Film Review of Duke Game

HurricaneVision

Staff Writer
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
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Taking a look at the Duke game this week we see some changes and some improved play in several areas. I'll take a look at picture stills of the game, rather than gifs, so if you can't stand stills, this won't be the thread for you. It's also 57 Word pages of information, so if you dislike lengthy posts, this won't be the one for you, either. As always, if you like my work, please give me a follow on Twitter [MENTION=5374]HurricaneVision[/MENTION]. Thank you

Kickoff: Missed tackle by Wilder could’ve stopped at 15.

We really like to standup Joe Jackson off the edge. His athleticism allows this to play and set an edge to the strongside of the formation. Redwine walks up two yards closer on this play and it makes all the difference to the result. Duke tries an out route using the cushion from the slot and Redwine knocks the ball out.
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If Redwine stays in his original alignment, he catches this ball and gets an easy five yards. That’s an adjustment early. One of the biggest contributors to our troubles on 3rd down has been the effectiveness of our opponents on 1st down. The play calling is markedly different on 2nd and 10 than it would be for 2nd and 5.
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Here is a picture of how we aligned over the slot against Toledo:
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It’s four-wide instead of three-wide, and that means more risk of a deep pass due to open space to cover, but you can see for the second play in a row we are 8 yards off the LOS, rather than 10. I like to see a small adjustment early on against Duke. The other thing you’ll notice is that I’m initially wrong in my hypothesis. They must just like Jackson better on his feet, regardless of strong-side or weak-side as the TE is aligned to the other side, yet Jackson is still up and Thomas is still down. My guess is two-fold: they like Jackson’s athleticism better, and with Duke being predominantly a zone running team, perhaps Jackson feels he can protect his legs better against cut blocks from a standing position.
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Duke sees a matchup they like against Redwine in the slot. After running the out on the first play, they run the slant on the next play and Redwine is beat handily.
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In this screen shot I want to focus on two things: One, Redwine is flat footed. You saw this last game as well from some of our DB’s. On defense, truly there isn’t a time to stop your feet. The WR is off-the-line, play-action has already occurred, and yet Redwine is still flat-footed. Have to identify the inside release much faster and realize your LB’er is likely to step up off the PA and vacate his area that helps to stop the slant. I also want to say that you can see our other two LB’s didn’t bite this hard on the PA. Pinckney comes up a bit too aggressively, making it an easy throw. Next, focus at the top of the screen where you see Dee Delaney. Last game I bet I put 10 slides out of Delaney giving up a release where he shouldn’t be giving it up. Here, he sets hard to the inside and then gets a jam on the WR to push him further outside. This is why Delaney was much better this game.
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Gotta make this tackle, Delaney. You have this play stopped for a two-yard gain, but he misses the tackle. Chad Thomas, this is not a good look. You aren’t going to defend the run by getting turned around like this. Wilson took this play for a 1st down.
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Another issue we’ve seen from our players is missing clean shots on the QB. Thomas doesn’t even touch him on this play and lets the QB get outside and pick up 5 yards. Never mind the hold on Joe Jackson, of course.
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If #93 stays in his lane and keeps the widest Duke offensive player inside his shoulder he stops this play for a huge loss. Instead he chases the ball and loses contain. Thankfully, our most disciplined defender, Trent Harris, stays wide and they blocked him below the waist to draw a penalty or this play would’ve been huge as they reversed it back to the WR #3 .
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Attaboy Delaney! They wanted to go to Delaney’s man on the shallow crosser, but Delaney nearly puts him on his butt. Tightened up coverage cushion over the slot, jamming WR’s on the outside, Jackson hits the QB here and almost causes a fumble.
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Just an awful play by Michael Jackson here. This is the type of play that can be the difference in close games. He is completely unblocked. It is 3rd and 19. He just needs to force the RB outside and take a conservative route to the runner. You tackle him at the 38, they punt the ball, you get it back on offense. Instead, he takes a way too shallow angle, dives and misses the RB, who gets the 1st down to the outside.

