1st Miami TD -- bad stuff from Talich

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=320

3rd and 10. Hobbs is lined up over Toney; Hobbs has outside leverage (earlier in the drive Toney hit him on that 3rd and 7 whip route when Hobbs had played him with inside leverage).

ND shows 2 high but it looks like Shuler is actually playing Robber here, presumably trying to defend the first down line to gain.

We get decent pressure with 4 guys thanks to KVA. Beck has to drift to his left.

That leaves Talich as the one high. Watch the replay - Talich is paying far too much attention to Zackery (who has been inserted into the game for injured Gray) and despite the fact that he is ostensibly reading the QB, Talich opens to the boundary - away from the sideline to which Beck is currently drifting. Then, to make matters worse, instead of taking a flat angle along the goal line he moves deeper into the end zone as though he's getting ready for a pursuit of Toney down the field. Hobbs is beaten, but he also had zero help all the way across the field.

It's either a miscommunication, a bust by Shuler, or just bad basic safety play by Talich

locked

617 views

I would grade out the position groups thusly:

QB - B+. Two critical misses on run/pass reads but otherwise a nice game

RB - C+. Hard running but Love missed a big hole and Price fumbled inside the 5

WR - B-. Fields and Faison made a handful of plays. Everyone else was invisible

TE - C+. Drops, a penalty, and some missed blocks, but good move blocking and almost 100 yards receiving.

OL - B. Way better than I'd assumed. This is closer to a B+ than a B-. No idea what the hell happened to Wagner on the last drive.

DL - B+. These guys were really pretty good.

LB - D-. Sneed was effective rushing the passer and KVA did some nice things but otherwise by far the worst game from Bowen and Ausberry was bad as well. I would start KVA and Sneed against Texas A&M

CB - B+. Pretty game effort and defended well, no missed tackles leading to big plays

S - C-. Stroman cleaned up some junk but in general the fieldsmanship was poor from this positon.

Denbrock - D+. He found some stuff that worked but refused to lean into it. Came into the game tight and stayed that way until deep into the first half.

Ash - C-. The base defense was pretty ok, and no big busts, but a few truly shit episodes of malcoordination

All in all I think there's more to like than I thought from last night. The OL is not a flim flam shop and the DL was a lot closer to "as advertised" than I'd guessed on first watch. Whatever they've tried to have the linebackers do they should undo with great haste. They also need to get someone in charge of communication and lining up on the back end.

locked

525 views

I really thought the OL and interior DL were getting beat pretty badly the whole game. DEs seemed fine. Agree on the other grades.

locked

226 views

level (though I agree the ends were better). There were a couple of times where they got moved but if you were to compare, say, the UGA tape to the Miami tape, I do think you'd be shocked at a DL drop off in performance. Some awful LB play

locked

236 views

Hinish and Onye looked unplayable. I thought Rubio and Dawson were at least solid.

--
Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

locked

226 views

launched the Miami tackle into the backfield for that key third down stop.

Hinish is a rotation/situational guy. He's nasty, but he's like a Navy-sized DT. He looks more like Bowen than either of the OL captains. He just can't be a mainstay on base downs, no matter how tough he is. I bet he was giving away 50 lbs Sunday night.

locked

205 views

First is whatever is going on at linebacker.

Second is safety. We were not well organized back there and the rotations are bad. A guy like Talich is too stiff to be your one high on 3rd and 10.

Third is Ash. I'm not clear yet on what he's even trying to do but I have worries that he's locked into stuff from a decade ago

Also though Onye was pretty good in the second half

locked

228 views

or that it's stuff that works at OSU and Texas, when you have 11 NFL athletes out there. We are at a high level mark of defensive talent, but even before Sunday I felt that we were a little bit short of that level. I DO, however, think we have great football players, not all of whom might project as NFL players (like Hinish or Tuihalamaka). To maximize those guys, we need a scheme that creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts. At OSU or Texas, you can rest on your laurels and rely on the sum of your parts to carry the day.

