Started By
Message
Thoughts On UNC Game
Posted on 8/29/13 at 11:35 pm
Posted on 8/29/13 at 11:35 pm
My observations on our season-opening game versus UNC:
- We held them to their lowest point total under Fedora (previous low was 18 pts vs Miami last season)
- Our offense was pretty balanced: had 200+ rushing yds and close to 200 passing yds. Connor was 11 for 20 which was not his usual efficient self, but considering the first gm of season plus Ellington was limited and Anderson was out, it was pretty good. We had no turnovers...
- Our defense had some hiccups, but considering UNC's oppressive offensive style, plus the oppressive weather conditions (hot & muggy), as well as many newcomers playing big roles, we did pretty good. For the Tarheel offense being such a hurry-up offense with quick-strike capability, we still had 11 tackles for loss and 3 QB sacks against them, which was far, far better than I expected. Had key stops and big plays when we needed them, especially that late-game goal-line stop that killed the Tarheel's last gasp...
Big impact players for the game:
Mike Davis & Brandon Wilds: with the big question of who fills Lattimore's huge void looming, things are looking good, at least initially. Davis was impressive - bullish strength plus above-decent speed, he would not be denied tonight. Could be a sign of many great games to come. Wilds was also impressive, with many hard-driving gains of his own. We ended up not even seeing Carson until mop-up duty...
Shaq Roland: OK, he had a dropped sure TD pass later in the game, but had the huge 65-yd score early to set the tone of the game. Shaq needs to gain some confidence and earn the confidence of his coaches, because he's a great talent. Hopefully tonight dished out plenty of both...
Skai Moore: Skai was expected to be a backup, and considering he's a true freshman that alone is surprising. But Skai ended up being a huge contributor and racked up some big tackles. Looks like we're going to be fine at LB...
T.J. Gurley: T.J. ended up having to play a lot more after Kadetrix Marcus was injured. Marcus may be out for the UGA game as well....we'll need to wait for word later, possibly not until next week. But Gurley stepped up and was a team leader in tackles. He was projected to become a major player for us - it may come sooner than later...
Darius English: Darius was constantly in the UNC backfield and was a disruption often. I can easily see how much of a factor he'll become once he adds about another 20-30 lbs to his frame. Sutton stepped up later in the game, but I thought English out-shined Chaz a bit tonight...
Elliott Fry: 2-2 on FGs and 3-3 on PATs. Had great height and distance on each FG...he would've made them from a much longer distance. Not bad kid, not bad at all....
Other honorable mentions:
Dylan Thompson: His participation was as brief as possible, but he made it count with a TD bomb. Dylan just throws TD passes...
Kane Whitehurst: He catches the TD from Thompson...a great first-game effort from him...
Any other thoughts about the game??
- We held them to their lowest point total under Fedora (previous low was 18 pts vs Miami last season)
- Our offense was pretty balanced: had 200+ rushing yds and close to 200 passing yds. Connor was 11 for 20 which was not his usual efficient self, but considering the first gm of season plus Ellington was limited and Anderson was out, it was pretty good. We had no turnovers...
- Our defense had some hiccups, but considering UNC's oppressive offensive style, plus the oppressive weather conditions (hot & muggy), as well as many newcomers playing big roles, we did pretty good. For the Tarheel offense being such a hurry-up offense with quick-strike capability, we still had 11 tackles for loss and 3 QB sacks against them, which was far, far better than I expected. Had key stops and big plays when we needed them, especially that late-game goal-line stop that killed the Tarheel's last gasp...
Big impact players for the game:
Mike Davis & Brandon Wilds: with the big question of who fills Lattimore's huge void looming, things are looking good, at least initially. Davis was impressive - bullish strength plus above-decent speed, he would not be denied tonight. Could be a sign of many great games to come. Wilds was also impressive, with many hard-driving gains of his own. We ended up not even seeing Carson until mop-up duty...
Shaq Roland: OK, he had a dropped sure TD pass later in the game, but had the huge 65-yd score early to set the tone of the game. Shaq needs to gain some confidence and earn the confidence of his coaches, because he's a great talent. Hopefully tonight dished out plenty of both...
Skai Moore: Skai was expected to be a backup, and considering he's a true freshman that alone is surprising. But Skai ended up being a huge contributor and racked up some big tackles. Looks like we're going to be fine at LB...