You can see this is the moment he’s beat. He takes an angle that is way too far upfield now he has to try and turn and get him down. If his front foot is to the side here instead of forward he makes the tackle at the 38-yard line.
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Here is an example of how sometimes when you watch a game and see a WR running wide-open and you yell how did he miss him, it’s because of the reads for the QB. Here the first read is o the boundary WR with Malek Young in off-coverage. They a back to the flat to occupy the LB, but this also takes away a quick stop route as the LB is in the path. The rotating LB takes away the slant inside to that side. The TE is releasing on the shallow cross and he is read #2 . We blitzed the nickel corner to field side leaving the receiver wide-open. He is the third read though, and by the time the QB gets to that point the blitz is in his face. He dumps it off to the shallow crosser on his second read and gets a few yards. He never even did get to that third read. The third read was running an inside slant and allowed Quarterman to cover both of them by himself. The defensive call was a good one for this route combination run by Duke.
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Good play design by Duke here. Thomas takes the cheese on the inside rush and allows himself to be “trapped” by the RT and washed out easily. The back running horizontal pulls McCloud away from the play and forces Quarterman outside for contain. You have a free TE to kick him the way his momentum is taking him, and the designed run opens up perfectly for Jones. Luckily he didn’t get the first down because the next play is the big stop by Pinckney.
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Just quickly pointing out that defenses are allowed to come up on the slow WR’s much closer if they so choose. Here we are four-wide and both defenders over the slot are six yards off the LOS. This is a byproduct of a great running game, and not respecting Miami deep.
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Miami has a run on inside zone on 1st down. Miami runs a slant on 2nd down and Duke gets physical with Richards, which leads to the PI. That’s the downside of playing physical at the LOS is the number of free first downs that can result. I take that tradeoff, personally, but there is a downside.

Next play Walton takes the little swing pass and hurdles a defender. Walton’s balance is what makes him special. It allows him to get yards-after-contact and change direction in ways that most RB’s cannot.

McDermott beaten cleanly. Rosier throws a dime to Berrios for a TD, but we cannot have this against Florida State because they’ll have that extra half step to get there before he throws it. By the way, this is a big boy throw! Look at how early he has to release this and throw it perfectly in the back of the end zone.
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They run a shallow cross on the next possession and Quarterman makes another great play in coverage on 1st down. The next play is an inside zone where Pinckney misses the tackle at the LOS. You can’t play Bandy because he’s too small and can’t tackle, right? If you don’t know, Bandy is good.
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This is a big play because of 3rd down we dropped Demetrius Jackson right into the slot and he almost picks it off. Forces a punt. I wrote earlier about standing up our edge player and thinking it was strongside, but actually I’ve identified we are standing his up on the weakside most plays. Allowing him to use his speed (or to drop into coverage as Jackson did here). Really, this is the only way you stop the stop route if you are going to play so off to the outside, is if you drop a LB or Edge player into that coverage area. This is why Demetrius plays defense. Want to also point out that Bandy plays this the correct way. Notice how he holds his inside technique and trusts that his coverage will be there. Good defense, Canes.
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What a throw-and-catch here. Rosier is balling, welcome back Ahmonn. Drawn a PI call and now this play.
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Next play is zone read that Malik keeps. Richards does a great job blocking downfield and he gets a 1st down.

