Lance Roffers
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Welcome back to Upon Further Review, where each week we will review the previous week’s Miami Hurricanes game and see what occurred on film. It has been an arduous path to this point and I know many of you are tired of reading and seeing the same issues crop up on film, but I thank you for sticking with us as we endure the pain together. This week another loss, this time to Duke at home for the first time since the 70's.
Miami has the ball on 1st down. Of the nine games Miami has played thus far, the first play of the game has been a dive play against LSU (2 yards, Savannah State (loss of 2 yards), FIU (9 yards), FSU (1 yard), Boston College (3 yards), Duke (3 yards). That’s a total of 13 yards in six games. Basically, if you play Miami, line up and expect them to run the ball on the first play and to stop them after a very short gain. We came out and passed the ball against Toledo and scored a TD on the drive. We passed against UNC for a 28-yard gain to Harley. We passed against Virginia and tried the back-to-back dives on 3rd and 4th to get stopped in that game. If you want to open up the running game, you are going to have to prove you can hurt them with the pass first. (Commentary)
Navaughn Donaldson immediately whipped by the DT at the snap on a designed QB run.
After the next play Gauthier has just an unbelievably stupid penalty. When will players learn that hitting guys after the fact ends in huge penalties. Let people talk. Seriously. Quit retaliating because they always catch the second guy. It makes my blood boil that a Senior is getting penalties like that and killing drives. (Commentary)
3rd & long and Rosier throws a perfect ball to Cager. Cager has both hands on the ball and is supposed to be our big WR. This is exactly the play he needs to make.
Miami gets the ball back and here is a nice job of blocking by the OL. If read the preview of the game you would’ve read this statement: “Miami can move the ball on this team and will need to do so with more edge runs rather than trying to slam the ball into the middle off of dive plays.”
Gauthier gets a nice seal block to the inside, Scaife does an excellent job on his reach block on the move and Donaldson gets enough of his man to get him out of the hole. Homer cuts off their hips inside and get 11.
Miami gets a great effort from Homer on 1st down to pick up 5. Then they run the same exact play to get 3 more. (Not pictured)
3rd & 2 and Miami decides to run the same play for the third straight play. They run the dive play again and the LB’s are just absolutely crashing the play. Same play with the read and everything. You tell me if the slot would pick up the 1st down with a simple flip out to him on the edges here. Those guys are way off of him, but instead we want to run the dive play again.
On the 4th down play if you think Duke expected something short, you’d be correct. Their DC definitely scouted our offense. All 11 players in the screen, none more than 5-yards off the LOS. In empty we like to run Rosier on QB runs so the defense sends a CB blitz out of the slot to keep him from getting wide to that side. The MLB is running over to take the slant away from the slot they blitzed from. Rosier decides to take a deep shot to Cager and throws the ball out-of-bounds. It wouldn’t have been complete against air. I have a real problem with the play call here because I simply cannot understand how you see that defensive alignment and don’t call for rub routes to both sides to get guys open in the flats or over the MOF. Harley is running right with Cager, so again it’s a bunch of vertical routes on 4th & 2. The play caller is supposed to maximize the chances of success for your offense and on 4th down the sole objective is to pick up the 1st down and this was a very low percentage play of that happening. The OL picked up the blitz fairly well on this play.
1st down and Dallas just completely whiffs on this block. They slid their protection to the right to catch the edge blitz to Scaife’s side. Dallas is supposed to come across and get the edge player (though I’d rather they have St. Louis take that man and Jahair take the other man by himself rather than asking a RB to block a DE so that you can double a DT). DeeJay doesn’t get a hand on him, Perry avoids him, dumps it off to Dallas, who is swallowed up by the LB who has him in man coverage. Our offense can’t get out of their own way.
3rd & 13 and we give the dive that Homer bounces to the outside for a gain of a few. Punt was very poor and Duke has great field position. (Not pictured)
3rd and 6 and Perry has a designed QB run. Donaldson releases down to the LB, Scaife takes his man, Mahoney seals his man and Gauthier redirected the DT to Mahoney. Perry picks it up. If Miami comes back to this play there is an outlet to Homer if Duke crashes on the run early. *After watching the rest of the game, they did not come back to this play.*
1st and 2nd downs are inside runs to Homer to bring up 3rd & 4. Coach is trying to play it safe with Perry in the game in the rain, but really what that does is make the job harder for the young QB, not easier. The defense is able to key on pass on 3rd down, so if they want to open up that run, they’re going to need to throw the ball on earlier downs. It can even be swing passes/bubbles/RB’s over the middle, but there needs to be something to get the defense from running downhill on early downs. (Not pictured)
Donaldson is beaten by his man who gets right into the throwing lane for Perry here. This is the hardest rain I’ve seen in a game in my time breaking down film. It’s miserable out here. Look at the routes Miami is running on this play. Stop route at the sticks and two out routes at the sticks. A wheel route to Homer. Perry takes Brevin here, who is the inside slot and not close to open. The outside out route is open if he has time, but just nothing over the MOF in this rain? In this game, Donaldson has been by far the worst OL. He’s been a much bigger problem than the other G. Let Boulware have a chance at that spot. RG is the place that Boulware has played the best when he’s been in games.
