terdferguson
Junior
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2012
- Messages
- 1,536
You have to be really careful with cause and effect. Seems like most people attribute the second half offensive production to going conservative. It's a natural correlation to make....the offense isn't working therefore, people wonder why aren't we doing what worked in the first half? You combine that with Al Golden's history and the conclusion is: we must have gone conservative. That's not what happened, in my opinion.
Here's what I saw at the game. I watched the alignment of the FSU defense all game. In the first half, they played almost exclusively with 1 safety deep. They made a real commitment to stop the run by bringing up an extra defender. That left some one on one matchups in the secondary that we took advantage of. Second half FSU almost exclusively had 2 safeties deep, and did not bring up an extra man. They played a lot of zone, had more guys in the secondary and relied on their base d to slow our run game. We ran the ball more in the second half but that's what we should do in response to their change in defensive alignment. Take advantage of what the defense gives you. For the most part we had success running the ball against this alignment and if we should have had more success I would point the finger at our oline. They have to dominate their front 7 if they don't stack the box.
Despite them giving us the run, we still took some shots and tried some of the things that worked in the first half. We threw a couple long balls, we went to the TE down the middle several times, etc. But for varying reasons it didn't work out.
Here are the main reasons why our offense didn't get it done in the second half:
1. Kaaya was a little off. To me he seemed a little scared to make a mistake. Exhibit A is the Coley miss down the sidelines. He put the ball where only Coley could get it or it would be out of bounds. But the safety was late getting over, he could have been more aggressive and thrown it more into the field. I recall another play where Walford broke open down the seam but he threw it so late that the FSU defender had time to recover and break it up. It's the same play that goes for big yardage in the first half because Kayaa makes a better throw.
2. Tipped passes by FSU. I counted 3 plays that would have been big if not for a tipped pass. First was the little dump off to Yearby that was batted down. Yearby had a lot of real estate out there in front of him. There was only one defender over there, Yearby beats that guy and it's a huge play. Second was the tipped ball on the downfield pass to Dorsett. I'm not sure if Kaaya made an inaccurate throw or was late, but Dorsett was open, Walford was open, there was another guy open too. That play should have been an easy pitch and catch for 25+ yards and would have put us deep into FSU territory. Third was the hot read to Dorsett. Guy was wide open coming off the line. Had potential to be a huge play. All three were plays where the FSU defender made a play. In the first half no one batted those balls and those throws went for big plays. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.
3. Duke's cramps. FSU was taking away the pass and giving us the run, meanwhile Duke isn't 100%. Bad, bad timing.
The real concern about the offense isn't going conservative, it's why does our offense sputter in the second half after the other team makes adjustments? This isn't just an FSU game thing, it's a pattern with Coley. We're really not going to win games like this until Coley gets that figured out. Should be priority #1 for him in the offseason. I like the philosophy for the second half: FSU is giving us the run, so let's run but still mix in the some of the passing plays that worked in the first half. However Coley falls short in execution. Here are two tweaks that I would have made:
One play that would have been nice to see is a safe play action pass. Like the play you see Bama and so many NFL teams run where you play action a stretch play and then hit the TE on a shallow cross going the other way. Usually good for 7-10 yards. We did have success running the ball in the second half, but we can't just hand it off every play. This type of play would have been very useful to mix in, keep the chains moving and keep some of these drives going. It can't be just deep seam pass to Walford, bomb to Dorsett or handoff to Duke. Especially after FSU keyed on taking away the long ball.
Second, I think Coley loses creativity as the game wears on. How vanilla was the 4th down call to end the game? What happened to the Duke wildcat after it worked? In the first half we have some different creative formations with Tucker and Walford out wide that confused FSU. We saw Duke and Yearby on the field at the same time with Yearby going in motion out wide. My impression is that as the game went on, this creativity lessened. Coley needs to either save some stuff for the 4th quarter or be comfortable with running some of these plays multiple times.
As for the defense, we went a little conservative but not full on old school Dorito prevent defense. We rushed either 4 or 5 on just about every play of the second half (something I keyed on). If we went full Dorito we would have seen the dbs playing in the club seats and 3 dts in the frog stance. There was none of that. I remember a play late in the game where FSU was 4 wide and we had 1 safety with 4 dbs pressed right up on the line. Loved seeing that!
The real problem on defense is the lack of pass rush and the lack of creative blitzes. FSU's oline gobbled up our blitzes. I would have liked to see us come with something a little more "exotic" as Al likes to say. I've watched FSU play a lot of games this season and just about everyone else put Winston on his *** all game long. UVA crushed the guy last week. There's no reason why with 2 weeks to prepare we shouldn't have been able to come up with better pressure packages.
