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Some thoughts after the Cal rewatch

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I think part of it is just we were gassed.

USF was in 100 degree weather, remember both teams were cramping up and sucking air. They played hard and with a fast pace that really tested us.

VaTech was six days later and we had to grit that one out on a short week. Then this game…we had to fly across country, the AC broke, and it didn’t finish until 2:30AM.

Not an excuse but people do get tired. Let’s see what they look like after the bye.

Being tired leads to mental errors and looking slow.

I want to see us gang tackling and multiple hats to the ball like vs UF. Hopefully the rest is just what we need to get right again
 
Cribby said:
I personally think Bell has been better than most. Majority of the games he holds up well but once a game he loses leverage and gets bent in half like Neo from the matrix. He’s still learning how to use that enormous frame and still needs strength but you can see why the coaches love him so much. Also credit needs to be given to the OL beens they were put in an awful position the last 18 minutes having to pass most plays. All things considered they blocked well even though Cal was pinning their ears back playing with that huge lead with no threat of the run.

My biggest knock on the offense continues to be not using Martinez to his strength , run scheme and getting push from the OL. I’d also throw in Cam’s refusal to take what the d gives him or throw the ball away. He borders on reckless at times and tbh arrogance. He has to be better than that. The int Saturday was one of the stupidest plays I’ve ever seen a qb make especially with the hole the team was in. I get it he’s a gunslinger but that was Pop Warner level ****. Luckily we won and survived another week but these issues and the laundry list of issues on D will eventually bite them.

They’re now the hunted and i’m not sure if they can handle that pressure. Hopefully the bye week coaches can get their attention.
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I can't believe Cam Ward threw that ball for the pick six. My jaw literally dropped when I saw it even before it was picked off. Like you said, pop warner level there.
 
Ziggy said:
Well said @DMoney! I'm not going to complain about being 6-0 going into the bye week. I'm riding high until the wheels fall off.

My follow up questions are the following:
On offense - 1) we can't continue to rely on both George and Brown. Both players have similar games and make similar mistakes. Neither seem like smart, tough, accountable football players. Can we please give Jojo, Ray Ray or Carr some more burn?
2) Also, can we use a little tempo in the first half? Feels like Ward handles it really well and defenses are never prepared for us going fast.

On defense - 1) we can't add players at this point in the season but we can change our scheme. Do we need to utilize more zone? more man? what's the trend with all of these massive busts?
2) the lack of speed in the secondary is glaring. If we're giving up chunk plays with older, lesser athletes, might as well get the younger guys some burn? Stafford, R Washington, Zaquan Patterson, etc.
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Agreed with your assessment on offense, we need to play with more tempo. Those first drives it look like we were running out the clock, every play took forever. With our depth on offense, we should pick up the pace, **** we ran 86 plays in the game to their 49.
Defense, I think our alignment leaves us open to being gash. They say safeties make a bad match up for slots, but Powell spent most of the spring covering Restrepo (the best slot in college football) and supposedly, he was up to the job. Last two games he isn't close. Tackling, and doing your job on defense is our biggest problem, good God the QB for Cal. didn't throw the ball more than 5 yards, except for once.
 
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I want to see this lineup on offense more:
X
Horton
Arroyo
Lofton
And whatever rb

We can run or the row out of this all day and it presents mismatches. Need lofton eating into McCormick snaps more
 
skyman said:
Dam slow dbs cant play man, cant play zone, cant tackle in open field, not disciplined, exposed all on film.. of course when we finally get an offense!
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They said hill was supposed to be fast. But to be fair the TE caught him flat footed looking in the back field and already had a couple steps on him when finally decided to turn and run
 
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skyman said:
You think the play where Baron is covering the wr on screen and the safety on hash over the TE that points as he screams down in one Hill? I dont know the coverage but thats TOUGH..

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I was yelling out "why is Tyler Baron lined up to cover a receiver" just before the ball was snapped.
 
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Calinative said:
Pleasure meeting ya @DMoney

I agree, I'd like to see some more under center a bit. But honestly literally the only change we NEED offensively is literally hoping Cam limits the extremely negative plays - or hopefully to 1 or fewer per game.

All our focus needs to be on how we fix this defense up. Idk why people are so confident about Damari in the Nickel role though. Idk, just I'm not sure why we'd be more confident in him defending quick slot receivers and following all this motion teams are attacking us with, when DP2 has had his struggles with it. I mean he'd be a bigger run presence than Porter, and can likely be used more efffectively on blitzes. But idk... Though we have seriously struggled with Outside contain and tackling out of our Safeties (and honestly LBs and guys wrapping up and finishing offf QBs). So maybe he helps with that a lot. And it'd have the secondary effect of allowing us to put Porter back outside which should be better for us. But like Cal didn't do anything crazy in the pass game either, we just bit on stuff way too much and allowed the easiest 50+ yard pass plays a QB could ask for.

But I think as Alston comes back and Bain gets his legs fully back under him, this will all be up to the LBs and DBs stepping their game up. We need them to take a step forward. Jaden Harris needs to be constantly doing triangle tackling drills. But also like where the **** are any of our LBs on these outside plays? It's like they don't exist. We're putting all this pressure on Meesh/Harris to make 1 on 1 tackles on a good RB in space to the outside. Like yeah Jaden Harris blew it and it was a terrible attempt, but it's also not like he had any help really... Look we need to just trust our 4 down Lineman and like Kiko to be able to stop the run between the tackles. I'm expecting teams to significantly increase how much they test out contain and forcing our CBs/Safeties to make these tackles.

