Look at some numbers: Post-game review of Pre-game Thoughts

LuCane

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POST-GAME THOUGHTS IN RED

- In App State's lone comparable game (UTenn) this year, they allowed 6 TFLs and no sacks.

What that means for us?

I would be surprised if we don't see another double digit TFL game or near it for our defense. Yes, our two previous opponents were not as good. Yes, App State runs the ball more. But, I think you'll see Diaz use the blitz to stop the run, as he's known to do.

We had 12 TFLs for -41 yards.

- 2 of those TFLs came from Kendall Vickers, UTenn's DT who was a former 3-star, 225 pound SSDE a few years back. Through 2 games, he's arguably been their most productive DL from a stats perspective.

What that means for us?

I don't believe Vickers is as talented as any of our top 3 DTs. Make of that what you wish. Diaz and Kul can place rotate DTs against their weaker Guard for the entire afternoon. App State does have a pro prospect listed along their OL interior.

The best example of this was in the 3rd and short play where Kendrick Norton blew up the play and got us off the field. As expected, the "weaker" Guard took the brunt and Norton/Willis got 3.5 TFLs together. Mcintosh had a quieter day in the stat column, but made excellent plays eating up guys on designed DL twists. Chad Thomas owes him a thank you for his sack.

- UT's Derek Barnett was more or less neutralized against App St.

What that means for us?

Barnett is a likely top 15 pick in next year's NFL draft. A former 4 star, he's been really productive. He's our Chad Thomas, though his build and position as an Edge rusher are more comparable to D-Jax against App state. Basically, don't expect a ton of sacks on Saturday unless App State goes down huge early, which is not entirely expected - especially if the weather fails to hold up. Their passing game and QB's style doesn't lend itself to sacks.

After loading up on sacks the previous two games, we only had 3 sacks all day. Expected because of App state's style of play and passing game.

- UT's leading solo tackler was their FS

What that means for us?

Manny Diaz likes to fit a particular coverage behind his aggressive fronts. Without going into that detail, it places the Safeties in a high pressure situation where, if the other team goes spread, the two safeties are expected to read the inside WR and many times fill the alley. Watch their feet at the snap. Instead of the 2 steps back you often saw last year, our 2 deep Safeties will remain relatively stagnant, pause or even lean forward. It's a significant change in how to play defense. I actually half expect Diaz to go slightly away from this coverage and show some single high safety with Jamal Carter coming straight downhill to fill. Don't be surprised if one of our three leading tacklers is either Carter, Jaquan or Jenkins.

Besides Chad Thomas having a ridiculous 9 tackle game and cleaning up almost everything, 4 of our top 7 tacklers were DBs. Jamal Carter had a nice statistical day with 6 total tackles and 3 solo ones.

- Two top tacklers for UT were both LBs

What that means for us?

This one is a little more obvious, I think. We're playing a zone option team. Our LBs are going to have to play well and tackle well on both inside and outside zones. Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but I think Shaq and Pinkney are made for stopping this type of offense. When the ball snaps, Shaq will already be halfway to blowing up his gap. Wouldn't be surprised if both of these guys end up with double digit tackles for the afternoon.

This was totally off. Pinkney and Quarterman combined for just 6 tackles. Interestingly, we played our backup LBs more than almost anyone could have predicted. Owens, Smith and Perry were in early and often. I'd be curious to see the snap counts. We're going to likely talk about this position more because they sometimes struggled with cutbacks and flashed some instances of weakness where those "chunk" running plays may show up later. Nonetheless, this unit combined with a freakish DL and DB run support to allow less than 3 yards per carry on nearly 50 running plays. Big, big stuff.

- App State's QB was 15/23 for 108 total passing yards

What that means for us?

I've discussed this throughout the week. The reason I'm confused by the vegas line and people's concerns is because our primary soft spot as a defense is not an area their QB has shown to accurately hit. What's more, against the type of competition they'll face on Saturday, App State has failed to show the ability to push the ball downfield. Of course, let's consider that Tennessee has two pro prospects at Corner. Luckily for us, I believe we clearly have one and Redwine is young and playing solidly.

Come on, man.

Talked about this all week leading up to the game. This is why I couldn't understand the betting line and made even easier $ than I expected on the game. Their QB threw for less than 50% completion rate on 22 attempts. He threw for a whopping 115 pass yards. He had some openings a couple times, but nowhere near the accuracy or arm strength to take advantage. Redwine had himself a seemingly nice game and his PBU led to Mike Smith's INT.


- App State was 3/13 on 3rd down conversions vs UTenn

What that means for us?

It goes along with the above about their QB's accuracy. I'll believe it when I see it. First things first: we have to keep them behind schedule and in uncomfortable 3rd down scenarios. If Saturday ends up being a rainy muck, this becomes even more important. You'd think our pass coverage is the most important key for this 3rd down conversion bullet point. I think it's a singular position: DT.

Thinking back to Diaz's scheme and its weak points, one of the biggest pressure points is whether a DT can hold up inside against a double team so that it places less pressure on the MLB getting chipped at the second level, which places less strain on the Safeties being asked to fill. Therefore, Kendrick Norton, please stand up. My personal perspective is you're going to see a hard, hard slanting defense and lots of gap exchange on 1st and 2nd down. Diaz will try to force as many 3rd and 7+ as he feasibly can.

More "come on, man." They were 2/13 on 3rd downs. Despite only 3 total sacks, we forced enough pressure without having to flash too much of our blitz packages. I am now certain those "hidden" blitz packages will make it to the FSU game. Can't wait.