T.J. Gurley: T.J. ended up having to play a lot more after Kadetrix Marcus was injured. Marcus may be out for the UGA game as well....we'll need to wait for word later, possibly not until next week. But Gurley stepped up and was a team leader in tackles. He was projected to become a major player for us - it may come sooner than later...
Darius English: Darius was constantly in the UNC backfield and was a disruption often. I can easily see how much of a factor he'll become once he adds about another 20-30 lbs to his frame. Sutton stepped up later in the game, but I thought English out-shined Chaz a bit tonight...
Elliott Fry: 2-2 on FGs and 3-3 on PATs. Had great height and distance on each FG...he would've made them from a much longer distance. Not bad kid, not bad at all....
Other honorable mentions:
Dylan Thompson: His participation was as brief as possible, but he made it count with a TD bomb. Dylan just throws TD passes...
Kane Whitehurst: He catches the TD from Thompson...a great first-game effort from him...
Any other thoughts about the game??
7
Posted on 8/30/13 at 12:02 am to ConwayGamecock
This was a great write up, I would add RESECT for the OL!
The OL had the best game I can remember in the past 2 seasons. Three different plays they gave the extra push to drive the RB for extra yardage. They only gave up 1 sack that I saw and Shaw had ample enough time to make decisions. I was very impressed.
The OL had the best game I can remember in the past 2 seasons. Three different plays they gave the extra push to drive the RB for extra yardage. They only gave up 1 sack that I saw and Shaw had ample enough time to make decisions. I was very impressed.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 12:05 am to CockInYourEar
quote:
This was a great write up, I would add RESECT for the OL!
The OL had the best game I can remember in the past 2 seasons. Three different plays they gave the extra push to drive the RB for extra yardage. They only gave up 1 sack that I saw and Shaw had ample enough time to make decisions. I was very impressed.
Yep, I would definitely agree with this. Shaq had a no-brainer TD reception go through his hands in the EZ, or it would've been a bigger win. The OL blocked well, and I also agree that lone sack of Connor was one he had plenty of time to throw the ball away and avoid it, but he didn't. I would lay that sack at Connor's feet, not the OL...
Posted on 8/30/13 at 12:37 am to ConwayGamecock
We need to run the ball more. Davis and Wilds were both impressive and the Oline blocked well for them. Offense started to sputter when Spurrier tried to throw every play in the 2nd quarter.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 1:05 am to Cockopotamus
Our OL has Mass, they can push people in run blocking for sure. We never even dipped into the speed backs of Carson and Williams. We were a run favored (clock grinding) team today. We have so much depth at RB, I think we can continue that through the season, but not overload any single RB's with 25+ carries.
We should be able to spread the carries b/w the 4 and pick up the yards. Today, we avg'd 6 yards per carry...that's legit!
We should be able to spread the carries b/w the 4 and pick up the yards. Today, we avg'd 6 yards per carry...that's legit!
Posted on 8/30/13 at 1:36 am to CockInYourEar
I think our "Defense" (AKA Clowney and the Pips) is going to take some shite for the next week for what everyone is taking as a poor performance, visually. But... that UNC offense is built around not giving an opponent the chance to get to the QB. They only gave up 11 sacks all last year, but three tonight (different year and graduated some players, I know... but I'm going more off the type of offense they run). Clowney, for having such poor conditioning, got three QB hurries tonight. He had five all last year and six the year before.
I also think with the early scores we kind of shut down the playbook, for the most part. All in all this was a vastly better opener to the season than last year against Vandy, which turned out alright for the rest of the year.
Now we get to storm Athens. Can't wait!!
I also think with the early scores we kind of shut down the playbook, for the most part. All in all this was a vastly better opener to the season than last year against Vandy, which turned out alright for the rest of the year.
Now we get to storm Athens. Can't wait!!
Posted on 8/30/13 at 5:44 am to Cockopotamus
quote:
We need to run the ball more. Davis and Wilds were both impressive and the Oline blocked well for them. Offense started to sputter when Spurrier tried to throw every play in the 2nd quarter.
It was obvious we had them out classed in the trenches, to not pound them in the dirt was a waste IMO. I loved the showing and understand trying to spread the stats around and work on a few things etc.. OBC eyes got big on those 2 big deep throws and he got a little tunnel visioned for a minute there.
I just feel like when we are on their 30 and in to throw 3 straight times and kick a field goal when Davis and Wilds had been pounding it, was a bad choice considering there was only one rushing TD all game despite all of our rushing yardage.