Golden was amazing at maximizing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of the 11 guys on the field at a given time.

locked

147 views

He got his lunch money absolutely handed to him a number of times, and that was with Kiser and Watts who knew exactly how to get everybody lined up just so.

My mantra on the DC change was we want somebody who can at least slow down the best offenses, with the expectation that we aren't as good at clamping down on the sub-par ones. If Ash can get that type of performance against that offense with his current deck, then I'm pretty excited to see what happens when the current frosh and the 26 class are the mainstays of the DL.

--
Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

locked

147 views

Don't get creased, keep the points down, make them snap it all the way down the field. We adjusted to double Toney at some point and tried to run some of the Cover 1 stuff from last year (and didn't look great doing it), but I look at the almost total lack of downhill aggression from guys like Shuler and Bowen and I am very worried that's a coaching point.

locked

139 views

It's possible the guys are just mentally slow right now, but it seems more likely that defense is going to be boring.

Regardless of how good we end up being, that style is less fun to watch in my opinion.

locked

111 views

Alas, I think the narrative about both lines being a lost cause has already set in, while the LBs seem to be mostly escaping scorn (from what I've seen).

The abysmal PFF grades for the OL have been circulating widely. Do you think they're just off? Obviously not a perfect science.

locked

254 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=1116

Perfectly good protection against 4- and 5-man pressures. Carr is dealing. I would bet, knowing what they know now, we would have seen much more of this in the first half.

Also, on the long throw to Fields, Carr correctly identifies Cover 3, knows exactly when to trigger his throw. Not the most advanced stuff in the world but still nice to see in the moment

locked

431 views

This felt like a cheapo play in real time but I think it's more of a cheapo attempt by Miami. They're playing an unsound scheme here. One guy shoots a gap and gets through (it happens) and they send the corner. It's not super smooth between Carr and Williams, but Williams does a nice job of getting into the corner and giving Carr breathing room to get a nice pass of to Faison, who is wide open because it's a risky ass defensive call

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=948

locked

430 views

And Ty Ty Washington didn't play at all. Those might be sneaky big injuries if they can't get back soon.

locked

398 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=864

Look at the way Miami is lined up on the side opposite Love. Two gaps are open! It's a true RPO and Carr should in no goddamn way be pulling this ball. This is a potential touchdown

locked

433 views

not to make it crystal clear going in that handing the ball to the dude whose body is most likely insured by Lloyd's of London for 7 figures is your goddamned default as the QB of this operation.

He'll learn and we'll be ok.

locked

388 views

It's low effort that everything something goes wrong it's an *NIU* level fail. Let's call it a Marshall, or the other OSU fuckup, but the comparison is a top 10 team beat us by 3 in week 1. We can revisit it in 3 weeks if we lose to A&M, which i don't think we will, but it's tired.

We didn't compare every Kelly loss to USF, Cincinatti, the straight shithousing by Clemson and Alabama in 2020, the entire 2016 season, etc. Everything doesn't have to be an overarching program loss. I went to the *other* board this morning after avoiding it lst night and that's where we are there.

We can love the university, the team, and not nitpick every fucking thing about every fucking play. We lost our first game vs a top 10 team, while we were a top 10 team. Smash A&M in two weeks and we're right on plan, it's fine.

I don't believe, and I don't think anyone here thinks that Freeman is going to turn out to be Weis, because we got to the actual championship game and Weis got to a loss that sticks in everyone's craw vs Southern Cal.

The gist of my post is can we all chill the fuck out for a week or two?

locked

308 views

I did not compare the Miami game loss-for-loss to NIU. I compared Denbrock's decision to give Carr such latitude in his first game as a starter in college to an NIU-level blunder. "NIU-level" rating basically 10/10 on the Blunder Scale, compared to "Marshall-level" (9.3), "Stanford-level" (9.1) or "Clemson-2023-level" (7.4). IMO Denbrock maxed out the Blunder Scale with that particular choice, among hundreds of other choices which were made in Miami. In no way does it equate to calling the entire loss on Sunday comparable.

locked

180 views

(not anybody here, I mean). I think KGB is remarking on the offensive gameplan being "NIU-esque".

