We're going to go pretty much drive by drive here, almost play by play. See the end for the summarizing thoughts. Please comment and ask questions on what you dont understand, these take a long time to do well. Our goal here is to look for good plays and bad technique. I pulled out only a few plays and if theres anything that you would like to see or have explained, just ask. I did end up pulling out more of their plays than ours, and I've used TNet vids where appropriate.
The animated drive chart is at the end.
ESPN play-by-play
Miami starts at their 23 - Iso for 3, good job by the safety to come up....another one right up the left side for 5...and the RB drops an easy catch for a 1st down. DMac left the back to hit Harris, WHY? NOT YOUR JOB DMAC.
Clemson is playing Nickel and 4-3 UNDER
CU starts at our 21 - Harper toss sweep for 3...Harper dumpoff pass for 2 on a crosser...quick out to Marquan is knocked away, Parker looked that way and locked on him. Still a good play by them. Punt.
Miami showing their basic 4-3 OVER front and man coverage, zero.
Miami starts at their 17 - quick slant inside to a back/TE for a few, Thompson was offsides....Barry on an Isolation for 33. DMac missed a tackle clean, that would've stopped him at around a 5-8 yard gain....Again and he pushes Branch and Thompson 4 yards backwards....Again and Bowers was not where he should be, a LB got blocked out on the edge, and Hall got flattened....Miller on another Isolation from an unbalanced set, right up the A-gap...Again and he cuts it back because no End was there to take it away, all LBs flowed to the play for another 9...I formation zone TD gets called back for holding....Rennie Moore gets a nice sack, blew by 61....Hankerson's first TD on a mental bust. 8 plays 83 yards, 03:06 7-0 Miami
Miami watched the Auburn film and they are having the same success by running up to the LOS and snapping it before we're set. Our guys are apparently caught flat-footed by this. We also don't handle unbalanced sets any better against them than last year.
Miami beat us with I-formation isolation plays and zone lead plays that are the same plays our defense sees from our offense every week in practice. Miami just pushed them off the ball, there was no mystery here.
The TD play was DeAndre's man, he and Brandon Maye both took the flat receiver, but DMac has the #2 here and not #3 headed to the flat. DMac knows he has #2 vertical always.
CU starts at our 20 - End around to AE for a loss...Wildcat off tackle for Harper for 5...ball bounces off Allen's chest on a 5 yard hitch that would've netted a 1st down.
Gotta catch that ball. The Wildcat play looked like we actually repped it in practice for once.
Miami starts at their 24 - D strings out a play, nice tackle... Miller runs into his blocker and Hawkins runs him down because we blew up their line on the play...Late blitz forces a throw wide to Hankerson. Punt.
CU starts from the 29 - Andre Ellington 71 yards, cutback off a lead play. 7-7
Notice that weak effort on blocking downfield.
Miami starts at their 32 - 3 & out. Gilchrist made a nice play to bat the ball away, somebody inside really tore up their LG on a waggle pass....Andre Branch gets there with Tig WIllard and stuffs another isolation...Harris throws a floater up and B. Maxwell drops it. Punt.
The first of Harris "almost" interceptions. We've got to make those plays against good opponents.
CU starts at the 25 - Harper zone for 3, shouldve had 3 more, tiptoeing....Wildcat power for 1 with Harper...Parker throws a bit behind Xavier Dye, hits his hands though. Punt.
Same old Xavier Dye, same tiptoeing from The Skirt. 2nd Wildcat play there looked like it wasnt repped in practice.
Miami starts at the 16 - PI called on Brewer, but I don't see any interference. He had his hand resting on his back when Hankerson turned, but it didnt impede Hankerson....Barry gets through first two tacklers for another 8, outside isolation...Harris throws one 20 yards ahead of Maxwell and his receiver....Again he throws late to the flats, Maxwell could've picked it. Punt, technically a 3 & out.
I dont understand why that was called PI. If you call that one PI, then the guy on Allen's back is definitely a PI. Clemson's DL is winning up front now.
CU starts at their 37 - Parker throws it away due to pressure, when we were in max protect. No one was open....Pass thrown a little too far ahead of Marquan Jones....He hits Allen for 17 up the seam on an In route....Harper on a Power for 9, nice cutback....Motion to an Iso for the 1st down, Harper should've gotten 2 more yards if he runs into the hole instead of juking the LB....Nice outside run by Jamie on a zone for 6. End 1st QTR. Ellington Iso for about 3...Ellington Power Right for 5....Parker throws one away, everyone covered on the bootleg we love to keep running....Ellington Zone TD right up the A-gap. 14-7 Clemson. 10 plays 63 yards, 04:00
Miami is overpursuing and not getting off blocks here, killed em with cutbacks on this drive.
