We averaged 3 sacks per game in 2016 and under 2 this season. Don’t know about hurry ups and thrown away balls. Perhaps the QBs have a little more time to make bad decisions this year and didn’t have that last year.
Or a slightly different take on your idea, maybe they threw all short balls last year because they knew they wouldn’t have enough time to throw anything long
Not a coach. have coached in past. I come from a football family, players and coaches. have watched a lot of football and X and O’s make sense to me. Glad you enjoy it! thanks
As far as who outcoached who…thats hard to say…I guess whoever won the game.
All games come down to few key plays.
1st drive…we are going in and we have offensive facemark call on #62. Instead 7-0 we get FG.
Next offensive drive we fumble…defense holds to FG. 3-3…could/should be 7-0
Next off drive we get stopped on 4th down inside 5…defense lets Tulane drive 94 yards for TD…down 10-3. Thats a 14 points swing!!! Instead being up 10-3, we are down 10-3. The run play we ran on 4th never had a chance…we were outnumbered. We ran to line to quick snap and they penetrated. Same thing happened to us vs USF…4 &1 at USF 38…we hurry and Car taken down by shirt short first down. The momentum swing here is big…if we score we are up 10-3 and kickoff. Do they drive on us? maybe
First drive 2nd half we drive to tulane 9 and King Picked in end zone. Again no points.king made a bad read…they baited him…he thought he had single coverage on WR but they doubled him…left short receiver uncovered. Despite that…our WR got behind both defenders and he under threw it. We should be down 13-10 here…still down 13-3
Defense returns interception to Tulane 23 and we score quickly…13-10 Tulane
Defense gets stop and we drive 91 yards for TD…17-13 UH
Defense gives up 62 yard TD pass…killer. I am not sure what happened here but appears involved ILB Adams. He either was supposed to be in man under coverage on slot with safety help over top…or more likely he got sucked up on play action fake…was late getting back to his zone…which allowed an easy throw…then Terrell Williams missed tackle and TD. you see him on replay frantically sprinting back toward zone waving his arms…he knows he’s out of position.
We fail to convert on 3rd and 4th down on last offensive possession. I didn’t like 3rd down run play at all…lost 2 yards. 4th down King made bad read again…inside LB showed blitz…dropped to cover inside slant…broke it up. Our outside WR was open on slant.
At the end of the day…Offense moved ball at times but squandered red zone opps.That killed us. We should have been playing from ahead. I didn’t like 4th and 1 call…that was coaching decision. King made 2 bad decisions…inexperience. Either of the play calls were fine and had options…he choose wrong and short armed end zone int.
Defense let drives continue by allowing QB scrambles on 3rd down and not getting key stop after we got lead. CMD had plan for QB…he had some good blitzes were players had lapse and allowed him to break contain. CMD also “Spyed” QB with Adams and Hines and each failed to do job either missed tackles or out of position. Im unsure about late TD pass…looked like a blown assignment.
I didn’t like the 3rd down coverage on the last drive(after TD) when we needed ball back. Was 3rd and 8 or so. QB eluded containment by #52 Carter and completes pass. Adams delay blitzes which flushes him out…either he was Spy…but decided to blitz or its was delayed blitz. In any event the coverage behind it wasn’t good. It was do or die at that point…needed more pressure and tighter coverage regardless.
Regarding Big ED…I think its a combination of things.
2016 played 13 games…66 tackles…22.5 for loss…5 sacks…had 11 tackles vs Navy.
2017 has played about 9.25 games(only played 1 qtr vs Temple) has 55 tackles…11 for loss… and 3.5 sacks.
So his tackles per game are actually up and has chance get big number vs Navy again.
I think few things 1) He has gotten lot of publicity and getting a lot of attention in form double and triple teams. 2) He has been hurt…he was flying around vs Arizona in opener. He had 11 tackles and FF. He gets hurt qtr 1 of game 4. He’s not running downs outside plays like mad man. 3) As far as tackle for loss…double and triple teaming hurts this. Also Orlando aggressiveness helped free him more. Teams had to account for Bowser last year as well. 4) Is he worrying about getting hurt and not as aggressive? All the chop blocks etc.?