There aren't a lot of these close losses to highly ranked teams in Freeman's tenure. We either booted one to a shitty opponent or lost by 2 scores to somebody average to good. The best comp might be the 2023 loss to 10 Ohio State, 14-17.

locked

175 views

a cheery card, maybe with kittens, "Hang in there!"

I think we'll be fine. But maybe we won't? Just like NI...erm...the Stanford and Marshall losses.

locked

213 views

And then sue them all for punitive damages.

--
The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

locked

153 views

Hope the kids are settled back in school, sizzle chest!

locked

159 views

#1 got back to the mainland last week for the welcome frosh day on Eaton Street and then headed up town to see Mom (who flew in over the weekend), go to a Sox game, and generally enjoy life. He took the 6:15 Amtrak back down today and made his first class. The life of a senior...

#2 is on a ferry back to the mainland now and Mom will pick up and head down over the Pell Bridge and into Cirrhosis-by-the-Sea for another few days.

So yeah, they're rockin'. Thanks for checking in!

EDIT: That was shitty of me - how is your family? And enjoy the blessed weather, as mine all says they'd rather be there than here.

--
The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

locked

156 views

Not a moment too soon. We’ve got a full schedule of soccer and lacrosse this fall. First season where all three kids are traveling so it’s going to be hectic but fun. No place I’d rather be than watching my kids play.

locked

98 views

Those days are awesome. My kids' primary sport was swim, and I will always remember each kid's last meet at the end of HS and how we looked back over the years to all of the travel and early mornings and late nights and crappy weather and the car oil light coming on at 9:00 on a winter night coming home from Las Vegas and the equipment (there was also soccer and lax and volleyball and flag football and basketball and even one year of cross-country) we bought and all of the hassle and such.

But when you look at all of it, at that point in time, all you do is start to miss it. I promise.

So enjoy every moment, glorious or shitty or in between!

--
The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope

locked

94 views

Seriously though, I agree with you 100%. Yesterday was light years away from NIU.

If last year showed anything, it showed the Freeman's teams can improve dramatically as the season progresses - both coaches and players. We are fine... for now.

--
At night, the ice weasels come.

locked

280 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=1183

Carr, for pretty much the only time all night, panics. He could have gotten away from this guy and potentially turned this into a TD drive. Then he exacerbates it on the next play and throws prematurely from a clean pocket and now it's 3rd and 21

locked

405 views

Keep in mind this is after Carr just basically killed a promising drive by losing his cool a bit. Notes on this:

1. The protection is really, really good

2. Carr gets to either his 3rd or 4th read on this by the time he sees Rairdon wide ass open downfield. Look at how quickly he's able to load/reload on the throw. Pretty exciting stuff. This is stuff that, say, Ian Book never really figured out.

locked

394 views

1st play on offense in the 2nd half, we are speed trips left (TE, slot, WR all to the top of the screen), HB offset to the left. Miami is lined up with a nose, 3t and 5t to the top of the screen; To the wide side there is a 5t with a LB 2x2 outside and behind him. The B gap to the wide side is totally open - that's the side where Love's path will naturally take him on a handoff.

We are running a counter action - it's a cannae! The down blocks pin the Miami line into the boundary while the OL coming around and through on the counter are about the pave the way for a 75 yard touchdown run to Love.

Only it's not! It's a PA little flat route to Rairdon and the counter stuff is just in the name of influence blocking! One of the many Miami DL to the play side deflects the throw, 2nd and 10.

