The oline is still a big concern. Once again there is a new oline coach but that only affects those players with the old coaching experience. New players should be ok …
Now what is Applewhite doing? I think the coach is playing Allen to make the oline be better.
It appears Allen is not as mobile as I thought or he will do what the coach says and not run. By not running the oline will have to get better because there is not a qb bailing them out when they fail to block.
Now if Allen is indeed told not to run, then he needs to learn to throw the ball away. Throwing to throw is not a good thing.
Whatever the coach is doing, I would like to see Postma start.
Allen is probably used to playing behind lines that protect him. When one does not, or he is "knoecked) off his game, we have inconsistency. We simply can’t lose another game if we want to reamin in the big bowl hunt. Short leash.
I don’t know if the o-line is an issue yet ( other than the bad snaps that happened against Tech ). We allowed 2 sacks against Tech, they had three sacks against Arizona State. We allowed 2 sacks against Rice, they had 2 sacks against Stanford. We didn’t allow any sacks against Arizona, they had 2 sacks against Utah. Add to the fact that Allen goes through progressions too slow on a consistent basis.
As far as the run game goes, Catalon for some reason continues to get the most carries but this year and last year has also been the least productive on yards per carry.
Is there a chance that when this o-line plays against conference level talent, has a QB that knows when to run and has a running back that finds the holes better, the line might look better?
I think you are on to something there Shaggy. I agree with all your points.
I expect this week to be an anomaly because of the weakness of the competition but maybe it’s the week we put it all together. I think the answer is two weeks away unless the worst happens in which case… man, that would be bad.
I prefer birden at running back as well. Temple has a decent defense, so the oline will still be tested. While the sack count is not high as mentioned, Allen is still getting hit/hurried.
I don’t disagree with you on deception and a more mobile QB would definitely help mask the deficiencies. However, our OL misses blocks and/or gets physicaly dominated on more than half of the running plays.
We have guys pulling on a lot of running plays and guys firing forward to try and make 2nd level blocks. They aren’t in pass protection when running.
We are also not running off RG on every play. We do try to run off RT more than any other lane, but the offense does vary up their runs.
I’m doing a video review of the Tech game in another thread, and did one for Arizona. I’m watching every play at least 3-4 times and describing what’s happening on every offensive play. Even include links to timestamps for the specific plays. In my opinion, our problems on offense, in order, are 1) OL run-blocking, 2) QB decision making, and 3) mediocre to below average play from our WR. Kind of hard to be successful on offense when those are your 3 problems.
I-3 pretty much cover it. All WRs have had drops but I’m overall happy with Leday. Where was he last year? Hurt? In the doghouse? 1 catch in 2013 for a TD, no stat line for 2014, 4 in 2015 0 TD, no line for 2016, 17 in 2017 1 TD so far. Plus returning kicks. Shows good speed. Don’t get why he wasn’t used more before.
Is the lack of consistent OL play the direct result from what Kyle Allen has produced during Spring training? This might be the root of the problem. You could say that they better step up. Agree but the lack of confidence that Allen has is not a coincidence in my opinion. They are clearly not in sync. Above all passing plays I want to see a “monster” run game against Temple. We can send a clear message to the entire AAC that we can beat you down with our running game. At this point we have to establish a base for our offense. It starts with the OL and the running game. This has to be Catalon’s day. A left guard, right guard, TE or WR out of position this has got to stop. It starts tomorrow.
The OL would look much better if we had a RB who hit the creases a whole lot quicker and made people miss. Dirden, our former walkon, is the best we have
I’m going back and watching again. We were down 6, half our runs were wide receivers getting no yards after contact. 1st and 10, Allen sits back for 3 full seconds before pressure, rolls right, gets stuffed by linebacker. Second play, another wide receiver run, line pushes Tech back 3 yards, receiver gets flattened by linebacker. Third and seven, screen to running back near the sideline, thrown off target on offensive side of back, gets one hand on it and cant catch it. If he did catch it, all momentum was going out of bounds 1 yard past the line of scrimmage with a defender right there to push if necessary.
Tech moves the ball down, lots of missed tackles, defense gassed, Tech goes up 13. Now we run 4 straight plays, get a couple of first downs. Finally moving the ball. After a decent screen to the right side, we have a third and 2 at the 20 yard line. This is the one where we get “5 defenders in the backfield” penalty voiding a good run for first down. On third and seven we proceed to loft up a jump ball on the right side and it goes incomplete.
Going back to that penalty. We have only one receiver lined up on the right side and send him in motion. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you have to have both tackles covered? So even if one of the receivers moved up to the line on the left side, it still would have been a penalty right? How do you have a play in the book that will draw a flag 100% of the time?
Someone screwed up. Who were the wide-outs on that play? One of them had to have lined up on the wrong side. Even on a Tackle eligible play, I think they usually line up a step or so back so they are off the line, but the wide-out is still on the line. Sheesh.