Manster54 You sir have restored my faith in this coaching staff. Great analysis.
Manster, I love the feedback and analysis.
I get Orlando inherited some great players but Levine had them and was no where close to successful with them.
When is it coaching and when it is execution? Coaches have to accept the strengths and weaknesses they have on their squads. It’s a tough job making all the pieces work together.
As someone else pointed out when this team blitz’s it seems from further away and telegraphed. Under Orlando you never knew where it was coming from. Sure there was risk reward but don’t you want to not tip where your blitz is coming from? It is why on offense they put guys in motion, to get the defense to tip their hand and maybe get a mismatch with someone just off or out of position.
Have you noticed significant adjustments in the second half by this staff?
Manster, really appreciate the analysis. You’ve single handedly done more to quiet useless rants than anyone. – and in a most constructive way. It’s a discussion forum, but negative, uninformed posts accomplish nothing.
Hope we have a really good turnout to support the team, especially seniors, for the Navy game. We will be making the round trip from Dallas.
Beat Navy.
CgrBkr
I am in no way knocking Orlando. i think he’s great. Texas would be real mess without their defense this year as well. that being said…its about experience and depth as well.
Coaching vs execution…my opinion. I get crazy when I hear…“He went offsides…that’s coaching”. “He dropped the pass, thats coaching”. “We missed tackles, thats coaching”. “The CB didn’t turn and look for the ball, thats coaching”. “He lost contain, thats coaching” etc etc. It’s player execution or non execution.its you stayed composed and did your job or you didn’t .
To me these things are fundamentals. Everybody looks good in half speed tackling drills in practice. Its done to create muscle memory. In a game when you have to tackle a moving target who runs 4.5…thats another story. each play is different. Angle, your speed, their speed etc. Are they running high or low? You need make a split second decision about how you are going to make contact. in a game, they don’t let you tackle them. They try and run you over. They straight arm. In practice LB’s tackle another LB holding ball and running upright at half speed…so tackler can practice proper technique, head placement, hip explosion, wrapping up, finishing thru carrier. Very little live tackling is done these days except scrimmages…nobody wants lose best players to injury. When pass rushers practice…they sack a dummy…its not moving. Little different than trying catch and tackle Banks from Tulane .So in my opinion other variables come into play such as athletic ability, focus, discipline, intelligence, how fast you can process what you see and react to it. not everybody can do it when the lights come on. those who can go to the NFL. Can you translate practice skills to game?
My point is that all position coaches teach mostly the same fundamentals for that position. Some have more experience and might have some extra little tips. There may be some small differences but there only so many ways to catch a football. hand positioning changes based on ball location…high, low, running to the ball, coming back to the ball. WR coaches all teach release techniques to beat press coverage etc. Your opponent that week may be better than the guy you faced last week…and your performance slips. think about an offensive lineman who faces a DL from Lamar one week and Ed Oliver the next…he might have a strength advantage one week and get dominated the next.
Coaches say things like you can’t teach speed. Its not about the X’s and O’s, its about the Jim’s and Joe’s…another words recruiting. Talent beats coaching.
Coaching is the X and O part.play calling, adjustments. deciding to go on 4th down or punt. motivation of players. replacing the QB or not.
the fundamentals are taught in practice. the O line coach can’t help you block Ed Oliver during the game. its you and him. WR coach can’t catch ball for you. LB coach can’t remind you how to tackle.
DOnofrio and Orlando have different styles. CMD seemed to take more risks earlier in season. I think he coaches to win the game. What i mean by that is he adjusting his risk taking based on opponent, score, game situation. And i think a huge part of it is lack of confidence in his CBs. He’s trying to work around them. Limit points allowed and give us a chance to win. He has put them in man to man and for most part not good results. So if they are not good cover corners play zone with some man mixed in. Blitz 5 and play zone behind it. rather than blitzing 6 and playing man. try and get the sack but not risk quick TD.I feel that Kahlil Williams being out last 2 games has limited CMD playing man on slot. Obviously, doesn’t think he has a healthy capable nickel back to replace Kahlil because he’s playing some young LBs in coverage instead of another young DB.