It was, indeed, Kendrick Norton's day, as he had 5 total tackles and 2 TFLs.

- App State and Tennessee played an incredibly tight game and went into OT

What that means for us?

I grinned ear to ear when I saw this live. App State had to show nearly everything sans whatever handful of wrinkles they've installed. We should not be completely caught by surprise more than a few times. We know what they'll do offensively. They have to now beat us in individual matchups and I don't believe they can do that consistently enough.

45-10. Next.
 
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Thanks for the quick review. I hope that the people that read it won't find it necessary to cut/paste/copy it to their replies.. We all have the ability to read the excellent post without them reposting it multiple times..
 
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Good work, canefam.

I wish you would have responded to my comment about all of the soft coverage app played against tennessee and how richt would attack it.

I said all week that there was no way they can beat us if they play afraid like that.

Lo and behold, that fear led to their demise. Richt totally exploited that coverage until crAPP state adjusted.

Richt looked like a kid playing madden out there. Staring down the opposing DC while he takes candy from the babies.

Friggin beautiful site.

Im beyond hype that he's calling plays for us.

The man is an elite competitor.
 
Good work, canefam.

I wish you would have responded to my comment about all of the soft coverage app played against tennessee and how richt would attack it.

Sorry, dude. Didn't see it. Loved seeing it for two reasons:

1. It obviously worked easily. Matched with the tempo (which I LOVED), those dudes were spinning out there.
2. It allowed us to show hardly anything...again.
 
Excellent write up, that part about the linebackers I think it looked more like the freshmen weren't use to the zone blocking and their offenses option attack. It slowed them down.

I did see Michael Pinckney make a couple nice plays but all three were a little slow processing everything bc of their inexperience.

Which isn't alarming, but I think our veteran LBs may get more burn against GT as well to limit the mental mistakes.
 
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Excellent write up, that part about the linebackers I think it looked more like the freshmen weren't use to the zone blocking and their offenses option attack. It slowed them down.

I did see Michael Pickney make a couple nice plays but all three were a little slow processing everything bc of their inexperience.

Which isn't alarming, but I think our veteran LBs may get more burn against GT as well to limit the mental mistakes.

Interesting take.

It also has to do with the fact our DL mauled their OL today, as they absolutely should have done.

8.5 Tackles for loss from our DLinemen alone. Just repeat that in the context of what we have seen here. Makes me almost as angry as it makes me happy.
 
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Good work, canefam.

I wish you would have responded to my comment about all of the soft coverage app played against tennessee and how richt would attack it.

Sorry, dude. Didn't see it. Loved seeing it for two reasons:

1. It obviously worked easily. Matched with the tempo (which I LOVED), those dudes were spinning out there.
2. It allowed us to show hardly anything...again.

Good work, canefam.

I wish you would have responded to my comment about all of the soft coverage app played against tennessee and how richt would attack it.

Sorry, dude. Didn't see it. Loved seeing it for two reasons:

1. It obviously worked easily. Matched with the tempo (which I LOVED), those dudes were spinning out there.
2. It allowed us to show hardly anything...again.

I figured you noticed the coverage i was just surprised you didnt mention it as a part of your original assessment as it was a glaring hole in app states defense that Tennessee didnt even attempt to exploit.

It worked so well with the tempo that apps defense was gassed by the middle of the 2nd quarter.

Agreed, major plus to run the same basic vanilla plays and have success.

The beauty of it is the fact that the plays themselves are basic but the precision and rhythm with which they are dialed up are a work of art.

Not many coaches have that knack.

#richtgang
 
Good call on the LBs. I noticed the backups in a lot, too. We seemed to be rotating a lot. I saw Bethel in the game relatively early.
 
Good work, canefam.

I wish you would have responded to my comment about all of the soft coverage app played against tennessee and how richt would attack it.

Sorry, dude. Didn't see it. Loved seeing it for two reasons:

1. It obviously worked easily. Matched with the tempo (which I LOVED), those dudes were spinning out there.
2. It allowed us to show hardly anything...again.

153-23 over the first three games and averaging over 500 yards of offense.

Still running the installs from the spring. Freaking love it.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Good call on the LBs. I noticed the backups in a lot, too. We seemed to be rotating a lot. I saw Bethel in the game relatively early.

We talked about this before the season started, so I thought to respond to you with:

40 Tackles for Loss through 3 games.
Had 71 TFLs in 13 games last year.

Let's see how we do in comparison to league play last year. Should be interesting.
 
Excellent write up, that part about the linebackers I think it looked more like the freshmen weren't use to the zone blocking and their offenses option attack. It slowed them down.

I did see Michael Pickney make a couple nice plays but all three were a little slow processing everything bc of their inexperience.

Which isn't alarming, but I think our veteran LBs may get more burn against GT as well to limit the mental mistakes.

Agree 100%. Our young guys played tentative outside of called blitzes. There was a lot of catching blocks today or even undercutting. They need to fight over those blocks. Film session will be very useful for them this week. Throw in the extra week of prep and I feel good about our LB's against Ga Tech. Also, hat tip to Mike Smith. Kid can play some ball. Best widows peak since Eddie Munster to boot.

Go Canes!
 
I thought the up-tempo was a welcomed sight after watching the snail pace, "look to the sidelines for calls" , that was run by Coley last year.
So far I really like what Richt is doing.
 
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