To help with the pass rush we need to hire a new dline coach. It makes a difference. Remember in the mid 2000s when our dline sucked? We hired Palermo and immediately we had a great line. Shannon ran him off, hired Hurtt and our line sucked again. No one can tell me that all these dlinemen are busts. We have some talent, get a good dl coach in here pronto.
Here's what I saw at the game. I watched the alignment of the FSU defense all game. In the first half, they played almost exclusively with 1 safety deep. They made a real commitment to stop the run by bringing up an extra defender. That left some one on one matchups in the secondary that we took advantage of. Second half FSU almost exclusively had 2 safeties deep, and did not bring up an extra man. They played a lot of zone, had more guys in the secondary and relied on their base d to slow our run game. We ran the ball more in the second half but that's what we should do in response to their change in defensive alignment. Take advantage of what the defense gives you. For the most part we had success running the ball against this alignment and if we should have had more success I would point the finger at our oline. They have to dominate their front 7 if they don't stack the box.
Despite them giving us the run, we still took some shots and tried some of the things that worked in the first half. We threw a couple long balls, we went to the TE down the middle several times, etc. But for varying reasons it didn't work out.
Here are the main reasons why our offense didn't get it done in the second half:
1. Kaaya was a little off. To me he seemed a little scared to make a mistake. Exhibit A is the Coley miss down the sidelines. He put the ball where only Coley could get it or it would be out of bounds. But the safety was late getting over, he could have been more aggressive and thrown it more into the field. I recall another play where Walford broke open down the seam but he threw it so late that the FSU defender had time to recover and break it up. It's the same play that goes for big yardage in the first half because Kayaa makes a better throw.
2. Tipped passes by FSU. I counted 3 plays that would have been big if not for a tipped pass. First was the little dump off to Yearby that was batted down. Yearby had a lot of real estate out there in front of him. There was only one defender over there, Yearby beats that guy and it's a huge play. Second was the tipped ball on the downfield pass to Dorsett. I'm not sure if Kaaya made an inaccurate throw or was late, but Dorsett was open, Walford was open, there was another guy open too. That play should have been an easy pitch and catch for 25+ yards and would have put us deep into FSU territory. Third was the hot read to Dorsett. Guy was wide open coming off the line. Had potential to be a huge play. All three were plays where the FSU defender made a play. In the first half no one batted those balls and those throws went for big plays. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.
3. Duke's cramps. FSU was taking away the pass and giving us the run, meanwhile Duke isn't 100%. Bad, bad timing.
The real concern about the offense isn't going conservative, it's why does our offense sputter in the second half after the other team makes adjustments? This isn't just an FSU game thing, it's a pattern with Coley. We're really not going to win games like this until Coley gets that figured out. Should be priority #1 for him in the offseason. I like the philosophy for the second half: FSU is giving us the run, so let's run but still mix in the some of the passing plays that worked in the first half. However Coley falls short in execution. Here are two tweaks that I would have made:
One play that would have been nice to see is a safe play action pass. Like the play you see Bama and so many NFL teams run where you play action a stretch play and then hit the TE on a shallow cross going the other way. Usually good for 7-10 yards. We did have success running the ball in the second half, but we can't just hand it off every play. This type of play would have been very useful to mix in, keep the chains moving and keep some of these drives going. It can't be just deep seam pass to Walford, bomb to Dorsett or handoff to Duke. Especially after FSU keyed on taking away the long ball.
Second, I think Coley loses creativity as the game wears on. How vanilla was the 4th down call to end the game? What happened to the Duke wildcat after it worked? In the first half we have some different creative formations with Tucker and Walford out wide that confused FSU. We saw Duke and Yearby on the field at the same time with Yearby going in motion out wide. My impression is that as the game went on, this creativity lessened. Coley needs to either save some stuff for the 4th quarter or be comfortable with running some of these plays multiple times.
As for the defense, we went a little conservative but not full on old school Dorito prevent defense. We rushed either 4 or 5 on just about every play of the second half (something I keyed on). If we went full Dorito we would have seen the dbs playing in the club seats and 3 dts in the frog stance. There was none of that. I remember a play late in the game where FSU was 4 wide and we had 1 safety with 4 dbs pressed right up on the line. Loved seeing that!
The real problem on defense is the lack of pass rush and the lack of creative blitzes. FSU's oline gobbled up our blitzes. I would have liked to see us come with something a little more "exotic" as Al likes to say. I've watched FSU play a lot of games this season and just about everyone else put Winston on his *** all game long. UVA crushed the guy last week. There's no reason why with 2 weeks to prepare we shouldn't have been able to come up with better pressure packages.
To help with the pass rush we need to hire a new dline coach. It makes a difference. Remember in the mid 2000s when our dline sucked? We hired Palermo and immediately we had a great line. Shannon ran him off, hired Hurtt and our line sucked again. No one can tell me that all these dlinemen are busts. We have some talent, get a good dl coach in here pronto.