Fuck me! After we had scored mostly by running gap scheme stuff on our previous possession. Just keep doing it!

locked

412 views

one of the sneaky big plays of the game: https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=688

Pretty sure what happens here is that we are in Cover 3 but Gray misses the call and plays press man. We would have been all over this. You can catch Mickens yelling at Gray after the play. Coulda, woulda, shoulda

locked

489 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=747

Pre-snap we drop Johnson deep as a single high. Presumably we are going with something like a double robber look. Stroman is just totally asleep at the switch. What's more, I really don't like the way Stroman and Shuler are lined up relative to each other. Really bad in a critical situation

locked

459 views

I know I'm reading too much into it, but it felt like we mostly gave up trying to do anything to make them uncomfortable after Beck beat us on a few longer conversions. Fucking hated how vanilla the whole thing seemed.

locked

435 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=1332

Maybe the ballgame here. DL does its job. If Bowen fills like he did last year we are looking at 3rd and 10 at the 47. Instead for some reason he is totally flat footed and then whiffs on the tackle. Huge swing

locked

368 views

Missed calls, guys not being sure what to do - we've kind of been exempt from this the past couple of years. These dudes did not just forget how to play linebacker so I'm pretty worried the passivity is intentional

locked

446 views

Defense is his forte and I don't believe he'll be satisfied with that bullshit for 12 games.

locked

450 views

https://youtu.be/dQq7I5f1ML0?feature=shared&t=771

I have to imagine we are lined up incorrectly. We have 4 men against 4 blockers into the boundary, one of whom is a CB. It's no shocker Miami gets movement at hte point of attack! They literally only have to block Rubio! I have no clue what Bryce Young is doing on this play - maybe guarding against play action? Then watch the linebackers - they sit totally still (Ausberry actually moves a little bit backwards). You're on the goal line! The linemen are coming downhill! The ball has been handed off!

F- stuff

locked

495 views

Watch Onye get stood up and stoned.

locked

174 views

Onye eats a double team without getting moved. This would be good work if Sneed were to then be free to explode down the line and catch the RB from the backside. Sneed, though, also appears to be keeping his outside shoulder free and looking to play contain. Bowen has a clear line to the RB the entire play and never makes the slightest move downhill.

locked

162 views

Got the jerseys mixed up in the pile.

locked

172 views

Looking at it some more, it seems pretty clear that Young is actually trying to wall off the releasing TE from getting into Shuler. I think (?) this call is about keeping those second level guys clean, and for the most part it works - Shuler, Bowen, and Sneed all have pretty clear paths to get into the play (especially Shuler) and they frankly just look like they don't want any part of it. As rotten of a defensive play as I've seen under Freeman

locked

171 views

Some of those guys (e.g., Shuler) just kept drifting backwards away from the LOS...like, almost until the end of the play! What are they doing?

locked

155 views

Ash was down on the sidelines, which to me speaks of staying closer to the Defense and then be able to address stuff right there right away. But when you see some of the plays you have brought up where Bowen is not filling the hole or going backwards, Onye maybe a bit high on the pad levels and seeing it in multiple plays, then what kind of communication was there? I know the DC is not going to go sit down with Backers, but at least have a conversation with the LB coach and get our players to focus.

It just seems like there was a lot of Game 1 bad operation vibes from Ash. Yes the players need to play better, but if you see some of the passiveness, that should be removed right away once you come into the sideline. Specially for a Shuler or Bowen or Ausberry.

I still think the game plan we had with average execution vs. last year's defense comparison would have won the game. We had 4-6 off plays that determined the game mainly on focus and attention across staff and players.

locked

143 views

Not what you want to see but better than them, like, being scared to make missteps

locked

133 views

They were "coaches on the field" in terms of getting things lined up.

Could be that Bowen and Shuler played poorly in part due to cognitive overload -- trying to get people lined up and manning their respective positions.

--
Freeman's got so much riz they need to call him Aura Parseghian

locked

140 views

But doesn’t Ash get some credit for holding them to 3 points after two turnovers? And barely 3 yards per rush? And holding them to a longish FG and giving us time to do something? Sure there is a lot to fix but there were some elements of what we did last night in multiple games last season, especially USC. The difference was the defense getting turnovers.

locked

441 views

other than to say that it just felt different last night. Not enough plays where we were in the quarterback's grill like we were in the past. Our pathetic havoc rate (7%?) supports the vibe. I want to see us living in the backfield, and we weren't doing that. And I don't give a shit about Mauigoa's draft grade. We should be better than some fat asshole from Coral Gables in year 4.

locked

351 views

It's wise to recall that the two pick sixes followed very good drives by USC.