Like I think we need to have our DLine and Kiko maybe (cause that's his strength) playing really aggressive, but the rest of the D needs to be playing conservative.
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Yeah I agree with everything u said. One thing that you really pointed out was the LBs. Besides the USF game, Kiko had 11 tackles, out LBs are getting a max of 6 tackles a game. Maybe it’s bc the DL is just doing there job really well, but when u look at these big plays that happen on the edges, the LBs are nowhere to be found. Kiko has had 2 tackles in the last two games, idk wtf is going on, but pretty sure that’s not good for a starting MLB.
 
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E1k said:
Agreed here, i think guidry is gonna have to switch up the fronts or something to feel more comfortable stopping the run out of two deep,it’s too much mofc right now imo. More gap discipline will be needed but at least we can limit big plays that way
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Maybe it’s just me being uninformed, but I think Guidry has played more 4-3 lately.
 
jupo2001 said:
Good write up. We have to protect our DB’s by probably mixing up a little more zone coverages and two deep. We were getting torched when we were playing man to man one safety high in the beginning. I trust our d line to get pressure consistently, especially with Bain being back. I said after the UF game that the DB’s scare me. But, all we can do is keep getting better and putting them in the best positions to succeed.

I’d also like to see us control the game more with the running game. Seeing pulling lineman and backs getting up field is beautiful when executed properly. You cannot abandon the run when you have a guy, Mark Fletcher, averaging 9 yards a carry on 8 attempts at the half. After stopping Cal with a quick three and out coming out of halftime down 11, we promptly go 5 wide from our own 20. Yeah, Cam made a boneheaded play, but as coaches, what were we trying to accomplish with that set early in the 2nd half on 1st down? Just questions I have while watching.
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Excellent write-up.

I also think the team has been feeling themselves a lil too much, Mario keeps emphasizing on not believing your own hype, and I agree. Don't be complacent. Stay within the assignments. Don’t let the other team get under your skin, we are a lot of teams national championship game when they play us, so don't let them bait us into costly unnecessary penalties.

I also agree on using Lofton a lot more as an H-Back. He's such a weapon to where it will put stress on defenses having pretty much two tight ends who can block and catch and outrun you, bigger than your DBs and some LBs and faster.... yeah, more Lofton in a FB role.
 
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Hurracanes said:
I disagree with the notion

I am very surprised Miami didn’t pursue bigger names in the DB room this offseason. Richard and Hill were always mid and Guidry thinks he can develop anyone. Shoot, even Powell has looked bad in many points. Lol at Harris.

Mario, Guidry and Dennis took a major gamble when they approached the portal with that strategy. Now, their worst nightmare took place with Damari’s injury, and I expect will cost us a game or two against the wrong team.

Frustrating to see this mediocre Defense, in year 2, when you have a Cam Ward on your team.

Side note: good seeing you Saturday and congratulations on your beautiful family. I can’t wait to bring my kids to away games once they are a little older.
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Are you sure they took that strategy? I was under the impression that they tried to get some help (other than Powell) but simply were not successful. Others that follow recruiting may confirm.
 
Hurracanes said:
I disagree with the notion

I am very surprised Miami didn’t pursue bigger names in the DB room this offseason. Richard and Hill were always mid and Guidry thinks he can develop anyone. Shoot, even Powell has looked bad in many points. Lol at Harris.

Mario, Guidry and Dennis took a major gamble when they approached the portal with that strategy. Now, their worst nightmare took place with Damari’s injury, and I expect will cost us a game or two against the wrong team.

Frustrating to see this mediocre Defense, in year 2, when you have a Cam Ward on your team.

Side note: good seeing you Saturday and congratulations on your beautiful family. I can’t wait to bring my kids to away games once they are a little older.
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They tried really hard to get a starting nickel. That was the only Portal whiff.
 
Cribby said:
I personally think Bell has been better than most. Majority of the games he holds up well but once a game he loses leverage and gets bent in half like Neo from the matrix. He’s still learning how to use that enormous frame and still needs strength but you can see why the coaches love him so much. Also credit needs to be given to the OL beens they were put in an awful position the last 18 minutes having to pass most plays. All things considered they blocked well even though Cal was pinning their ears back playing with that huge lead with no threat of the run.

My biggest knock on the offense continues to be not using Martinez to his strength , run scheme and getting push from the OL. I’d also throw in Cam’s refusal to take what the d gives him or throw the ball away. He borders on reckless at times and tbh arrogance. He has to be better than that. The int Saturday was one of the stupidest plays I’ve ever seen a qb make especially with the hole the team was in. I get it he’s a gunslinger but that was Pop Warner level ****. Luckily we won and survived another week but these issues and the laundry list of issues on D will eventually bite them.

They’re now the hunted and i’m not sure if they can handle that pressure. Hopefully the bye week coaches can get their attention.
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spot on (a) run game (b) Cam's recklessness/arrogance and (c) the hens will come to roost one day
 
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