All in all I loved that we showed strong in our first game where we usually show clumsy and confused the past couple years. LB's looked good for being so very young and looked to me to only miss a couple reads on those zone passes. Our secondary looked good despite Legree being confused and letting their guy off the line for that TD. And once that monster Quarles entered the game unc looked like high schoolers trying to block a bulldozer
Posted on 8/30/13 at 8:13 am to ConwayGamecock
IMO we will see a whole lot more of our tight ends next weekend. There was no reason to expose any strategy last night. Game was over in the first quarter.
Solid appearance by Kane Whitehurst.
Solid appearance by Kane Whitehurst.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 8:19 am to Mootsman
quote:
IMO we will see a whole lot more of our tight ends next weekend. There was no reason to expose any strategy last night. Game was over in the first quarter.
Agree 100%. After the 1st quarter, we knew we could do anything we wanted offensively, so we kept it stupid simple after that b/c we saw that we could manhandle them on defense as well.
We didn't show uga much of anything for their film study next week, based on this 1st game.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 12:40 pm to ConwayGamecock
Nice post.
Davis and Wilds look like they will be a very formidable duo and I'm very impressed with our OL.
We kept our offense very simple and I'm fine with that. We did what we had to do to win and didn't give anything to Georgia. Like Mootsman said, I expect to see a lot more of our TEs against Georgia. Spurrier loves using TEs.
That clipping penalty on Clowney was bullshite. I hope players aren't going to be targeting him like that the whole season. Straight bush league move.
Davis and Wilds look like they will be a very formidable duo and I'm very impressed with our OL.
We kept our offense very simple and I'm fine with that. We did what we had to do to win and didn't give anything to Georgia. Like Mootsman said, I expect to see a lot more of our TEs against Georgia. Spurrier loves using TEs.
That clipping penalty on Clowney was bullshite. I hope players aren't going to be targeting him like that the whole season. Straight bush league move.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 3:02 pm to Loathor
quote:
I think our "Defense" (AKA Clowney and the Pips) is going to take some shite for the next week for what everyone is taking as a poor performance, visually. But... that UNC offense is built around not giving an opponent the chance to get to the QB. They only gave up 11 sacks all last year, but three tonight (different year and graduated some players, I know... but I'm going more off the type of offense they run). Clowney, for having such poor conditioning, got three QB hurries tonight. He had five all last year and six the year before.
I also think with the early scores we kind of shut down the playbook, for the most part. All in all this was a vastly better opener to the season than last year against Vandy, which turned out alright for the rest of the year.
Now we get to storm Athens. Can't wait!!
Yep....Ellis and Lawing when they were here, and now Coach Ward all say the same thing: sacks look great on the stat sheet, but what matters more is QB pressures/hurries. How many times you can get to the QB and touch him. Get inside his head, and make him rush his throws which disrupt the timing with receivers and give our secondary opportunities to intercept passes before receivers have established separation...
We got 3 QB sacks, but we lived in UNC's backfield all game long, Clowney included. Renner had a few throws that were definitely rushed and at times he threw in anticipation of getting hit, before Clowney or others even got to him yet. THAT is how defenses win games. The sacks are only eye-candy...
Also, I just noticed that 2 of Clowney's 3 QB hurries came during that 8-play goal-line stand that kept UNC from scoring their 2nd TD. Not bad for a worn-out, out of shape player like Clowney...
This post was edited on 8/30/13 at 3:17 pm
Posted on 8/30/13 at 3:05 pm to CockInYourEar
quote:
Agree 100%. After the 1st quarter, we knew we could do anything we wanted offensively, so we kept it stupid simple after that b/c we saw that we could manhandle them on defense as well.
We didn't show uga much of anything for their film study next week, based on this 1st game.
I agree: I know a lot of people view the notions of having limited gameplans in season openers to limit what the next opponent sees with skepticism.
But we threw 3 pass attempts in the 2nd half last night. THREE ATTEMPTS!! We may not have gone into the game with the intent of hiding plays, but it definitely turned out that way...
Posted on 8/30/13 at 3:14 pm to ConwayGamecock
quote:
But we threw 3 pass attempts in the 2nd half last night. THREE ATTEMPTS!! We may not have gone into the game with the intent of hiding plays, but it definitely turned out that way...
