D fixes:
- Wrap up, for cripes sake. Football 101. Do we really have to re-learn form tackling? Or did some of them never learn it in the first place? And while you are at it, keep your eye on the guy that you are tackling. Turning your head away as you dive at his knees is a pretty sure way to get embarrassed.
- Leverage means never having to say you're sorry. Unless you can avoid contact, you had better get under the guy you are gonna try to either move out of the way, or get past. Football 201. Do we really have to re-learn leverage?
- A cardinal rule in defending an option offense is that somebody has to hit the QB every play so he understands that he has to pitch the ball early. The single back offense that involves the QB holding the handoff until the last possible second so the QB can retain the option to pull the ball and run himself has to be treated like an option. Early in the game our DE's bit on the RB every time the QB left the ball in his belly for part of a second, and the QB figured that out and made us pay. We got better as the game went on at following assignments, but it was a slow process. If the QB has not fully handed off the ball to a RB, then the DE has to focus on hitting the QB.
- If a CB gives a WR 8-10 yards of soft coverage at the LOS, the chances are good that the QB will throw the ball to the WR, and that means that the CB will have to make an open field tackle after a gain of 3-5 yards. Unless the offense was in 3rd and long, why would you do that? On the other hand, others on this board have been criticizing the safeties. I thought the safeties as a whole had a pretty good game. They had to make way too many tackles when the WR's got 3 and 4 strides behind the CB's. If that is why the CB's were playing so soft for much of the game, then we are in trouble. Unless our CB's are so slow they can't hope to keep up with a WR, reduce the soft coverage. If our CB's are too slow to play the WR's, then we need new CB's, even if they have to come from the WR corps.
O fixes:
- Leach Beach for false starts. They are inexcusable.
- Most of the 3 man rush they played involved dropping the other 8 pretty quick. Gotta run on more of those plays, even if it is 3rd and 9. It is very hard for 4 or 5 guys to have an open man against 8 guys dropping. And if there is a lot of 3 man rush happening, call a run (instead of pass) play on a quick count, and check into a pass only if they surprise us. At this point we are predictable in some areas, and that is OK if we can occasionally benefit by being unpredictable.
- I'm waiting for a called QB draw play. See above. We have two back up QB's, so there is minimal risk. Time to give the opposing D something else to ponder.
- WR's who can't/won't block can sit and if necessary you can put McIntosh in occasionally as a WR.
- Wrap up, for cripes sake. Football 101. Do we really have to re-learn form tackling? Or did some of them never learn it in the first place? And while you are at it, keep your eye on the guy that you are tackling. Turning your head away as you dive at his knees is a pretty sure way to get embarrassed.
- Leverage means never having to say you're sorry. Unless you can avoid contact, you had better get under the guy you are gonna try to either move out of the way, or get past. Football 201. Do we really have to re-learn leverage?
- A cardinal rule in defending an option offense is that somebody has to hit the QB every play so he understands that he has to pitch the ball early. The single back offense that involves the QB holding the handoff until the last possible second so the QB can retain the option to pull the ball and run himself has to be treated like an option. Early in the game our DE's bit on the RB every time the QB left the ball in his belly for part of a second, and the QB figured that out and made us pay. We got better as the game went on at following assignments, but it was a slow process. If the QB has not fully handed off the ball to a RB, then the DE has to focus on hitting the QB.
- If a CB gives a WR 8-10 yards of soft coverage at the LOS, the chances are good that the QB will throw the ball to the WR, and that means that the CB will have to make an open field tackle after a gain of 3-5 yards. Unless the offense was in 3rd and long, why would you do that? On the other hand, others on this board have been criticizing the safeties. I thought the safeties as a whole had a pretty good game. They had to make way too many tackles when the WR's got 3 and 4 strides behind the CB's. If that is why the CB's were playing so soft for much of the game, then we are in trouble. Unless our CB's are so slow they can't hope to keep up with a WR, reduce the soft coverage. If our CB's are too slow to play the WR's, then we need new CB's, even if they have to come from the WR corps.
O fixes:
- Leach Beach for false starts. They are inexcusable.
- Most of the 3 man rush they played involved dropping the other 8 pretty quick. Gotta run on more of those plays, even if it is 3rd and 9. It is very hard for 4 or 5 guys to have an open man against 8 guys dropping. And if there is a lot of 3 man rush happening, call a run (instead of pass) play on a quick count, and check into a pass only if they surprise us. At this point we are predictable in some areas, and that is OK if we can occasionally benefit by being unpredictable.
- I'm waiting for a called QB draw play. See above. We have two back up QB's, so there is minimal risk. Time to give the opposing D something else to ponder.
- WR's who can't/won't block can sit and if necessary you can put McIntosh in occasionally as a WR.
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