Just one guys wrecks a play. Coaches say it all the time, do your job. Here, if Gauthier does his job this is a huge play. Everyone else does their job, the OL, the WR is blocking, the QB is carrying out the fake, the WR is holding the defender. Gauthier gets beat, pushed back and the whole play is blown up. If you look to the top, this play is wide open if not for Gauthier.
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I really like how Duke plays defense. They are physical, watch them hit Cager with the downhill defender who is running to the flat. What’s even better if Cager shows toughness to take this hit, stay inside on the slant, Rosier throws a perfect pass after the timing was thrown off, and a 1st down. Again, Cager is the first read, so the fact that Herndon is wide open isn’t something the QB would see unless he comes off his first read quickly. You can see in the second screen shot that Rosier did the right thing. If he comes off quick, checks it down to Herndon, he probably gets to the 17 or so. Cager got to the 10.
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Here’s why the coaches were mad at Donaldson. He’s supposed to take the stunt man here (who was lined up over Donaldson at DT and then looped around the DE into the backfield) and Gauthier is supposed to take the crashing DT on the other side. What he wants to do is give a jam to the DT crashing down, then turn his head to see his man and push him wide. Rosier uses his athleticism to take this to the 1-yard line. I can’t say enough how well Rosier has played thus far.
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I’m pretty sure Wilder is tackling the wrong man here. Second time Wilder has been in position on specials but failed to make the play. This ball was returned to the 44-yard line. Another example of hidden yards that are being left out there by Miami. That’s a 20-yard difference from where Wilder is here.
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Jackson being held again (no call again). He is so good at pass rushing with his elite get-off. McIntosh gets the sack when he spins out of this from #65 , but the play was made by Jackson here.
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It giveth, it taketh away. We run that same nickel corner blitz again, only this time the QB’s first read is to that WR and he happens to be running a skinny post at the sticks. Big time throw by the QB, and just too much cushion by Bandy gives up the 1st down. Keep in mind Bandy was not lined up over this WR, but rather at the sticks. We blitzed the corner over the WR. This is just a hat tip to Daniel Jones.
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Owens has played well this drive. Tackled the RB for a one-yard loss on 1st down, then blows up this screen after the big pass above. It’d be big if he could give us a 4th LB to use because right now Perry and Smith aren’t performing well enough.
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Next play is a bad call on Kendrick Norton for roughing the passer. Hits him one step after the ball is released. Couple of short plays bring up 3rd and 5. Malek Young stays hard to his inside technique, WR crosses face after jam, timing is all off, pass is incomplete. Malek Young played this really well. FG time.

Kickoff, Homer misses a block that let his man run right to Thomas. He slapped his hands together afterwards because of the missed block. Look at what this looks like if #2 4 blocks #10 before he gets by him here. Then, to make things worse, we burned a timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty after a kickoff. These are mistakes on special teams. Burning timeouts, missing blocks, missing tackles. These things add up. The highest per play in football reside where? They reside on special teams, and we are messing them up.
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Free blitzer. Stand in there, take the shot, make the throw, drop a dime down the sideline to Richards? Yes sir, Malik Rosier!
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Short throw to Herndon, then an absolute beautiful pass to Cager on a square-in where they tried to bully Cager outside. Throw a little love at CAger, he’s played well.

Brought his eyes down too quickly here. Just take the checkdown here or throw it away. Instead he takes a sack. This isn’t on the OL, that’s a nice pocket that gave him a good four seconds. Hat tip to Mark Walton for excellent pick-up as well.
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Donaldson beat clean here. Sack. Too bad, Berrios is wide open and that was Rosier’s read. Walton missed the help here, but his first responsibility was to help Herndon if needed (Herndon is so good, it wasn’t needed).
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Next play Jeff Thomas just falls down, but he was going nowhere on 3rd and 19. Punt time.

Duke possession, they go quick, get a 7-yard run tackled by Pinckney. Next play, they go quick and our DL isn’t even down. Pinckney jumped in the wrong gap, 7-yards. Mike Smith swallowed up, they run right over him for 8-yards.

Make a tackle Mike Smith! He picks the wrong gap at the LOS, re-traces, then gets stiff-armed to the ground and misses this tackle. I’m a tough grader, but he’s got to lose his spot. He’s taken out after this snap and Quarterman comes back in.
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Pinckney misses a tackle on next play, but Johnson shuts it down quickly. Delaney back to bailing early on the next play. Jones saw that and his eyes lit up.
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Went for the nickel corner blitz and showed it way too early (original alignment had him over the slot WR above him). Bandy will learn, I’m sure. He’s already showing it and Duke is pointing it out. This is with 8 seconds on play clock, they snapped it at 2, then just threw it right to the man pointing for an easy 1st down. Have to disguise that a lot better to make it work. I also like the corner blitz from the QB’s blind side a lot better since it isn’t as easy to recognize.
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Jaquan and McCloud both look over at the sideline and hold their arms out like, what the heck was that.
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Stuff the run on 1st down. Next play Duke gets called for holding. Next play is a dirty block by Duke. I don’t think Quarterman was pleased, but can’t say for certain. It’s called for a penalty as it should’ve been.
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Stopped them after that. Berrios with a nice punt return.

