Positives:
The defense got a little better this week. Not much but at least they forced some punts and make some tackles for a loss. This was a pretty good NC OL yet the DL was not getting blown off the ball as consistently as against ND. Nice INT by EJ as well. Ambrister actually made a couple good tackles.
Fisch made a commitment to running.
OL and James played pretty well.
Howard had a nice little game. Good to see him making progress.
Hurns made some nice YAC.
Negatives:
Defensive scheme I am really starting to question. I have never seen a defense give up the edge on a sweep play so consistently. And it is not as if the players are being blocked or missing tackles. There is simply no one in site to make a play. This happened over 6 or 7 times against ND. NC certainly saw that on film and ran the same plays. Normally when an off tackle run is played the RB's goal is to read the DE and see if he is going to have to go wide or wider. Against us the RB does not even see a DE or a LB and has a whole so big they simply run right up and outside the OT. Bernard had more than 5 runs like this where he gained 5 yards before you even saw a Miami defender. I am no expert but this has to be a scheme problem.
The team looked flat yesterday. When will the Shannon emotionless attitude leave this team?
Thank you Randy Shannon for letting Bernard go to NC. Yesterday was the first time his father saw him play a game in person. You think his father and family really wanted him to go to NC when they cannot afford to travel and see him? Well done and good riddance on another bad evaluation and recruitment.
Apparently Golden has lost all confidence in Wieclaw. Not good for pulling out any tight games the rest of the way.
Morris never got in a rhythm for some reason. It would have been nice to see him in at the end. It could have been a different outcome. I think he was finally hitting his stride before he got hurt.
Dorsett did not "drop" that TD pass. His feet came out from under him trying to catch an under thrown ball. He may have had some confidence issues going into yesterday's game but not enough to allow him to let a ball hit him in the helmet. Thankfully he caught everything thrown his way after that except for one bang bang play when the DB hit him exactly when it touched his hands.
Duke is not healthy. If Morris does not play next week I say sit Duke as well.
We never made an adjustment to NC blitzing a LB up the middle. Too many times that man came free and screwed up several plays. That should have been accounted for at some point.
Tough loss and won we should have won, experience or not. When an opponent commits 15 penalties then you have to capitalize. Losing your QB and not having a FG kicker hurts in that type of game. Still should have won. Let's not forget about the penalty on the 2 point conversion. We had NC totally off guard on that and likely would have scored. The refs were falling over backwards all game to get NC the ball fast enough to run their hurry up. And then they call that on us? That was BS and would have made it a 3 point game instead of 4.
The defense got a little better this week. Not much but at least they forced some punts and make some tackles for a loss. This was a pretty good NC OL yet the DL was not getting blown off the ball as consistently as against ND. Nice INT by EJ as well. Ambrister actually made a couple good tackles.
Fisch made a commitment to running.
OL and James played pretty well.
Howard had a nice little game. Good to see him making progress.
Hurns made some nice YAC.
Negatives:
Defensive scheme I am really starting to question. I have never seen a defense give up the edge on a sweep play so consistently. And it is not as if the players are being blocked or missing tackles. There is simply no one in site to make a play. This happened over 6 or 7 times against ND. NC certainly saw that on film and ran the same plays. Normally when an off tackle run is played the RB's goal is to read the DE and see if he is going to have to go wide or wider. Against us the RB does not even see a DE or a LB and has a whole so big they simply run right up and outside the OT. Bernard had more than 5 runs like this where he gained 5 yards before you even saw a Miami defender. I am no expert but this has to be a scheme problem.
The team looked flat yesterday. When will the Shannon emotionless attitude leave this team?
Thank you Randy Shannon for letting Bernard go to NC. Yesterday was the first time his father saw him play a game in person. You think his father and family really wanted him to go to NC when they cannot afford to travel and see him? Well done and good riddance on another bad evaluation and recruitment.
Apparently Golden has lost all confidence in Wieclaw. Not good for pulling out any tight games the rest of the way.
Morris never got in a rhythm for some reason. It would have been nice to see him in at the end. It could have been a different outcome. I think he was finally hitting his stride before he got hurt.
Dorsett did not "drop" that TD pass. His feet came out from under him trying to catch an under thrown ball. He may have had some confidence issues going into yesterday's game but not enough to allow him to let a ball hit him in the helmet. Thankfully he caught everything thrown his way after that except for one bang bang play when the DB hit him exactly when it touched his hands.
Duke is not healthy. If Morris does not play next week I say sit Duke as well.
We never made an adjustment to NC blitzing a LB up the middle. Too many times that man came free and screwed up several plays. That should have been accounted for at some point.
Tough loss and won we should have won, experience or not. When an opponent commits 15 penalties then you have to capitalize. Losing your QB and not having a FG kicker hurts in that type of game. Still should have won. Let's not forget about the penalty on the 2 point conversion. We had NC totally off guard on that and likely would have scored. The refs were falling over backwards all game to get NC the ball fast enough to run their hurry up. And then they call that on us? That was BS and would have made it a 3 point game instead of 4.