I’m seeing a lot of debate lately whether it’s coaching or whether it’s poor execution by the players with no or little blame for the coaches. The thing is , we won’t have to wait long to see what applewhite thinks. If he stays pat with his assistants he obviously thinks it’s the players but if he starts lopping heads he obviously thinks it’s the coaching.
Losing your two best non-Ed pass rushers: Bowser and Taylor, plus a good run-stuffing 3-4 DE in Cam Malveaux was going to hurt no matter what. I think that’s at least part of the issue.
This is really good stuff. Thank you for taking the time to post this and share your insights. It’s a nice antidote to a lot of the crap here.
DallasCoog
Thanks!!! Not trying start a revolution or anything. Just think football board should talk some actual football.
Fans is short for fanatics…that’s why we are emotional when we win and when we lose.
I know everyone doesn’t look at game as close as I do, but I hope these type posts help some understand better and put things into perspective for those who do get the X and O part but don’t take or have time to look at it.
It should also give some view into what coaches deal with. They make the call but the 22 players determine the outcome.
Happy Thanksgiving!!! I will be posting more stuff later
And Gerard Carter missed first 8 games. He has played well since returning and started over Chevis vs Tulane. He now replaces Ed on nose to give him a rest. Fleming hasn’t seen field since he returned, either has Peytton Turner.
I feel like on defense we just dropped off a level talent wise. Can’t forget that we lost 4 players to the NFL. We were hoping for some players to step up, but we just aren’t at that elite level right now. The defense has still been solid and held many of our opponents to their average or less. Our real issue in coaching is on offense
Great post Manster 54.
Here’s another one where we lose contain
The key here is RDE #91 Thurman…CMD brings pressure from field(wide side of field) and slants RDE toward boundary to contain QB if pressure from left forces him that way. Right now #91 is fine at top right
#13 Williams beats RT…but #91 top right decides to try spin move(which he’s in middle of here)
QB feels pressure from #13 and moves to our right…#91 is caught inside because he spun inside. He shouldn’t be spinning at all here…this blitz is not designed for him…he should only go for sack if he can beat LT outside while keeping contain
QB Banks out races #13 Williams to stick for first down
You know, someone could pay me millions and tell me to get taller; but I would still be 5’-6". You can tell a coach to coach a freshman up; but he will still be a freshman. The only way I can come up with a guy getting a year or two of experience is to actually play in games for a year or two. All the coaching in practice is great; but when the lights go on and the whistle blows, and the game comes at you hard and fast, it’s a whole different animal. Like the boxer said, all the planning in the world is great until someone punches you in the nose. We have a lot of youth and a lot of guys who should be doing spot duty at best are filling in for injured starters. If the guys backing up the starters were as good as the guy they are behind, it would be great; but that only happens at places like Alabama and Ohio State.
There has been one constant in the 40+ years I’ve been a Coog and that is that our fans expect our coaches to win with the same players they complained about not being as good as they wanted when we signed them. Something is supposed to miraculously transform 1, 2, and 3 star players signed in February to 5 star players in September and the coaches are at fault when they don’t all play like seasoned 1st team All Americans the first time they step foot on the field. Sure, we get some diamonds in the rough and turn them into really good players. But, more often they aren’t diamonds at all and all we can hope for is to make them polished stones.
Red80
Couldn’t agree more. Coach can’t control kids brain while he’s on field. I don’t get the logic some people use. look at cutup i just posted above. #91 thurman looses focus on his job…outside rush and contain…blitz is designed to flush Qb his way…he decides inside spin…Qb runs around him for FD…would have been sack. How do you blame a coach for this?
Coaches watch film all week and have all their play calls ready for different down and distance, hash mark, field position etc.
So CMD has this ready for this particular spot on field…because he
1)wants sack
2)wants make sure QB can’t escape to wide side…using boundary as extra defender. All RDE 91 had do was hold his position and #13 has sack.