Again, Rosier pulled his eyes down and saw pressure for no reason. He runs this right into a sack. Throw the ball away if it’s not there, Malik.
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Donaldson beat again on next play. I see why he got benched.
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I like this alignment against their 11 personnel. Not a huge fan of Perry playing so much instead of putting Malek up top and moving Bandy into the slot and removing Perry, but the alignment works for me.
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Look, I do this for myself for the most part to learn and understand what’s happening better. I go through one play at a time and write these. I had no idea the screenshot above was the play that we intercepted the ball. That said, alignment matters, folks. It’s why D’Onofrio’s defense was never going to work here, and it’s why I favor aggressive defense more often than not.

Walton makes the crazy cut and gets outside and injures his ankle on the next play. Donaldson has been benched this drive. The guy over him must be really good, because he beats Gaynor cleanly as well. The rest of the OL is playing well. It’s hard to be a true freshman OL at this level. Notice they want the slant to Harley and Duke is being aggressive with him and breaks it up. Really think Duke is a legit defense.
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Next play was a dime by Rosier to Berrios who looked like he got in, but just stepped out.

They called this holding on Gaynor. Now, he definitely had the burst upfield to beat him, he’s clearly the one falling down on his own and Gaynor just uses his momentum to bury him. It’s another bad call in what has been a very poorly officiated game thus far. Truthfully, most of them have gone Duke’s way. That DT can really play, though.
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Next play is an excellent QB draw by Rosier. He’s pulled his eyes too early a few times tonight, but really, he’s played better than I’d ever have imagined. Wish we’d have just sneaked it a couple of times instead of getting cute, as we settle for a FG after getting to the 6-inch line. Initially, I hated the call to pitch the ball to Walton, but I didn’t realize Gaynor completely whiffed on his block as the FB. We need to get a real FB because Gaynor has been awful at it. All he needs to do is get in his way and stop him from jumping outside and this is a walk-in TD.
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Next drive Duke throws another swing pass and Redwine makes another tackle (he’s tackled well). In true fashion, the next two plays they’ve beaten Redwine inside on slants. One of them he missed the tackle and he went for 25 yards. Romeo Finley missed the tackle behind Redwine and Bandy had to chase it down. Finley missed a tackle on the next play as well. We are still working to get Miami depth on defense.

Next play Bandy jams the crud out of the WR and never lets him into his route. McIntosh pressures, easy incompletion. #BandyCrush

Lloyd on a LB is an easy completion underneath for a 1st down.

Dee Delaney, the sideline is your friend. Good job pushing him outside there and getting him out-of-bounds.
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Next play, Norton comes off a block and gets the QB down. Great play.

1st play of the 3rd quarter Rosier panicked. You have to make the man miss or take the sack here. Not sure what he was thinking other than he wasn’t.
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Duke is physical at the line every time with our WR’s. Harley can’t get off-the-line on time and the slant is just behind him with a free blitzer up-the-middle. 2nd down, St. Louis loses his block and Homer is tackled for no gain. If St. Louis holds this for one more second Homer has a wide-open cutback lane.
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The punt had a 5.1 second hang time and it was dropped. Derrick Smith was paying no attention and ran by the punt returned. You’re taught to stop and crowd him as much as possible and if he drops it, get on the ball! Special teams has all kinds of film to review this week.
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Norton destroys this play. Nice job, big fella. Going back to the second quarter, that’s two plays in a row for him.
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You’ve gotta get into the gap, force a pitch, and if the QB keeps it you have to retrace and make the tackle. McCloud overpursued here and let the QB get a 1st down.
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Make a tackle Jaquan! He doesn’t deserve the call out like Mike Smith does, but he misses this tackle and the RB gets the 1st down.
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Next play is up the gut and goes for 14 yards. Duke wanted to get back into running their inside zone principles and it worked here.

