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- Oct 21, 2011
- Messages
- 15,479
Happy we won and glad to see our guys given some freedom to play more aggressively. Think some fans are getting too excited about yesterday's performance. That's not hindsight. Here were my thoughts prior to the game, on this board:
If I'm Cutcliffe, I show a ton of 4WR looks and trips. If their QB can be accurate enough down the seam and on the trips bubble screen, we'll be totally off balance. Maybe we get out of Quarters coverage sooner. I don't know. Maybe we show a lot of Cover 3 on Saturday.
If I know what formations I'd use against our defense, I'm pretty confident David F'in Cutcliffe is going to know what formations max out his offensive players. Problem for Cutcliffe is that I just don't think Duke is very good. Their OL is not as collectively strong as Nebraska's. That's a key because we start everything with a locked-up fight against OL. Some of the Nebraska runs that went for 5-6 will be 2-3 on Saturday. It changes down and distance.
http://www.canesinsight.com/threads/79210-Golden-digging-his-own-grave/page2
We certainly changed things up last night and it was obvious early. Funny how guys like Artie Burns looked better in spots when they were just given the green light to lock up their man while our front was more disruptive. Crazy concept, but I'd like to hear from the handful of guys who consistently "call me out" every time Artie has looked crappy (more often than he should, I concede). Be cool if you guys showed face…I digress out of annoyance.
Here's the point: the root cause of our issues is still there…lingering, haunting anyone who has tracked what we do for 2-3 years. Also, while he is a great coach, Cutcliffe underperformed (even with what I called earlier in the week, "not impressive talent").
I haven't done a play by play review, but he overworked the trips formation in an overreaction to what we showed last week. Since we changed, some of what was obviously available against Nebraska and in past film was not available for Duke last night. It's weird how coaches, even very good ones, get stuck. When he ran trips early and tried the WR screen, it was stuffed. I get trying it again. But, why stay in that formation when we clearly had seen a massive hole in our defense because of it and adjusted? Beyond that, he used 3WR with an inline TE or motion HBack a good amount of the time. Maybe 30-35% based on memory. That is a favor to us because we can safely roll a Safety down (early instead of late) without too much concern. Most certainly if we're allowing our front to attack more, as we did.
I said earlier in the week and in the late 1st Quarter that Duke should have gone 4WR (balanced set) more often. When they did, our defense spreads out too thin and we can be sliced up via the seams and underneath. Before the game was out of reach (two scores very late) and we were sitting on plays Duke had already run, they made a handful of nice gains out of this set. For whatever reason, they didn't use it as much early on.
So, here are my questions for which I'll be looking for evidence in upcoming games:
1. Do we still react one step too late in our adjustments?
2. Is it because of a generally fearful, conservative approach?
3. Did we play more aggressively against Duke because we were willing to live with the low percentage throws we didn't think they (being less talented) could really hurt us?
4. As I said before the week, because Duke was returning only 3 of their 5 OL from last year (and not their very best) and they didn't have the raw strength or athleticism of Nebraska, will we see the Nebraska runs that went for 5-6 and turned into 2-3 for Duke…go back to 5-6 against a fairly talented squad?
5. Will we allow our front to play more upfield on a continuous basis even when we fear the big play from better teams?
Lots of questions to be answered. I'm obviously happy we saw some changes. I was praying for them before the season. I suppose I'll take them now and going forward, but I still want them to mean that we are willing to adjust on a continuous basis and not only after it has been made painfully obvious by another opponent.
You see, my goal for us has never been to be a solid program that consistently wins 9-10 games and occasionally makes a run. Those programs are unlikely to succeed in the current setup of the 4 team playoff because they'd still likely need to get in with 1 loss and then somehow beat 2 teams that we will need to stay 1 step ahead of throughout the series. Look forward to the discussion this week.
If I'm Cutcliffe, I show a ton of 4WR looks and trips. If their QB can be accurate enough down the seam and on the trips bubble screen, we'll be totally off balance. Maybe we get out of Quarters coverage sooner. I don't know. Maybe we show a lot of Cover 3 on Saturday.
If I know what formations I'd use against our defense, I'm pretty confident David F'in Cutcliffe is going to know what formations max out his offensive players. Problem for Cutcliffe is that I just don't think Duke is very good. Their OL is not as collectively strong as Nebraska's. That's a key because we start everything with a locked-up fight against OL. Some of the Nebraska runs that went for 5-6 will be 2-3 on Saturday. It changes down and distance.
http://www.canesinsight.com/threads/79210-Golden-digging-his-own-grave/page2
We certainly changed things up last night and it was obvious early. Funny how guys like Artie Burns looked better in spots when they were just given the green light to lock up their man while our front was more disruptive. Crazy concept, but I'd like to hear from the handful of guys who consistently "call me out" every time Artie has looked crappy (more often than he should, I concede). Be cool if you guys showed face…I digress out of annoyance.
Here's the point: the root cause of our issues is still there…lingering, haunting anyone who has tracked what we do for 2-3 years. Also, while he is a great coach, Cutcliffe underperformed (even with what I called earlier in the week, "not impressive talent").
I haven't done a play by play review, but he overworked the trips formation in an overreaction to what we showed last week. Since we changed, some of what was obviously available against Nebraska and in past film was not available for Duke last night. It's weird how coaches, even very good ones, get stuck. When he ran trips early and tried the WR screen, it was stuffed. I get trying it again. But, why stay in that formation when we clearly had seen a massive hole in our defense because of it and adjusted? Beyond that, he used 3WR with an inline TE or motion HBack a good amount of the time. Maybe 30-35% based on memory. That is a favor to us because we can safely roll a Safety down (early instead of late) without too much concern. Most certainly if we're allowing our front to attack more, as we did.
I said earlier in the week and in the late 1st Quarter that Duke should have gone 4WR (balanced set) more often. When they did, our defense spreads out too thin and we can be sliced up via the seams and underneath. Before the game was out of reach (two scores very late) and we were sitting on plays Duke had already run, they made a handful of nice gains out of this set. For whatever reason, they didn't use it as much early on.
So, here are my questions for which I'll be looking for evidence in upcoming games:
1. Do we still react one step too late in our adjustments?
2. Is it because of a generally fearful, conservative approach?
3. Did we play more aggressively against Duke because we were willing to live with the low percentage throws we didn't think they (being less talented) could really hurt us?
4. As I said before the week, because Duke was returning only 3 of their 5 OL from last year (and not their very best) and they didn't have the raw strength or athleticism of Nebraska, will we see the Nebraska runs that went for 5-6 and turned into 2-3 for Duke…go back to 5-6 against a fairly talented squad?
5. Will we allow our front to play more upfield on a continuous basis even when we fear the big play from better teams?
Lots of questions to be answered. I'm obviously happy we saw some changes. I was praying for them before the season. I suppose I'll take them now and going forward, but I still want them to mean that we are willing to adjust on a continuous basis and not only after it has been made painfully obvious by another opponent.
You see, my goal for us has never been to be a solid program that consistently wins 9-10 games and occasionally makes a run. Those programs are unlikely to succeed in the current setup of the 4 team playoff because they'd still likely need to get in with 1 loss and then somehow beat 2 teams that we will need to stay 1 step ahead of throughout the series. Look forward to the discussion this week.
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