You might be right. It's one game and my concerns about the OL aren't over. If they revert back to their early-season form, we're going to struggle.
The Nebraska team we saw vs McNeese would've been lucky to win 7 games. The one we saw today probably plays for the B1G CCG.
That's not to say your DL isn't horrible. I'm sure that's right. I saw that former Miami player who was criticizing the scheme on Twitter and agreed with a lot of what he wrote.
I'm just making the point that we do have a very talented offense. It all hinges on the OL and, if they can't dominate, how creatively we can compensate.
You have some great athletes on offense. I'd take the RB and #80 on my team any day. Frankly, I thought #80 was going to kill us today. Sadly, he didn't even need to try. Your scheme was well-setup for our rigidity. You'd send WRs at LBs and Safeties and leave our Corners either lost or on an island figuring out how they'd tackle a bowling ball coming downhill.
If they'd allow me to take our athletes and matchup with your team, I'd:
- cross blitz you to death
- I'd gap exchange your run scheme till your QB turned into Roberto Duran in November of 1980 (no mas).
Your OLine looked flat-footed at times. You'd come out in trips or those funky twin formations meant to move our base D players (an unnecessary LB) into outer space.
I'd come out with 5 DBs.
- All of my DLinemen would be viciously slanting all game against your run scheme.
- Deon Bush, a Safety we played 15 yards away from the ball quite a bit and sometimes rolled down late, wouldn't be any further than 3 yards from the LOS the entire game against your team. I'd blitz him and drop a stand up DE.
- I'd make your very athletic and strong armed QB use his accuracy to beat my players on what would need to be perfectly-timed vertical routes on the outside and down the seam.
- Considering I never saw him make a second read, I imagine he'd have a harder time.
In short, think of what our defense did this game, and I'd do the opposite. Maybe your team would have still won, but I don't think they would have looked as good as they did tonight. Our alignments and overall style made things look great for your team. We've done that quite a bit over the past couple seasons.
We'll see what happens for the rest of the year.