Malek Young is a good player, but he’s got to learn to find the ball when the WR turns and shows his hands.
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Attaboy McCloud! You learned from the last time. Look at how he’s between the QB and the ball carrier. He’s in his gap, can force the pitch and still rally to the ball, or if the QB keeps it he can retrace down the line and make the tackle.
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Stunted Thomas underneath, had contact with Harris, blitzed Redwine, brought Perry as well since no one was threatening his zone. Nowhere for the QB to step up and down he goes. Notice his first read is to Bandy’s man, who he has covered up.
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Next drive, we go inside dive for 5, inside dive for 6. Both times behind Donaldson. Inside dive behind Darling goes for half yard. Rosier pulls his eyes down, but I don’t believe anyone was open. Scrambles for 7. Love that his legs get us into manageable plays. Next play we ran an arrow route over the middle against a DE and Walton gets a big play. That isn’t going to work, Duke DC.
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Miscommunication on next play as WR ran a go route and Rosier threw a stop. Rosier wasn’t happy with Cager. Harley well covered deep on 2nd down. Bad throw on 3rd down to Cager, who was open on the crossing route near the sideline. It would’ve taken an excellent throw given pressure though. Punt.

And what a punt it is.
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Trent Harris had the edge contained on 1st down for 3. Attacked Young on 2nd down, incomplete on an excellent pass breakup.

On 3rd down they decided to pressure the WR’s and it was effective. Alignment wins when you have the athletes.
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Hate that we affair caught this punt. He had room if he could’ve gotten up there in time on the short punt. His coach told him about it afterwards.
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1st down screen to Walton. Donaldson got out there, but missed his block. If he gets in just a touch better shape he makes that block and a 12-yard gain goes for 30. Next play is a read-option for a 1st down by Rosier. Next play is inside zone and Darling gets eaten up for a loss of two (didn’t we recruit a kid named Cerenod?). He really struggles to run block.

Rosier wasn’t able to step into it after pressure and the ball sails. Interception.
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After that interception, Diaz has decided that Duke isn’t going to go deep over the top of them- most likely because the DL hasn’t allowed them the time to do so. For those who want to see a more pressure defense, here it is in the alignment. Single-high S, base defense, but walked Redwine up over the slot at the LOS.
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And, here you see the negatives of this type of alignment. Young got roasted. You see in the shot above that Young has inside technique, he gets off-balance outside and the WR gets a free release inside.
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Next play is a run off the edge for three yards. Delaney has tough coverage on 2nd down deep.
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Next play is a swing pass and we brought in the nickel. Bandy misses the tackle, but Delaney came up and made a nice tackle. Good drive for Delaney. On 4th down Young plays this very physically, and rips out a ball that was on the money. This is a great play, but still leaves concern for the fact that elite opponents probably make these small plays that are leading us to a wide margin of victory.
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1st down is a deep shot to Berrios, which draws a PI. The WR doesn’t get credit for 15-yards, but it’s absolutely a big play when the WR beats his man and draws this penalty. On next play you continue to see Rosier limit the offense by pulling his eyes down far too quickly. This is a clean pocket and he pulls it down after one read. He never looks to his checkdown, Walton, who is wide open over the middle and only has the one LB eight yards off of him to beat. I mean, this is definitely leaving yards on the field by your QB.
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Second down, Gauthier gets beat, ball pops straight up in the air and could’ve been picked. Third down is another jailbreak that forces Rosier to scramble for one yard. The big miss of Walton on 1st down changed the whole possession. Punt.