Malik is back into the game. I’m guessing after Richt saw N’Kosi throw the out to a fully covered Brevin (that should’ve been intercepted) he decided to go back to the guy he’s comfortable with. 1st down and a few things on this play. 1. It’s why Richt will tell you he calls the dive so often. Coaches believe that if you keep hitting at the wall eventually it will cave and you’ll pop one. Even if it’s a bit stubborn. 2. The jet motion with Wiggins has the defenses’ attention. 3. It’s a heavy package with an inline TE and an offset FB. This is exactly a look that Pittsburgh gave to Duke last week with great success. Second shot shows #9 still chasing Wiggins and not aware of the handoff at all. The S is sprinting down to cover the jet motion and this why the play gets housed. Without that, the S probably makes the tackle after a 1st down. Brevin takes his man to Bolivia, Gray comes across and kicks out the edge and Scaife and Donaldson collapse things inside. This didn’t “work” because of the motion, it worked because of the execution. This play scored a TD because of the motion though.
You see the man turning horizontally towards Dallas here? That’s the S who was crashing hard because of the jet motion. He’s standing on the yellow line right now if there was no motion. Our offensive struggles are because of execution, yes, but they’re also because the OC is not consistently calling/creating plays that moves the defense and puts them in places they are uncomfortable. If Duke wants to bring that S down when we go jet motion, they’re welcome to do so, but you have to punish them for it as well. Miami moves that S down but doesn’t trail across the formation with the CB. That means that deep S transfers over into single-high and he’d be deeper and further over here. The play would still “work” if Duke had played it that way, but it wouldn’t have been a TD. It’s what is expected of an OC and is the reason we need to hire one. Put them in the box so they see these things and know when to come back to them. (Commentary)
Miami does the pop pass to Jeff Thomas I’ve been calling for but the big difference between what Miami is doing and what other teams are doing is in a numbers disadvantage. Miami does not have a blocker on the edge other than the WR to that side. The S, when they mirror down, does not have anyone to navigate and just comes up and tackles him. (Not pictured)
2nd down and again Miami uses counter principles to pull the eyes of the defense away from what they’re intending to do. Brevin here comes across the formation just after the snap and you can see the LB to near side (just on the 21 nearest to the bottom) is looking at Brevin and going to that side and out of the gap that Miami is going to run through.
Here is the LB on the other side of Donaldson now following Brevin. If the LB stays in the gap, Rosier has a lead blocker in Brevin against the edge #51. Good job by everyone up front here and look at Boulware in the game and immediately locking his man down. This is a cool play design and I hope we see more of these last couple of plays I’ve reviewed. Not because they worked, but because the play design actually schemes the big play rather than relying simply on man-on-man wins.
By the way, it’s a TD if Langham simply blocks the DB here. What in the world is he doing here? It’s like he’s trying to race the DB. I truly do not understand what it is that he’s thinking. Homer is looking over and I’m sure thinking, “dude, are you not going to block the guy right next to you?”
Homer must be in great shape because he goes for 43 yards and then gets the next carry on a dive play. (Not pictured)
On a sloppy field it’s always been said that the offense has an advantage because they know where they’re going. Thomas is wide-open on the slant here though Duke is trying to jump it. Rosier takes the deep shot to Cager instead and he gets away with a push-off to come back on the punt-pass. This play is what lays the seed into the officials minds for the push-off call later in the game that wasn’t nearly as egregious as this one was.
They tried the QB run on 1st down like they almost always do in the red zone. Duke strings it out and it’s virtually nothing. (Not pictured)
Next play is the poorly thrown fade to Hightower who gets interfered with. It was underthrown, but the ball still hits Hightower right in the chest. He needs to make that play for his QB. (Not pictured)
I will write this again; Duke struggles with OZ runs. We’ve run two of them thus far. One went for 11 yards. Then we run this one and Homer scores a TD. Look at Boulware completely owning his man next to Gauthier here. Homer cuts off their hips and walks in. Scaife just gets enough of his cut block up top and Donaldson got to his man at the second level nicely. St. Louis got knocked on his backside here. You can see him going down at the 8-yard line.
The two-point conversion had me triggered when I watched it live. We’ve got tight splits and Langham to the boundary. We actually motioned Langham to the other side. If I’m the defense I immediately think this is going to be sprint right because they’re leaving room for Cager to run an out-breaking route. Motioning Langham over there brings a third receiver into that area.