SC had 557 yards of offense in that game.

locked

408 views

- Love missed a couple of holes. On his first carry of the game we had it blocked up nicely but he cut inside instead of bouncing out where he had room and not a lot of colored jerseys. More frustratingly, on the 4th offensive possession we ran Counter and everyone blocked it up perfectly. Love didn't trust Knapp to pick up his block so cut it up prematurely for 3 yards whereas had he followed the path of the play it would have gone big.

- On the 1st half TD drive they must have also liked the look of that counter play Love missed because we came in with some OL movement. Price had a nice 14 yard run on a counter play. The explosive run was an iso play with Rairdon as a lead blocker. We also had a 3rd and 1 conversion on this drive where the OL reset the line of scrimmage rather nicely. The goal line series was kind of a disaster though. Definitely seemed like our OL was at an athleticism deficit vs. the Miami DL.

- On rewatch of the first half I'm going to revise up the grade for the DL and revise downward, rather significantly, the grade for the LBs. These guys -- Bowen and Sneed especially --- just did not trigger on anything. Catching everything; blockers, ball carriers, you name it. They also didn't seem to do great getting everyone lined up. Miami had a 4th and 1 conversion following Field's fumble where they went unbalanced and we were just totally flummoxed. Better LB play would have led to a lot more stuffs in the run game.

- We brought more pressure on Beck in the 1st half than I thought. We used a 6 man pressure to get off the field following Field's fumble (ball was deflected by Bothelo but might have been a pick). We got Beck off his spot fairly often.

- We ran some real garbage scheme in the end of half drive. In particular we had Miami at 2nd and 7 at the +45 or so and ran a play wherein we rushed 4 and had some kind of lame-ass bail coverage to the field so we gave them a free 8 or 9 yards in a critical situation. Barf.

- The Daniels TD has been covered already. Never should have been thrown and Shuler just biffed the hell out of the play. Moore got beaten by the double move, but he had safety help over the top so jumping the underneath route was fine.

locked

452 views

Hopefully the coaches get these mishaps cleaned up ASAP.

locked

443 views

the Polo Grounds

1st Miami TD -- bad stuff from Talich

Final grades and thoughts after rewatch

OL+DL

The interior DL just had nothing coming from the second

I think the DTs have some hope

Onye had one of the best plays of the night at DT. He

Not in my top 3 problems on the defense

Regarding Ash, I'm not sure if it's that his stuff is dated,

I think Golden would have struggled on Sunday

My big fear is Ash wants to play Diacoball style D

This is my big fear as well

Great stuff, bart

re: the OL, watch these 4 plays in a row

not horrible by Aneyas Williams / 2nd TD

Think I saw that was his only snap/play

Rookie QB Tax, ctd.

NIU-level fail on Denbrock's part

Can we stop with comparing everything to NIU?

In case I wasn't clear

I don't think anybody is saying this is an NIU-level loss

Fire off Ash and Denbrock

Fire everyone!

What happened to your glasses?

The name's Weir... Brett Weir! [EDIT]

All good here - back to school tomorrow.

Bravo!

That sounds like something an NIU fan would post

and again, here

Now, on the other hand, long pass to Rairdon

Denbrock getting way too cute (no video)

3rd and 8 - Mia TD Drive after half

3rd and 8 same drive. What in God's name is going on here?

We were so passive.

2nd and 10, last Miami Drive. Critical miss by Bowen

The level of disorganization is concerning

Freeman is the backstop here.

I mean, what the fuck is this?!

pretty ugly on the interior DL too

Onye does a fine job there. It's the scheme and the LBs

actually I think it's Mukum (88) I'm looking at

No, he's getting doubled. There's a guy b/t he and the ball

It's worse than merely passive

I also wonder on communication

Yeah my guess would be equal parts tired/overwhelmed

we also lost Watts and Kiser

The day after a loss is tough

I can't really disagree with you

I thought the exact same thing re: USC

1st Half Notes

“Learning opportunity”