When assigning blame, I don’t think any of us has enough information to say whether it’s the players or the coaching. I definitely looking at a bunch of screenshots can determine this. I was watching the Tulane game with a coworker who was a 4 year starter at CB for TCU and he made a good point. He said as a player if you don’t have enough reps doing a certain thing in practice it doesn’t become muscle memory. This is probably what Herman meant when he would repeat ad naseum “trust your training”. After reading some of these posts I asked him about losing contain in particular and he said if those plays an situations aren’t drilled in your mind by practice repetitions over and over and over it won’t become automatic what to do and a player will either make the wrong decision or will hesitate and with the speed of the game today a second or two of hesitation is all it takes for a player to get around you.
Also, we play more of a reactive defense this year. Offense takes snap and defense sees what they are doing and acts accordingly. When the other team is running 60 plus plays there are bound to be breakdowns on a few of them. With Orlando, he seemed to dictate more to the offense. What I mean by that is that he would blitz, sometimes all out on seemingly every play. When you bring 7 and try to penetrate all of them behind the line of scrimmage theirs less worry about what a player should do on a certain play because you are hitting the RB or QB in the backfield and if not they are off to the races.
So the bottom line is we don’t know whats going on in practice. Are the reps there where it becomes second nature what to do with out hesitation? Or is it a situation where we have a bunch of lazy, ignorant players that lack discipline? And it’s hot?
I do know this, if Applewhite fires a bunch of his assistants he obviously thinks it’s the coaching so we won’t have long to wait to see what he thinks.
As I’ve watched these guys try to put it together this year, I’ve wondered if the results would have been markedly different with last year’s coaching staff. One thing I see that might be different is players trusting their training and not trying to do someone else’s job - everyone wants to win, and the guys are working hard to do it, but the coaching change almost certainly changed this dynamic.
I think a bigger factor is that guys look around and don’t see the playmakers they had last year, and instead of just focusing on assignments and execution, they also try to cover for others. As a resut, neither the offense nor defense consistently play with confidence. Not a recipe for sustained success.
In the end, I suspect that our record would have been pretty similar with last year’s coaching staff - maybe another win in the books, but still not in the championship hunt.
Ok, so then maybe should assign some of the blame to the inside LB coach for the lack of execution by the players. And that would be D’Onofrio. For outside backers, it’s a promoted GA.
Alexogar
There’s a saying, “The film doesn’t lie”.
Our Defensive line is playing a “1 Gap System”. Same as Orlando…DOnofrio plays softer coverage behind it and more zone.
In a 1 Gap scheme, each DL is responsible for 1 Gap…there is no read and react…on snap you fire into assigned gap…you then determine run/pass based on how O line blocks you…if they fire out most likely run, if they get into pass block protection…probably pass…unless draw etc. You locate ball
Orlando didn’t just let 7 guys rush wherever they want to…NO DC DOES THAT.
No DC blitzes without accounting for all eligible receivers. There is a plan…either create a mismatch vs an O lineman or overload an area with more than they can block etc.
Thurman is a senior who has played plenty last 3 years…this isn’t a complicated blitz…hes not even involved in it.
Orlando was a bigger risk taker. DOnofrio is more about being sound, limiting big plays. Picks his spots with blitzes.
I get you may not like the style but that doesn’t mean he can’t coach.
I’ll give you a fair comparison…both DC’s coached against Memphis and faced QB Ferguson.
2016 Orlando defense gave up 34 1st half points…6 drives…4 TDs and 2 Fgs
2017 Donofrio defense gave up 0 1st half points…10 drives…3 3 and outs, 2 sacks and Int
2016 Orlando defense gave up 14 2nd half points…all 4th qtr…both TDs gave Memphis the lead back.
2017 DOnofrio defense gave up 35 2nd half points…TDs on 5 of 6 drives…lost lead.
Let me say I think Orlando is great DC…but his D gave up 48 points. Do you think anyone missed an assignment? Or did Orlando forget how to coach that day?
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