario prefers and asks Dawson to setup up a Lashlee ball running game against better opponents and then "go from there" attitude to see what we get.

I think Mannio simultaneously overestimates our Oline's capabilities and respects ACC defenses's ability to stuff "creative": running schemes.

Mannio wants to establish an in your face, then through your *** run game and it's not working as well.

This isn't based on an agenda to emotionally bash Mannio - I think it just makes sense to him to have a run first culture and let Dawson do his thing once Mannio feels like we've set up the run.

It isn't working against our better opponents that actually play good defense, yes even GT.

They had a plan, knew our agenda and have limited what we can do based on what we're putting on tape. Then factor in the weaknesses of: TVD, penalties, TOs and here we are again.

 

[Coach Macho]

Yall MF'ers think EVERYBODY sucks after a loss.

Are we really complaining about an OC who was "gifted" the same QB, RB and WR unit from last year yet currently has us sitting as one of the top offenses in the entire country? In year one?!

He doesn't have his QB.
Doesn't have his RB's.
Doesn't have his WR's.

And this is the best, statistically, that our offense has been since...the early 2000's?

How does anyone see the improvement of our run game and our WR's and not say that Dawson is doing a good job?
If our RB's hold onto the ball and our veteran QB doesn't turn the ball over 2/3 times per game, we're probably undefeated.

 

[Coach Macho]

"or is there a ‘we want to establish the run first’ order?"

This. I think it's this.

I didn't want to think that Mannio was handcuffing, but and correct me if wrong:

Recall the creativity in the first four games in the running game vs. lining up and running Lashlee ball vs. ACC opponents...

We did clearly come out to establish the run game first against Miami, Bethune and Temple - with the exception of opening up all options when we got down dearly vs. ATM....it worked because we had better athletes and in the ATM game, their tackling and secondary just sucked - we were lucky in that regard..

I really do think the evidence points to Mannio giving SOGs, not SOPs to Dawson on priorities and Dawson is complying.

I really do think that Mario prefers and asks Dawson to setup up a Lashlee ball running game against better opponents and then "go from there" attitude to see what we get.

I think Mannio simultaneously overestimates our Oline's capabilities and respects ACC defenses's ability to stuff "creative": running schemes.

Mannio wants to establish an in your face, then through your *** run game and it's not working as well.

This isn't based on an agenda to emotionally bash Mannio - I think it just makes sense to him to have a run first culture and let Dawson do his thing once Mannio feels like we've set up the run.

It isn't working against our better opponents that actually play good defense, yes even GT.

They had a plan, knew our agenda and have limited what we can do based on what we're putting on tape. Then factor in the weaknesses of: TVD, penalties, TOs and here we are again.

We're actually running the ball very well statistically. We even ran it well versus UNC but we couldn't afford to stick to it.

Furthermore, if I had a QB who was prone to turning the ball over, I'd prefer to win games running (and protecting) the ball.

 

[BoxingRobes]

He's been fine to really good. The limitations we have offensively are personnel, not the playcaller...and he's got flaws, but relax.