Put some things in perspective

PennsylvaniaCane

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Wake has a very good coach and they’re a veteran pain in the *** physical team. They came out with a game plan to slow the game down. We in our usual fashion took the bait and played slow (8 minute drive to start the game).

Wake won 9 games last year including against 11 win UVA and SMU (who we lost to). They lost by 1 to GT when Haines King was healthy. They lost to Duke late in the year and then beat the brakes off an SEC Miss State in their bowl.

Last year we had a veteran OL, 6th year QB, 2 first round DEs, and a healthy elite secondary. We went on to lose 2 games against teams that employed the same strategy that we faced last night. Last night was Wakes Super Bowl. We dominated them in the first half. We were set to put the game away in the 3rd but the ACC officials, in their normal let’s tip the scales way, hit Wilson with the bs roughing that negated the fumble and they scored shortly after.

Last year, or **** any time over the last 20+ years, we would have probably lost last night. Instead we walked out with a 2 TD win.

Am I concerned about the injuries? Yes. Hopefully Mali, Mensah, Fletcher, Moten, are all healthy going forward. Prayers that Marty isn’t an ACL or worse.
Am I concerned about the OL? Yes. But I have to hope Mario and Mirabal saw something that kept them from portaling in some starters. To think they missed on all 3 evals (both guards and center) is doubtful I would hope.

Should we be happy with last night? No. But you can’t control injuries, can’t control the officials, and you can’t control another teams effort. What can they control.

Fix the OL. As I’ve seen mentioned on here they need to think about moving McCoy inside and just rolling the dice with one of the young guys at OT. Beyond SJ being limited due to his size, his processing looks slow.

I watched the sack in the first half a couple of times. It looks like Fletcher believed SJ was supposed to come off and pick up the blitzer. I don’t know for sure what their pass set rules are but I’d give Fletcher the benefit of the doubt there. And I say that because SJ ended up blocking air, as did Fletcher, but as an OL you have to be locked up with someone. He was looking for the blitzer who was already past him.

I’d move Buchanon to the LG spot, kick McCoy inside to RG and roll the dice with Cantwell and Congdon at RT. Yeah they’ll get schemed against and picked on but you can get them help. Because as it stands now the middle of the OL is a sieve.

If they’re going to continue to play with a small OL then they need to scheme it and get them in space. Space = time. Let them use their mobility. Move the pocket and go with more stretch runs opening up lanes. Because as it stands now we’re running like we’re 335 across the front. Even last year that got stuffed plenty. Now we’re 300 in the middle 3 and they’re getting rag dolled.

Dawson needs to not get lazy with his game plan. Yeah you can’t game plan losing your top WR, RBs, hobbled QB etc. But it’s apparent 2/3 of the play sheet is Mali.
 
And then there are the missed tackles on defense. A lot to get cleaned up across the team
I expect it to get better. It’s a problem across CFB. With the lack of tackling in practice it takes time for players to get re-acclimated to the speed of the game. People forget how many TFLs and sacks our guys overran last year the first 5-6 games of the year.
 
I love how our opponents always get better after games we struggle … now Wake is formidable to the whole board.

Where was this post agreeing with those concerned before the game amidst the peacocks?

It was in the bag with the “but we’ll score 40 on them, they’re Wake, no none will stop our offense”

That second half was atrocious and almost the entire game management was **** poor.

And we still won. Live to fight another day.
 
Your last sentence says it all about Dawson. He is stubborn or stupid with adjustments.
Dawson is a sports therapist that learned enough air raid such that a QB that he gets to the right vibe can carve folks up. He's never been particularly tactically adept. There's plenty of Houston complaints about the a-gap run scheme to prove it.
 
Fix the OL. As I’ve seen mentioned on here they need to think about moving McCoy inside and just rolling the dice with one of the young guys at OT. Beyond SJ being limited due to his size, his processing looks slow.

I watched the sack in the first half a couple of times. It looks like Fletcher believed SJ was supposed to come off and pick up the blitzer. I don’t know for sure what their pass set rules are but I’d give Fletcher the benefit of the doubt there. And I say that because SJ ended up blocking air, as did Fletcher, but as an OL you have to be locked up with someone. He was looking for the blitzer who was already past him.

SJ vs Air in a steel cage match book it.

The sheer quantity of plays tonight where he was blocking air or spinning around watching his QB get pressured was honestly PeeWee league ****.

He doesnt seek work. Maroon red flag.
 
Wake has a very good coach and they’re a veteran pain in the *** physical team. They came out with a game plan to slow the game down. We in our usual fashion took the bait and played slow (8 minute drive to start the game).

Wake won 9 games last year including against 11 win UVA and SMU (who we lost to). They lost by 1 to GT when Haines King was healthy. They lost to Duke late in the year and then beat the brakes off an SEC Miss State in their bowl.

Last year we had a veteran OL, 6th year QB, 2 first round DEs, and a healthy elite secondary. We went on to lose 2 games against teams that employed the same strategy that we faced last night. Last night was Wakes Super Bowl. We dominated them in the first half. We were set to put the game away in the 3rd but the ACC officials, in their normal let’s tip the scales way, hit Wilson with the bs roughing that negated the fumble and they scored shortly after.

Last year, or **** any time over the last 20+ years, we would have probably lost last night. Instead we walked out with a 2 TD win.

Am I concerned about the injuries? Yes. Hopefully Mali, Mensah, Fletcher, Moten, are all healthy going forward. Prayers that Marty isn’t an ACL or worse.
Am I concerned about the OL? Yes. But I have to hope Mario and Mirabal saw something that kept them from portaling in some starters. To think they missed on all 3 evals (both guards and center) is doubtful I would hope.