Duke possession, Perry is on the weakside and for some reason goes to basically tackle the TE here even though he is engaged, rather than getting to contain the edge against the QB. Result is the QB gets the edge. Perry has to make this play as the defense is there. You probably see the WR just past the 1st down line looking open, but Delaney is outside the screen here in great position to pick that if he throws it. We need LB depth.
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2nd down Quarterman makes a nice tackle on the ball carrier in the hole to make it 3rd and 2. On 3rd and 2 you’d like to see Pinckney bring his legs with him on this hit as he lets the QB get the 1st down here. He’s in position, he has it diagnosed and stopped, but he just doesn’t execute the tackle. 1st down. Call is reviewed and ruled as 4th own. Still would’ve removed the chance to go for it if he brings his legs and hits him here. Duke goes for it and picks it up (it looked like we stopped the sneak to me).
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1st down Pinckney drills the RB for no gain. 2nd down, Malek Young has great coverage again, but still isn’t looking back for the ball. He knowcks it away, but better WR’s are going to exploit this or get a PI called.
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On 3rd down Joe Jackson gets the sack, but we run an “X” stunt with our DL and both of them get home and crushed the QB. Chad Thomas makes the play here with immediate pressure from the DT spot. I like him inside more than anyone in that 3rd down sub package because of his strength and initial quickness. Punt.
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1st down, Walton gets outside for eight. 2nd down Rosier runs the read option and keeps for the 1st down. It’s important for Rosier to pull it and keep it a half dozen times per game to keep the defense thinking about it.

1st down we pull the C and RT and run power. McDermott gets put on the ground, which is not good, Gauthier gets stoned, and the run ends with one yard. This play is a staple of the Mark Richt offense and we simply need to either get stronger, or stop running it. This screen shot is a mess. McDermott down on accident, Donaldson down on purpose. That seems to play the opposite of the players strengths. If we’re going to run the power-O run play, it should be to the other side where McDermott can use his foot speed to get out front and we don’t ask Donaldson to do things other than destroy other human beings.
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What a good time to call the shallow cross. Duke blitzed their edge, Richards runs into the vacant zone behind him, the rest of the defense comes up into the A gap and Richards does the rest. Touchdown.
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1st down Duke has a bust in protection, Demetrius Jackson comes free and the Duke QB has to throw well before he’s ready. Malek Young had the WR blanketed. Second down, Delaney bails at the snap, WR pushes upfield for a 7-yard stop route, Delaney closes hard on the WR and the WR drops the ball after the hit. Nice play. 3rd down tried to run a WR screen but Bandy had it defended. Incomplete. Punt.

Berrios returns the punt to the Duke 40. We had been running the block on punts thus far, but this time we ran the return and had a decent return out of it.

Stuffed on 1st down. On 2nd down, Walton gets outside and runs for 10. You can see the ankle is really bothering him on this run because he didn’t want to open it up fully. Need to get Homer in. 3rd down and 1 we get zero push, Walton tippy toes in there and is stopped. He has no power right now. We pick up the 4th down with a sneak.

Walton gets five on first down with a beautiful jump cut. 2nd down and Walton gets outside and this is when he tweaks his ankle again. He shouldn’t have been on the field here and that’s not revisionist, I thought it while watching him. He’s obviously favoring it.

This is a bad throw. Richards has him beat, but by here he’s already slowing down to try and come back to the ball. Lay it out there like he did to Berrios in the 1st quarter and this is a TD.
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Richards didn’t need to do it here, but it was a bit ticky-tack of a call. Richards has him beat and this is a much better throw. You can see the CB is just going to keep on going and Richards is going to stop. The uncoordinated way the CB falls sells this call for him more than what Richards did.
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Missed FG from 51-yards.