Then, not only do we not threaten the backside, we actually left Brevin in to block. Why are we not releasing him over the middle if we are going to run three receivers into that same zone and let them clear and have Brevin trailing? The result is that St. Louis never touches a soul. Donaldson never touches a soul because they have no one to block. The coaches obviously anticipated run but the alignment of the play told Duke what was coming. The play has no chance and #44 just comes in and tackles Rosier, who has to at least throw the ball up to one of his receivers and ask them to make a play, not just take a sack like that.
Run the pop pass to Thomas on 1st down and it would’ve worked for a nice gain but they blitzed it off the edge and Scaife can’t get there in time. It forces Thomas to bubble instead of running straight to the edge. I can’t fault the coaches because they started calling a play I’ve been wanting but we have simply not executed it well and the defense is crashing everything in this weather.
Run OZ and Dallas breaks a tackle and gets 19 yards. I say again, “Duke has trouble defending the OZ.”
Miami gets a false start from Brevin and it sets everything back in this weather. Run Homer inside twice in-a-row to bring up 3rd and long. (Not pictured)
Scaife is beaten immediately. Brevin isn’t running a route. I’m not sure what he’s doing. On 3rd & 8 it’s all deep routes except for a stop route to the top of the screen that Rosier is looking at. Rosier has to throw it away due to pressure.
Next drive as time is running out Rosier finally keeps on the read and gets a big gain off-the-edge. He is going to have to keep that ball at least 3-4 times a gain if we’re going to run the read as much as we do. Teams aren’t respecting the QB run. It’s basically halftime as we let the clock run. (Not pictured)
Tried to run a stretch play and it was not good. One of the problems that Jahair really runs into is he is “sticky” to first blocks. He is supposed to stand this guy up and then release onto the LB. He gets stuck on the DL and never gets to the LB who just runs by him and tackles Homer for a loss. Gauthier gets blown back into the backfield and everything is a mess.
It’s 3rd & 8 and you run a dive play. That is one of those play calls that signals a “give up” to me. I tweeted during the game that our play calls act as if we’re up 28 and not 5. I actually like the play design. Brevin comes across the formation and gets a wham block on the edge player that you’d normally read. Homer runs behind it and it’s well done, but here is the problem with having so many tendencies; look at the slot CB. He’s already sprinting in on this play rather than honoring the bubble to that side. If they throw the bubble to Thomas, you’ve got a blocker on the edge and a defender 8-yards away trying to make an open field tackle in muck. Instead, #33 crashes from the side and stops Homer before he can get the 1st down. If #33 stays on his man on this play Homer gets it easily. I actually hope to see more of this run design in the future. I actually think Brevin might have been a lead blocker on the play and peeled off when he saw the edge so far upfield. On a dry track you might be able to hit that faster and really have something.
2nd down and Miami tries to run a stretch play and Gauthier is just forklifted here. I believe a lot of our problems on the OL are technique based as our players seem to understand neither footwork, base, nor leverage in playing on the line. Gauthier has to hook under that arm and turn his hips the other way to gain leverage on this DT. Instead he tries to run to the spot rather than setting his base first and the power of the one-arm almost puts him on his back. Everybody else does their job, so if Gauthier just opens that hole up this is a nice run. Instead of a fumble by Dallas and a game changing play (Gauthier’s man forces the fumble).
2nd & 1 and this is one of the things I see on film often with our offense. It is maddening, honestly. Look at the top of the screen. Look how far off they are. That has to be an automatic call to throw the swing pass. That’s a free 1st down. The only chance of that not being a 1-yard pickup is if they drop the ball. Instead we run a dive into an 8-man front. We do pick up the hard earned 1-yard, but that pass to the top of the screen is a missed tackle from a big play and it’s free. The QB just has to be willing to audible to it.
In the preview you read, “Duke has trouble over the MOF on crossers” and here is a big play on a crosser to Harley. You want to run a simple offense, fine. Just make sure it’s one setup to beat the opponent you are playing. Edge runs, swing passes, crossing passes to the MOF, QB keeps on read. All plays that hurt Duke on tape and all have hurt Duke when we’ve run them this game at times. At the end of this run I really was disappointed that Harley ran out-of-bounds instead of lowering his shoulder and trying to get a few more yards. It’s just about finishing plays for me.
2nd & 3 after a nice 1st down play. Miami runs a crosser to Brevin off play-action. All day. This could happen all day against this defense if they wanted to.