Should we be happy with last night? No. But you can’t control injuries, can’t control the officials, and you can’t control another teams effort. What can they control.

Fix the OL. As I’ve seen mentioned on here they need to think about moving McCoy inside and just rolling the dice with one of the young guys at OT. Beyond SJ being limited due to his size, his processing looks slow.

I watched the sack in the first half a couple of times. It looks like Fletcher believed SJ was supposed to come off and pick up the blitzer. I don’t know for sure what their pass set rules are but I’d give Fletcher the benefit of the doubt there. And I say that because SJ ended up blocking air, as did Fletcher, but as an OL you have to be locked up with someone. He was looking for the blitzer who was already past him.

I’d move Buchanon to the LG spot, kick McCoy inside to RG and roll the dice with Cantwell and Congdon at RT. Yeah they’ll get schemed against and picked on but you can get them help. Because as it stands now the middle of the OL is a sieve.

If they’re going to continue to play with a small OL then they need to scheme it and get them in space. Space = time. Let them use their mobility. Move the pocket and go with more stretch runs opening up lanes. Because as it stands now we’re running like we’re 335 across the front. Even last year that got stuffed plenty. Now we’re 300 in the middle 3 and they’re getting rag dolled.

Dawson needs to not get lazy with his game plan. Yeah you can’t game plan losing your top WR, RBs, hobbled QB etc. But it’s apparent 2/3 of the play sheet is Mali.
Well said.
 
Not even making excuses, but as OP said, Wake is not some scrub team. They are a solid program. 9 wins last year and probably are one of, if not the best second half adjustment teams in the conference. This was always going to be a tricky game. Still should've won by 4 scores. But yeah, injuries and an OL WIP -- a team like this gets sneaky scary real quick.
 
I love how our opponents always get better after games we struggle … now Wake is formidable to the whole board.

Where was this post agreeing with those concerned before the game amidst the peacocks?

It was in the bag with the “but we’ll score 40 on them, they’re Wake, no none will stop our offense”

That second half was atrocious and almost the entire game management was **** poor.

And we still won. Live to fight another day.
Wake was one of my games in offseason that was a worry for a "mario" game (VT is other).. So that alone shows we have grown and gotten better I guess..

Wake should of been a 10 win team last year (Got SCREWED against GT).. I said all offseason ****ert is a really good coach and I am sure him and his agent had this game circled to set his family up for generations. He even talked about how much time they put in summer on this game.

We were looking beastly in first half, second half was bizarre. But Hetherman and his crew being put on field multiple times stepped up and emptied the clip. He got deep in his bag and started cooking, ****ert talked about his adjustments in second half. Shout out to Hetherman
 
Wake was one of my games in offseason that was a worry for a "mario" game (VT is other).. So that alone shows we have grown and gotten better I guess..

Wake should of been a 10 win team last year (Got SCREWED against GT).. I said all offseason ****ert is a really good coach and I am sure him and his agent had this game circled to set his family up for generations. He even talked about how much time they put in summer on this game.

We were looking beastly in first half, second half was bizarre. But Hetherman and his crew being put on field multiple times stepped up and emptied the clip. He got deep in his bag and started cooking, ****ert talked about his adjustments in second half. Shout out to Hetherman
Was going to say the same thing. They beat GT. A blatant offsides penalty on GT was not called that would have ended the game.
 
Wake was one of my games in offseason that was a worry for a "mario" game (VT is other).. So that alone shows we have grown and gotten better I guess..

Wake should of been a 10 win team last year (Got SCREWED against GT).. I said all offseason ****ert is a really good coach and I am sure him and his agent had this game circled to set his family up for generations. He even talked about how much time they put in summer on this game.

We were looking beastly in first half, second half was bizarre. But Hetherman and his crew being put on field multiple times stepped up and emptied the clip. He got deep in his bag and started cooking, ****ert talked about his adjustments in second half. Shout out to Hetherman
Hetherman did all he could.

That said, this morning I saw their WRs/TE wide open in the middle between the eggs and waffles, but dropped their breakfast when it counted.

Side note:
If #7 plays with his eyes he is still running back a pick 6… into the end zone, up the hill, passed the Lawrence Joel Center … dude is halfway home by now …
 
It's really hard to try and analyze a game where it's 31-7 in the 3rd quarter of a Friday night away game at Wake. Even harder when your 3 best players on offense, the ones who run the entire machine, are all hurt.

The real story from this game is Miami dominated and then got extremely unlucky with injuries, which changed the trajectory of the entire game. Honestly, my biggest gripe is the OL and Dawson not having any answers for that situation. It's not even about scoring points. Not being able to get a first down for multiple drives....c'mon man. You gotta have 2-3 plays that are sure things to get some breathing room. Run some hard counts to try and get them offsides. Go tempo on 2nd down and try and catch them sleeping. You don't even have to have a play dialed up, just strategy.

But if you ask me how good a healthy Miami team is right now, I'd say pretty darn good. Wake is a good team and we were absolutely blowing them out into the 2nd half. If we didn't have any injuries and this happened I'd be worried. But what can you really infer based on what happened? If Toney and Flecther are in there at 100% are we having this conversation? No. The game probably ends 40+ to 14ish and we're talking about how we went to Wake on a Friday night and dominated them.

If I was them, I would use Central Michigan as a way to get guys like Barkate and Lyle/Mallory/Upshaw more involved. You need to establish an identity on offense that isn't spamming Toney. And I'm fine with spamming Toney, you just need that in case situations like tonight happen again. This offense needs to find a broader identity, or have one in its back pocket.
 
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