Give credit to Jhavonte Dean for sticking his head in there to make a tackle on his first collegiate play. It’s not great form trying to make a tackle looking at the ground, and he gets knocked on his butt, but he got the job done.
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Make a tackle Mike Smith! He doesn’t. He completely whiffs. Doesn’t even touch the QB who is not exactly Lamar Jackson.
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Why was Delaney better this game? Either we allowed him to get physical and jam at the LOS, or we convinced to actually do it. Top of the screen he is owning this WR.
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3rd down and Jhavonte Dean flashes again. Gets physical before the ball is thrown at bottom of the screen (this is legal in college), then gets his head around and makes a play on the ball. From what he showed in this game he has to play more. Absolutely needs to play over Michael Jackson to see what he can do.
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Next play is the sack that Joe Jackson got, but Miami had 13 men on the field. 1st down.

Dee Delaney really contested this ball. Confidence is something that seems to be growing for him. Might be the type of player that needs a few good things to happen and then it snowballs for him.
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Malek sort of looked back on this play. Needs to get his head around half a second earlier and he might pick this one. Pass interference on this play.
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Attaboy Dean! This is how you do it, wait for his hands to go up, when they do, get your arm in-between his arms and rip the ball out. The receiver even pushed off and drew offensive PI.
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Next play is the Bethel sack-fumble and then the iconic turnover chain pose on the bench.

McDermott and Herndon both destroyed their opponent on this play and allowed Homer to rip it off for a TD up-the-gut. Rosier made a nice fake and got the S to widen his route to account for the QB. That opened a hole for Homer to run right by him. He’s got a nice burst and good speed.
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Dean is going to get hurt if he keeps trying to tackle without seeing what’s he hitting. He just flops in on a game on the KO. See what you hit, Dean.

1st down, Mike Smith has a chance to tackle the QB and misses. Drink. Wilder gets a tackle on the next play. They bring in backups and a new QB. Ball game.

Final Thoughts:
A lot to clean up in this game. There were chances to get this thing out of reach much sooner, and there were chances by Duke to score a bunch more points that they just didn’t capitalize on. We clearly started to trust our corners more and played a lot more physical. Our DL owned this game up front for the most part. The OL needs to get stronger and handle the man across from them more consistently, but they played a “B” game in my view.

Delaney really rebounded and played a good game. We have no backup LB’s. Rosier needs to keep his eyes up and trust his reads a little bit longer to get this offense to take the next step.

The best defensive unit for 3rd downs is Chad Thomas inside at DT as the 3-technique, Joe Jackson at WDE, Trent Harris at SDE, Richard McIntosh or Demetrius Jackson at the other DT position. Pretty much every time we ran this setup we got pressure and/or sacks.

Duke has a legit defense. They will win 8 games this year with that QB and that defense. It’s just that Miami is going to win 10 or 11.
 
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The single high safety and the nickel cb lined up over the slot is what we've been calling for. I'm ok with the occasional run by off the press , I'd much rather give that up than a death of a thousand cuts. Denofrio should've proved that point.

Diaz should calm down the blitzing and zone dogs, I know he likes that because it makes him look like a " genius". But it's just not necessary.

Pressing with 1 or two safeties deep gives the dl an extra second to get to the qb, which is a huge difference with the beasts we have. That's why we didn't see nearly as much pressure the first couple of games. Quick easy reads with nobody over the slot and cushions everywhere.

Going forward I expect the D to improve every week, the young guys will get more comfortable with what they're doing. Which will make Diaz trust them more.

Last point is the backup lb's are terrible, Gordonier and Steed would've been huge, Owens is the only I trust , at least a little. I wish we'd bring in more than just one lb this class. Maybe 1-2 hybrid types.
 
Great stuff, thanks for posting. I don't understand the constant rotation at LB, there is such a drop off from our first 3 to the second 3, I just don't get why we continue to rotate so much.
 
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That was a huge miss by Wilder.. sloppy technique on the opening kickoff
 
Putting the DE in the 2 point stance is a bit of a throwback to the defenses in the 1980's when teams were running a lot of freeze, load, WB, and veer option. It allowed the DE to read the action of the QB better since they were seeing the backfield from a better vantage point. it also improved the athletic positon/alignment, whether the DE was going to play a crash, stay, or feather technique against the QB, it was much more effective than if he was coming out of a 3 point stance.

