I Rewatched the Five Straight 3-and-outs

[Calinative]

We basically abandoned 10-personnel this game....

We also abandoned most of the rotation stupidly that we had been seeing.

 

[joeB954]

Dawson is Jekyll and Hyde. Sometimes good, sometimes terrible. I'm assuming guys being dinged up changed the game and play calling, but is was really just typical Dawson. He's never out schemed anybody. Never. Doesn't matter who the opponent is, same play calling. Very easy to figure out for opposing coaches.

Wake DC must have turned Dawson’s brain to mush. He had no answers whatsoever. They might has well have had our entire playbook. It’s what it looked like.

 

[rsa coral gables]

A few things.

1. By the time we went cold, both Mensah and Toney were banged up. Obviously not bad enough to pull them, but it certainly impacted the quality of their play. You could see both of them stretching and working on impacted body parts while the defense was on the field.

2. The overthrow to Lofton was hurried, and while Mensah has hit that pass before (notably, the first TD to Toney against Stanford), the earlier pain and the desire not to be hurt more at this point in the game may have caused him to throw it a bit harder than he should have.

3. Don't listen to the announcers, they have no idea who was hurting at that time in the game.

I will say the same thing that I have said in other threads related to the mishandling of the clock at the end of the first half and the decision to kick a 54 yard FG, we should have been trying to score more points to take the fight out of Wake. Their players were pushing our guys to fight, they were going for 2 points when down 24, and they were calling timeouts while down 2 scores with 5 minutes to go. They were doing everything possible to fight as hard as possible, and we needed knockout blows earlier. NOT FOR POINT SPREAD, but to end the game and allow us to play the backups and nurse our injuries.

In one game, we took hits to:

1. Possible first-round DL
2. Our top-2 RBs
3. Our All-American QB
4. Our All-World WR
5. At least one somewhat-needed DB

Now, some of those injuries may be minor, but if Wake was a more physical team that could hit harder, that would be SIX brutal injuries in one game. That is a game where you need to administer the knockout as quickly as possible to get your best players off the field.

The field goal try was a mistake. This game was our Antietam

 

[CanesAreAble]

Some of those dink LOS throws are worse than runs. We weren't fooling them at all.

I counted 3 screens, and 2 were on the same possession. The other short throws looked like checkdowns.

 

[rsa coral gables]

I

Exactly.

Why!?

Maybe because Mensah had less than two seconds to throw the ball

 

[Glow]

I don't understand why Lofton was getting so much burn in obvious passing sets. For example, on the possession that began at our 14-yard line at 8:51 in the 4th quarter, it was 3rd & 6. We're in a 2x2 set with Lofton flexed to the slot like he's Kyle Pitts or something.

What is the scenario where doing this adds value over putting a WR there? You show that look then change formation and bring in him to block on a 3rd and 6 run, or something ? Is he keeping an opposing LB on the field that would be off with a sub?

 

[Brooklyndee]

I tried to figure out how and why our offense just died after looking unstoppable.

The offensive line had a few bad reps, but they weren't the main culprit.

The two biggest issues I saw:

1. Playcalling/personnel grouping

I don't understand why Lofton was getting so much burn in obvious passing sets. For example, on the possession that began at our 14-yard line at 8:51 in the 4th quarter, it was 3rd & 6. We're in a 2x2 set with Lofton flexed to the slot like he's Kyle Pitts or something. Wake brings a 5-man pressure, but Mensah has time to get rid of the ball. On the broadcast, Jordan Rodgers said Mensah should've looked for Toney on the other side. I don't think the slot go-ball was a bad decision, IF you have a WR in the game. If that's Upshaw/Spafford/Wingo/Jacobs, it's probably a touchdown. Instead he slightly overshoots Lofton.

On top of that, Dawson ran cold with the playcalling. Bunch sets to the boundary instead of getting guys in space. We ran a couple mesh concepts (one against man, one against zone), but neither worked. As dialed as he was in the 1st half and the beginning of the 3rd quarter, he was just off.

If you're gonna insist on Lofton in the game, maybe run some pistol w/ some boot action. Maybe run a counter off the TE wheel we hit for a TD in the 2nd quarter.

I've seen some say Dawson got conservative, but that's not really what I saw. Only 3 of the 15 plays called in that stretch were runs. And yes I know you can still call passes and be conservative, but that just wasn't the case, IMO.

He was simply not good. Bad time for Dawson to get cold.


2. Mensah having an uncharacteristically poor stretch

Mensah has been better than advertised, and **** near perfect. But this was a bit of a rough stretch for him. I thought his eyes were in the wrong place a couple times. I thought he didn't pull the trigger on one play that was there. That was when Dawson went over to talk to him. He looked ****ed after the game. I think he knows he could've played better and we should've choked them out when it was 31-13.


I know I said the OL wasn't the main culprit, but they weren't a strength, either. The IOL simply has to get better. That would alleviate some of the pressure on Mensah to be nearly flawless. Being able to run for 4 or 5 yards consistently would open up so much. That was the underrated strength of the 2024 offense with Cam Ward. We were 5th in the nation in ypc. We dropped to 82nd last year.

Right now, we're much closer to 2025 than 2024, but we don't have the elite pass-blocking and short-yardage running to compensate.

Mario and Mirabal are really gonna have to earn their money this season.

A QB like mensah you have to keep in the rhythm of the game . You can't turn around after being virtually unstoppable and change the entire concepts were running. Zero logic in consistently running bubble screens etc when they're stacking the box the entirety of the second half. Playcalling was just **** and we have him to blame for our defense now having a ton of tape on it. All things those of us that know the game were aware of but now it's been substantiated. You can't disappear on offense and then expect defense to be a strength when you strand them on the field the whole half. We already knew our secondary was beyond stretched thin. We already knew we struggle to get the pass rush home and we already knew the lbers need the line to be disruptive when you put you're and smith on the field together. Now you also turn around and blitz thorton and jj the whole second half which exposed those same linebackers in the pass game... Coaching on both sides of the ball really let us down.