To give one to the coaching staff, it is true that the moment we try to run a 7-yard drop the OL can’t handle anything. Donaldson is whipped immediately when he tried to lunge and lean on the DT rather than bending and using leverage. Scaife is just beat on a speed rush but it was the DT that blew this play up. QB game managing from Rosier has to understand where they are at on the field and the game situation. Can’t take this sack. Wish we didn’t run All-Verticals in this spot and expose our OL as well, but the play was killed by the OL. I would absolutely consider benching Donaldson in favor of Boulware.
Scaife loses immediately on this play and whenever the edge player gets four yards into your backfield on an OZ play it is over. Look at how far outside Dallas has to bubble on this play. If Scaife gets this block at the LOS honestly this play might score. Homer gets that outside backer, Gauthier would be able to get to #49 if people weren’t getting pushed back into him. The outside is there but Scaife just loses so badly this run goes for a loss. Really wish Homer had seen this on his way by and just hammered the edge back inside and then tried to release onto the LB. It would’ve taken away a chance at a big play, but it might’ve gotten a few more. Scaife really held on the play as well but it wasn’t called. Woof.
Rosier QB draw on 3rd & 17 but you have to wonder why they went away from the short crossing routes that worked so well on the drive early on. Obviously, on that soup of a field, with a freshman K who hasn’t shown to be exceptional as it is, it was a questionable call to kick the FG. It was predictably blocked. (Not pictured)
3rd down and another wrinkle of a play call. Thomas runs 6-yard stop but it’s not a route at all. It’s merely meant to be a pick for Cager to cut off of. Cager cuts to the post (Bang-8 we’ve seen a bunch of times). Rosier steps up after St. Louis loses on the edge again and Rosier just skips the ball to Cager. Cager was open for the 1st down on a good ball but it was not even close.
Terrible punt. (Not pictured)
Another big play here as I really liked the screen call. You can see that #74 is supposed to get to that LB and is late to get out there. What you may also see is his entire shoulder pad is showing because Duke held his jersey so badly it ripped off. No defensive holding called and that’s just inexcusable to miss. Did the official think his jersey just ripped over his arm by accident? No, the Duke defender was holding him to prevent him from getting to the second level. If Gauthier is two steps further up and gets to that LB there is a huge cutback lane for Dallas to run through. Instead, that LB beats Dallas to the edge and punches the ball out that Duke recovers. Gotta hold onto the ball, but Miami really needs for some of these obvious calls to go their way in these games. Biggest difference between last year and this is the calls like this, the bounces like the tipped ball that Duke catches at the goal line, the missed interception by Pinckney on the slant at the goal line all went Miami’s way and this year they’re all going against them.
Let’s also not worry about the guy who forced the fumble then grabbing and yanking the face mask of Gauthier as well. I have in this very article pointed out a few times that Miami got away with a hold or an OPI, but the things that Duke is getting away with is pretty troubling when they’re this blatant.
3rd & 10 at your own goal line and you see the reason the dropped interception was such a big play. You are so limited at your goal line. This OL has gotten to the point where you know if they blitz on a 3rd down there is a higher chance of a bad play occurring than anything good for Miami. I’m as frustrated as anyone with the QB play, so I’m not pro-Rosier or pro-Perry at this point. What I am saying is that a QB has to see this and make an adjustment pre-snap to the protection or call another play. Brevin is set to go out into a pass route- I know that because I’ve reviewed the play several times now. You’ve got a couple of edge defenders standing up to come off the edge and you’ve got only two blockers over there knowing Brevin is going into a pass route. This has to be something the QB is anticipating and has a read quickly because you simply can’t turn the ball over in this spot.
Here, if the protection had been slid left you’d have the C able to come down on that DT and the LG able to take one of the blitzers. Then the RB can block or release as an outlet. Perry never sees the slot CB blitz and the RG ends up blocking down as the edge loops onto the RT to protect the edge from the QB escaping the pocket. If Brevin is going to go out into a pass pattern against this look the plays really should’ve been double slants to hold that LB coming towards him here and then the slot slant is open easily and this goes for a 1st down most likely.
Instead, what ends up happening is you have three OL block one defender. Boulware is at RG and looks for work like he’s supposed to, but if they had slid the protection it wouldn’t have left Homer to get wrecked on the play and Perry having the ball knocked out of his hands. Look at the MOF where we have nothing threatening the defense at all. It was another all-vertical route setup on this 3rd & long. I bring it full-circle and say this could quite honestly be a big reason that Rosier plays. Perry just struggles with the finer points of QB’ing and the game management side of things. He’s way more talented than Rosier- I think even momma Rosier would admit that- but he is far behind Rosier in protecting the football and avoiding disaster plays. You simply cannot fumble the football here and expect to play winning football. They went to review and overturned it as the arm coming forward, but putting the ball in harms way was too much to stand.