As there is nothing new in football, I think with all the RPO, read option, etc. in the current game, the defensive coordinators are dusting off the playbooks from a couple decades ago. Happens all the time!
 
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Not trying to nitpick because this content is outstanding, and appreciate your work. But any reason in particular you don't use gifs? It makes everything clear to those that don't know so much about x and o's. If you're trying to be a sports writer, Brown over at Smart football does a good job of implementing videos and gifs to illustrate what he sees. It's really not hard to do and if you're spending so much time on these posts anyway... just a suggestion
 
Man I the only one who HATES that double blitz from the same side? It like we run that on every 3rd and short. I wouldn't have a problem with it if we did it from the slot and it was better disguised but we make it so obvious that we're blitzing when we do that play and we do it from the long side of the field so that blitzers has a long way to go before he gets to the QB while leaving HUGE holes behind them on the wide side of the field.
 
Putting the DE in the 2 point stance is a bit of a throwback to the defenses in the 1980's when teams were running a lot of freeze, load, WB, and veer option. It allowed the DE to read the action of the QB better since they were seeing the backfield from a better vantage point. it also improved the athletic positon/alignment, whether the DE was going to play a crash, stay, or feather technique against the QB, it was much more effective than if he was coming out of a 3 point stance.

As there is nothing new in football, I think with all the RPO, read option, etc. in the current game, the defensive coordinators are dusting off the playbooks from a couple decades ago. Happens all the time!

WTF would compel you to quote the entire OP? Downvoted just for that.
 
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Not trying to nitpick because this content is outstanding, and appreciate your work. But any reason in particular you don't use gifs? It makes everything clear to those that don't know so much about x and o's. If you're trying to be a sports writer, Brown over at Smart football does a good job of implementing videos and gifs to illustrate what he sees. It's really not hard to do and if you're spending so much time on these posts anyway... just a suggestion

It's definitely feedback that I'll take into consideration. I think it's probably 50/50 that would get point across better. So many little things that require stills to fully see. Other times a gif would get full appreciation of a play.

Sharp football does a great job at a lot of things, and their data usage is top notch.

Any suggestions for a gif maker? No promises, but I will investigate. It takes an hour to load the posts and photos alone.
 
Thanks for the write up. Very helpful and insightful. Agreed, this is a 10 or 11 win team with the game or so difference being these little mistakes which add up. Hopefully not this weekend, but like you said FSU has that extra half step. If we clean a lot of this up, I think we control things straight to the ACCCG.
 
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Our LBs overall haven't been great in space this year. I'm not sure what they expected after flashing well against traditional sets last year. We should have expected more of how Toledo attacked us and prepared accordingly. Actually, if FSU lines up in I-Form, we'll think the LBs suddenly played much better, but in reality we're just getting spread out other times.

Currently, Pinckney looks most comfortable in space, but I expect the other two starters to improve how they look against spread sets. Don't expect that for the backups, who are generally forward leaning players.

There a bunch more to be said about what to expect on how we look against what FSU does vs what the first two teams did and what Duke did. But, not a lot of time right now and no need to hijack this great thread.
 
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Our LBs overall haven't been great in space this year. I'm not sure what they expected after flashing well against traditional sets last year. We should have expected more of how Toledo attacked us and prepared accordingly. Actually, if FSU lines up in I-Form, we'll think the LBs suddenly played much better, but in reality we're just getting spread out other times.

Currently, Pinckney looks most comfortable in space, but I expect the other two starters to improve how they look against spread sets. Don't expect that for the backups, who are generally forward leaning players.

There a bunch more to be said about what to expect on how we look against what FSU does vs what the first two teams did and what Duke did. But, not a lot of time right now and no need to hijack this great thread.

Absolutely. Space is the great equalizer for teams, and why the spread is so hard to defend.

Looking forward to this Florida State game and reviewing it. Hopefully our LB's and DL are fully engaged in diagnosing screens and staying in their gaps because FSU will have that portion of their offense ready with some wrinkles we haven't seen.
 
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