That's what I'm thinking. As soon as we got up 17-0 in the 1st, Spurrier knew we could score at will on those tarholes, so he decided to go conservative. If UNC could've matched us score for score, we would've opened everything up. We didn't need to, so we didn't have to.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 4:16 pm to ConwayGamecock
Good thoughts - can't disagree with a thing except, as someone else already mentioned, the OLine did pretty well.
I was happy to see Bruce get in for those one or two, or however many there were, plays.
I agree, Moore is going to be an excellent LB it would appear but so is Bryant from what I could see.
I'm becoming more and more disenchanted with both Buster Anderson and Shon Carson. Both need to straighten-up and fly right in the attitude department. I'm almost pulling for Drew Owens to surpass Buster on the depth chart. And Shon needs to take the PR and KOR job and go with it and lose the attitude in the process. Also, Vic Hampton needs to quit being the drama queen. He's starting to become the "drama queen" joke among his fellow players and that is not good. Let him be the lock-down corner, teach him to hold his tongue and find someone else back there to replace DJ's leadership skills. Victor is somewhat fearless, I'll give him that on the returns, but we need to let Shon Carson handle returns and Victor concentrate on being the best lock-down corner in the conference.
What was probably most promising about last night was the fact that we showed very very little of our few offensive surprises in store for this season and almost none of our new Whammy/Deke devised defensive surprises. Georgia is probably licking their chops but we'll look completely different against UGA two Saturdays from now.
I did like how Spurrier inserted the Whitehurst bait in there early for the sake of the dawg film though.
Oh, and anyone noticed Cooper wearing #11? Know why? It's a good story.
I was happy to see Bruce get in for those one or two, or however many there were, plays.
I agree, Moore is going to be an excellent LB it would appear but so is Bryant from what I could see.
I'm becoming more and more disenchanted with both Buster Anderson and Shon Carson. Both need to straighten-up and fly right in the attitude department. I'm almost pulling for Drew Owens to surpass Buster on the depth chart. And Shon needs to take the PR and KOR job and go with it and lose the attitude in the process. Also, Vic Hampton needs to quit being the drama queen. He's starting to become the "drama queen" joke among his fellow players and that is not good. Let him be the lock-down corner, teach him to hold his tongue and find someone else back there to replace DJ's leadership skills. Victor is somewhat fearless, I'll give him that on the returns, but we need to let Shon Carson handle returns and Victor concentrate on being the best lock-down corner in the conference.
What was probably most promising about last night was the fact that we showed very very little of our few offensive surprises in store for this season and almost none of our new Whammy/Deke devised defensive surprises. Georgia is probably licking their chops but we'll look completely different against UGA two Saturdays from now.
I did like how Spurrier inserted the Whitehurst bait in there early for the sake of the dawg film though.
Oh, and anyone noticed Cooper wearing #11? Know why? It's a good story.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 4:57 pm to ConwayGamecock
Really pleased with both Davis & Wilds, I felt before the season that we wouldn't miss Latty a ton and after last nights game my thoughts so far have been confirmed.
I agree it was great to finally Shaq have an impact after a disappointing year last season, wish he had made the 2nd TD grab though.
Skai Moore & Darius English both impressed and had an impact on the game, really looking forward to watching these two the rest of the season.
I agree it was great to finally Shaq have an impact after a disappointing year last season, wish he had made the 2nd TD grab though.
Skai Moore & Darius English both impressed and had an impact on the game, really looking forward to watching these two the rest of the season.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 5:12 pm to scrooster
quote:
Oh, and anyone noticed Cooper wearing #11? Know why? It's a good story.
No. Thought he was 13. Tell us the story
Posted on 8/30/13 at 7:07 pm to Cockopotamus
quote:
Tell us the story
rooster is trolling
Posted on 8/30/13 at 7:35 pm to Cockopotamus
quote:
We need to run the ball more.
I was noticing that and kept wondering why OBC did not gash the Tar Heel D line more. I kept thinking some serious second half rushing yards were due and it never seemed to hit a top gear. Take away that 75 yard ramble and that was not a big ground game.
Posted on 8/30/13 at 7:49 pm to ConwayGamecock
I remembered wrong then.
This post was edited on 8/30/13 at 7:56 pm
Posted on 8/30/13 at 7:52 pm to deeprig9
nope, Shaq had to dive for it. the ball hit his forearm and dropped.
Page 1 of 2
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News