3rd & 10 for Miami again after two straight incompletions by Perry. No idea why they’re running routes short of the sticks in this situation or at least that are coming back towards the LOS rather than on-the-run in space. Stop route for 7-yards in that spot is exactly what Duke wants.
Miami has the ball on 1st down. Of the nine games Miami has played thus far, the first play of the game has been a dive play against LSU (2 yards, Savannah State (loss of 2 yards), FIU (9 yards), FSU (1 yard), Boston College (3 yards), Duke (3 yards). That’s a total of 13 yards in six games. Basically, if you play Miami, line up and expect them to run the ball on the first play and to stop them after a very short gain. We came out and passed the ball against Toledo and scored a TD on the drive. We passed against UNC for a 28-yard gain to Harley. We passed against Virginia and tried the back-to-back dives on 3rd and 4th to get stopped in that game. If you want to open up the running game, you are going to have to prove you can hurt them with the pass first. (Commentary)
Navaughn Donaldson immediately whipped by the DT at the snap on a designed QB run.
After the next play Gauthier has just an unbelievably stupid penalty. When will players learn that hitting guys after the fact ends in huge penalties. Let people talk. Seriously. Quit retaliating because they always catch the second guy. It makes my blood boil that a Senior is getting penalties like that and killing drives. (Commentary)
3rd & long and Rosier throws a perfect ball to Cager. Cager has both hands on the ball and is supposed to be our big WR. This is exactly the play he needs to make.
Miami gets the ball back and here is a nice job of blocking by the OL. If read the preview of the game you would’ve read this statement: “Miami can move the ball on this team and will need to do so with more edge runs rather than trying to slam the ball into the middle off of dive plays.”
Gauthier gets a nice seal block to the inside, Scaife does an excellent job on his reach block on the move and Donaldson gets enough of his man to get him out of the hole. Homer cuts off their hips inside and get 11.
Miami gets a great effort from Homer on 1st down to pick up 5. Then they run the same exact play to get 3 more. (Not pictured)
3rd & 2 and Miami decides to run the same play for the third straight play. They run the dive play again and the LB’s are just absolutely crashing the play. Same play with the read and everything. You tell me if the slot would pick up the 1st down with a simple flip out to him on the edges here. Those guys are way off of him, but instead we want to run the dive play again.
On the 4th down play if you think Duke expected something short, you’d be correct. Their DC definitely scouted our offense. All 11 players in the screen, none more than 5-yards off the LOS. In empty we like to run Rosier on QB runs so the defense sends a CB blitz out of the slot to keep him from getting wide to that side. The MLB is running over to take the slant away from the slot they blitzed from. Rosier decides to take a deep shot to Cager and throws the ball out-of-bounds. It wouldn’t have been complete against air. I have a real problem with the play call here because I simply cannot understand how you see that defensive alignment and don’t call for rub routes to both sides to get guys open in the flats or over the MOF. Harley is running right with Cager, so again it’s a bunch of vertical routes on 4th & 2. The play caller is supposed to maximize the chances of success for your offense and on 4th down the sole objective is to pick up the 1st down and this was a very low percentage play of that happening. The OL picked up the blitz fairly well on this play.
1st down and Dallas just completely whiffs on this block. They slid their protection to the right to catch the edge blitz to Scaife’s side. Dallas is supposed to come across and get the edge player (though I’d rather they have St. Louis take that man and Jahair take the other man by himself rather than asking a RB to block a DE so that you can double a DT). DeeJay doesn’t get a hand on him, Perry avoids him, dumps it off to Dallas, who is swallowed up by the LB who has him in man coverage. Our offense can’t get out of their own way.
3rd & 13 and we give the dive that Homer bounces to the outside for a gain of a few. Punt was very poor and Duke has great field position. (Not pictured)
3rd and 6 and Perry has a designed QB run. Donaldson releases down to the LB, Scaife takes his man, Mahoney seals his man and Gauthier redirected the DT to Mahoney. Perry picks it up. If Miami comes back to this play there is an outlet to Homer if Duke crashes on the run early. *After watching the rest of the game, they did not come back to this play.*
1st and 2nd downs are inside runs to Homer to bring up 3rd & 4. Coach is trying to play it safe with Perry in the game in the rain, but really what that does is make the job harder for the young QB, not easier. The defense is able to key on pass on 3rd down, so if they want to open up that run, they’re going to need to throw the ball on earlier downs. It can even be swing passes/bubbles/RB’s over the middle, but there needs to be something to get the defense from running downhill on early downs. (Not pictured)
Donaldson is beaten by his man who gets right into the throwing lane for Perry here. This is the hardest rain I’ve seen in a game in my time breaking down film. It’s miserable out here. Look at the routes Miami is running on this play. Stop route at the sticks and two out routes at the sticks. A wheel route to Homer. Perry takes Brevin here, who is the inside slot and not close to open. The outside out route is open if he has time, but just nothing over the MOF in this rain? In this game, Donaldson has been by far the worst OL. He’s been a much bigger problem than the other G. Let Boulware have a chance at that spot. RG is the place that Boulware has played the best when he’s been in games.
Malik is back into the game. I’m guessing after Richt saw N’Kosi throw the out to a fully covered Brevin (that should’ve been intercepted) he decided to go back to the guy he’s comfortable with. 1st down and a few things on this play. 1. It’s why Richt will tell you he calls the dive so often. Coaches believe that if you keep hitting at the wall eventually it will cave and you’ll pop one. Even if it’s a bit stubborn. 2. The jet motion with Wiggins has the defenses’ attention. 3. It’s a heavy package with an inline TE and an offset FB. This is exactly a look that Pittsburgh gave to Duke last week with great success. Second shot shows #9 still chasing Wiggins and not aware of the handoff at all. The S is sprinting down to cover the jet motion and this why the play gets housed. Without that, the S probably makes the tackle after a 1st down. Brevin takes his man to Bolivia, Gray comes across and kicks out the edge and Scaife and Donaldson collapse things inside. This didn’t “work” because of the motion, it worked because of the execution. This play scored a TD because of the motion though.
You see the man turning horizontally towards Dallas here? That’s the S who was crashing hard because of the jet motion. He’s standing on the yellow line right now if there was no motion. Our offensive struggles are because of execution, yes, but they’re also because the OC is not consistently calling/creating plays that moves the defense and puts them in places they are uncomfortable. If Duke wants to bring that S down when we go jet motion, they’re welcome to do so, but you have to punish them for it as well. Miami moves that S down but doesn’t trail across the formation with the CB. That means that deep S transfers over into single-high and he’d be deeper and further over here. The play would still “work” if Duke had played it that way, but it wouldn’t have been a TD. It’s what is expected of an OC and is the reason we need to hire one. Put them in the box so they see these things and know when to come back to them. (Commentary)
Miami does the pop pass to Jeff Thomas I’ve been calling for but the big difference between what Miami is doing and what other teams are doing is in a numbers disadvantage. Miami does not have a blocker on the edge other than the WR to that side. The S, when they mirror down, does not have anyone to navigate and just comes up and tackles him. (Not pictured)
2nd down and again Miami uses counter principles to pull the eyes of the defense away from what they’re intending to do. Brevin here comes across the formation just after the snap and you can see the LB to near side (just on the 21 nearest to the bottom) is looking at Brevin and going to that side and out of the gap that Miami is going to run through.
Here is the LB on the other side of Donaldson now following Brevin. If the LB stays in the gap, Rosier has a lead blocker in Brevin against the edge #51. Good job by everyone up front here and look at Boulware in the game and immediately locking his man down. This is a cool play design and I hope we see more of these last couple of plays I’ve reviewed. Not because they worked, but because the play design actually schemes the big play rather than relying simply on man-on-man wins.
By the way, it’s a TD if Langham simply blocks the DB here. What in the world is he doing here? It’s like he’s trying to race the DB. I truly do not understand what it is that he’s thinking. Homer is looking over and I’m sure thinking, “dude, are you not going to block the guy right next to you?”
Homer must be in great shape because he goes for 43 yards and then gets the next carry on a dive play. (Not pictured)
On a sloppy field it’s always been said that the offense has an advantage because they know where they’re going. Thomas is wide-open on the slant here though Duke is trying to jump it. Rosier takes the deep shot to Cager instead and he gets away with a push-off to come back on the punt-pass. This play is what lays the seed into the officials minds for the push-off call later in the game that wasn’t nearly as egregious as this one was.
They tried the QB run on 1st down like they almost always do in the red zone. Duke strings it out and it’s virtually nothing. (Not pictured)
Next play is the poorly thrown fade to Hightower who gets interfered with. It was underthrown, but the ball still hits Hightower right in the chest. He needs to make that play for his QB. (Not pictured)
I will write this again; Duke struggles with OZ runs. We’ve run two of them thus far. One went for 11 yards. Then we run this one and Homer scores a TD. Look at Boulware completely owning his man next to Gauthier here. Homer cuts off their hips and walks in. Scaife just gets enough of his cut block up top and Donaldson got to his man at the second level nicely. St. Louis got knocked on his backside here. You can see him going down at the 8-yard line.
The two-point conversion had me triggered when I watched it live. We’ve got tight splits and Langham to the boundary. We actually motioned Langham to the other side. If I’m the defense I immediately think this is going to be sprint right because they’re leaving room for Cager to run an out-breaking route. Motioning Langham over there brings a third receiver into that area.
Then, not only do we not threaten the backside, we actually left Brevin in to block. Why are we not releasing him over the middle if we are going to run three receivers into that same zone and let them clear and have Brevin trailing? The result is that St. Louis never touches a soul. Donaldson never touches a soul because they have no one to block. The coaches obviously anticipated run but the alignment of the play told Duke what was coming. The play has no chance and #44 just comes in and tackles Rosier, who has to at least throw the ball up to one of his receivers and ask them to make a play, not just take a sack like that.
Run the pop pass to Thomas on 1st down and it would’ve worked for a nice gain but they blitzed it off the edge and Scaife can’t get there in time. It forces Thomas to bubble instead of running straight to the edge. I can’t fault the coaches because they started calling a play I’ve been wanting but we have simply not executed it well and the defense is crashing everything in this weather.
Run OZ and Dallas breaks a tackle and gets 19 yards. I say again, “Duke has trouble defending the OZ.”
Miami gets a false start from Brevin and it sets everything back in this weather. Run Homer inside twice in-a-row to bring up 3rd and long. (Not pictured)
Scaife is beaten immediately. Brevin isn’t running a route. I’m not sure what he’s doing. On 3rd & 8 it’s all deep routes except for a stop route to the top of the screen that Rosier is looking at. Rosier has to throw it away due to pressure.
Next drive as time is running out Rosier finally keeps on the read and gets a big gain off-the-edge. He is going to have to keep that ball at least 3-4 times a gain if we’re going to run the read as much as we do. Teams aren’t respecting the QB run. It’s basically halftime as we let the clock run. (Not pictured)
Tried to run a stretch play and it was not good. One of the problems that Jahair really runs into is he is “sticky” to first blocks. He is supposed to stand this guy up and then release onto the LB. He gets stuck on the DL and never gets to the LB who just runs by him and tackles Homer for a loss. Gauthier gets blown back into the backfield and everything is a mess.
It’s 3rd & 8 and you run a dive play. That is one of those play calls that signals a “give up” to me. I tweeted during the game that our play calls act as if we’re up 28 and not 5. I actually like the play design. Brevin comes across the formation and gets a wham block on the edge player that you’d normally read. Homer runs behind it and it’s well done, but here is the problem with having so many tendencies; look at the slot CB. He’s already sprinting in on this play rather than honoring the bubble to that side. If they throw the bubble to Thomas, you’ve got a blocker on the edge and a defender 8-yards away trying to make an open field tackle in muck. Instead, #33 crashes from the side and stops Homer before he can get the 1st down. If #33 stays on his man on this play Homer gets it easily. I actually hope to see more of this run design in the future. I actually think Brevin might have been a lead blocker on the play and peeled off when he saw the edge so far upfield. On a dry track you might be able to hit that faster and really have something.
2nd down and Miami tries to run a stretch play and Gauthier is just forklifted here. I believe a lot of our problems on the OL are technique based as our players seem to understand neither footwork, base, nor leverage in playing on the line. Gauthier has to hook under that arm and turn his hips the other way to gain leverage on this DT. Instead he tries to run to the spot rather than setting his base first and the power of the one-arm almost puts him on his back. Everybody else does their job, so if Gauthier just opens that hole up this is a nice run. Instead of a fumble by Dallas and a game changing play (Gauthier’s man forces the fumble).
2nd & 1 and this is one of the things I see on film often with our offense. It is maddening, honestly. Look at the top of the screen. Look how far off they are. That has to be an automatic call to throw the swing pass. That’s a free 1st down. The only chance of that not being a 1-yard pickup is if they drop the ball. Instead we run a dive into an 8-man front. We do pick up the hard earned 1-yard, but that pass to the top of the screen is a missed tackle from a big play and it’s free. The QB just has to be willing to audible to it.
In the preview you read, “Duke has trouble over the MOF on crossers” and here is a big play on a crosser to Harley. You want to run a simple offense, fine. Just make sure it’s one setup to beat the opponent you are playing. Edge runs, swing passes, crossing passes to the MOF, QB keeps on read. All plays that hurt Duke on tape and all have hurt Duke when we’ve run them this game at times. At the end of this run I really was disappointed that Harley ran out-of-bounds instead of lowering his shoulder and trying to get a few more yards. It’s just about finishing plays for me.
2nd & 3 after a nice 1st down play. Miami runs a crosser to Brevin off play-action. All day. This could happen all day against this defense if they wanted to.
To give one to the coaching staff, it is true that the moment we try to run a 7-yard drop the OL can’t handle anything. Donaldson is whipped immediately when he tried to lunge and lean on the DT rather than bending and using leverage. Scaife is just beat on a speed rush but it was the DT that blew this play up. QB game managing from Rosier has to understand where they are at on the field and the game situation. Can’t take this sack. Wish we didn’t run All-Verticals in this spot and expose our OL as well, but the play was killed by the OL. I would absolutely consider benching Donaldson in favor of Boulware.
Scaife loses immediately on this play and whenever the edge player gets four yards into your backfield on an OZ play it is over. Look at how far outside Dallas has to bubble on this play. If Scaife gets this block at the LOS honestly this play might score. Homer gets that outside backer, Gauthier would be able to get to #49 if people weren’t getting pushed back into him. The outside is there but Scaife just loses so badly this run goes for a loss. Really wish Homer had seen this on his way by and just hammered the edge back inside and then tried to release onto the LB. It would’ve taken away a chance at a big play, but it might’ve gotten a few more. Scaife really held on the play as well but it wasn’t called. Woof.
Rosier QB draw on 3rd & 17 but you have to wonder why they went away from the short crossing routes that worked so well on the drive early on. Obviously, on that soup of a field, with a freshman K who hasn’t shown to be exceptional as it is, it was a questionable call to kick the FG. It was predictably blocked. (Not pictured)
3rd down and another wrinkle of a play call. Thomas runs 6-yard stop but it’s not a route at all. It’s merely meant to be a pick for Cager to cut off of. Cager cuts to the post (Bang-8 we’ve seen a bunch of times). Rosier steps up after St. Louis loses on the edge again and Rosier just skips the ball to Cager. Cager was open for the 1st down on a good ball but it was not even close.
Terrible punt. (Not pictured)
Another big play here as I really liked the screen call. You can see that #74 is supposed to get to that LB and is late to get out there. What you may also see is his entire shoulder pad is showing because Duke held his jersey so badly it ripped off. No defensive holding called and that’s just inexcusable to miss. Did the official think his jersey just ripped over his arm by accident? No, the Duke defender was holding him to prevent him from getting to the second level. If Gauthier is two steps further up and gets to that LB there is a huge cutback lane for Dallas to run through. Instead, that LB beats Dallas to the edge and punches the ball out that Duke recovers. Gotta hold onto the ball, but Miami really needs for some of these obvious calls to go their way in these games. Biggest difference between last year and this is the calls like this, the bounces like the tipped ball that Duke catches at the goal line, the missed interception by Pinckney on the slant at the goal line all went Miami’s way and this year they’re all going against them.
Let’s also not worry about the guy who forced the fumble then grabbing and yanking the face mask of Gauthier as well. I have in this very article pointed out a few times that Miami got away with a hold or an OPI, but the things that Duke is getting away with is pretty troubling when they’re this blatant.
3rd & 10 at your own goal line and you see the reason the dropped interception was such a big play. You are so limited at your goal line. This OL has gotten to the point where you know if they blitz on a 3rd down there is a higher chance of a bad play occurring than anything good for Miami. I’m as frustrated as anyone with the QB play, so I’m not pro-Rosier or pro-Perry at this point. What I am saying is that a QB has to see this and make an adjustment pre-snap to the protection or call another play. Brevin is set to go out into a pass route- I know that because I’ve reviewed the play several times now. You’ve got a couple of edge defenders standing up to come off the edge and you’ve got only two blockers over there knowing Brevin is going into a pass route. This has to be something the QB is anticipating and has a read quickly because you simply can’t turn the ball over in this spot.
Here, if the protection had been slid left you’d have the C able to come down on that DT and the LG able to take one of the blitzers. Then the RB can block or release as an outlet. Perry never sees the slot CB blitz and the RG ends up blocking down as the edge loops onto the RT to protect the edge from the QB escaping the pocket. If Brevin is going to go out into a pass pattern against this look the plays really should’ve been double slants to hold that LB coming towards him here and then the slot slant is open easily and this goes for a 1st down most likely.
Instead, what ends up happening is you have three OL block one defender. Boulware is at RG and looks for work like he’s supposed to, but if they had slid the protection it wouldn’t have left Homer to get wrecked on the play and Perry having the ball knocked out of his hands. Look at the MOF where we have nothing threatening the defense at all. It was another all-vertical route setup on this 3rd & long. I bring it full-circle and say this could quite honestly be a big reason that Rosier plays. Perry just struggles with the finer points of QB’ing and the game management side of things. He’s way more talented than Rosier- I think even momma Rosier would admit that- but he is far behind Rosier in protecting the football and avoiding disaster plays. You simply cannot fumble the football here and expect to play winning football. They went to review and overturned it as the arm coming forward, but putting the ball in harms way was too much to stand.
3rd & 10 for Miami again after two straight incompletions by Perry. No idea why they’re running routes short of the sticks in this situation or at least that are coming back towards the LOS rather than on-the-run in space. Stop route for 7-yards in that spot is exactly what Duke wants.