Miami starts at their 30 - Maye waits and reads this inside run perfectly. Nice gap control up front, no gain....Gordon makes a good catch on Hawkins, just a good play by him, nothin Hawk's fault....Hankerson for 65 on another blown coverage by McDaniel. Just looked like a sluggo or a Go route. 14-14
Its not zero coverage, its a crappy read by DeAndre. He was the deep help here. Why was he coming up? It was empty set. WHAT IS HE THINKING TODAY?
CU starts at our 24 - Same waggle PA bootleg, everyone covered, Parker throws it away. Why isnt Diehl getting himself open?...Pistol, zone to Harper for 5, bad tackle by them....Parke throws one through Ashe's hands on a shallow crossing route. Punt.
Same old Terrance Ashe. Why didnt we start out running the ball after it just moved us right down the field?
Miami starts at their 38 - Screen, Hawkins got blocked outside, K. Brown didnt keep his eyes on the back (his job)...Andrews loses the edge and Hall forces Barry out for 7...Right up the B-gap for 5 again....Harris overthrows his man....Throws another one up for Rashard Hall to pick off. Bad decision, cant read the safety, typical Harris.
Clemson starts at our 2 - AE Power Right for 3....offsides...JH Power R for 7, stop dancing and you'll get 3 more. Bad tackling too...JH zone for a loss....Brandon Thomas is on left side Guard here, pulls well....Power R for 5 more...Parker pass tipped and intercepted. Allen Bailey on Walker gets his hands up and knocks it down, Walker has to cut block him there or keep his hands down on a 3-step drop.
Miami at our 18 - Wheel route TD. Maye's man in man/man coverage, he must pick him up and DMac is his help, but its Maye's man. PAT blocked by Jenkins. 20-14 Miami.
Clemson starts at our 15 - Parker runs out of bounds for 7, everyone covered....JH Iso for nothing, no hole on R side...3rd & 2 we go Empty, KP hits JH on a 3 yard flare....We show wildcat and they call their 2nd timeout to challenge the fumble of JH on the ground, he recovered it....Ellington on an orbit toss sweep, Walker got cut and Ellington had his legs cut out, and fumbled it in the air.
Pitiful.
Miami starts at our 22 - Brewer beat on a quick In route for 15....Blitz by Hawk forces a throw out of bounds...Inside guys blown 5 yards off the ball, netting Barry 8....Gilchrist picks off another dumb pass by Harris.
Harris has to be one of the dumbest most talented QBs in the world. He didnt even see Gilchrist.
Clemson starts at the 20 - Iso stopped, loss of 3, no blocking on the leftside...Parker stepped up into a coverage sack, protection was good....Parker throws behind AE on a shallow crosser, really bad throw, not on AE.
That drive was Parker's fault. He stepped into the sack when the flare route was available, but only if he had zipped it to the flat. Throw was well behind AE and I don't see how Parker missed it that much.
Miami starts at their 39 - Chavis eats up his man, stuffs a run inside....Benjamin catches the miracle pass against Maxwell, ruled incomplete after review. He didnt have control when Maxwell knocked it loose. Miracle catch against perfect man/man coverage though. I like how Jack Childress needs 5 minutes to figure out where to spot the damn ball. Actually there was another mixup on underneath coverage with Maye not paying attention to his man, but Harris didnt see it...3rd & 10, 14 yard gain on a draw. Perfect play call really, especially when we overpursue....Pass to Hankerson hit and called incomplete after review. At least Gilchrist was right with him, Brewer wouldnt be....false start....DMac and Brewer nailed the TE to breakup a pass, first good play by DMac all day....Johnson jumps to make a catch and drops it when he hits the ground, Sensabaugh wasn't within 5 yards of his man. Punt.
Clemson starts at the 20 - 1:25 on the clock, you've had a shitty half of football, just run the clock out at your 20. Unfortunately we're not that smart.
Parker throws behind Allen on a 10 yard hitch, nearly picked off. WHY THROW? ....Finally a screen is called, Ellington gets 8.... Allen on another quick out for a couple...draw finally called, stopped for a loss. WE call timeout with :32 left. BAD coaching decision. Parker throws one over Allen's head into Armstrong's hands.
Miami is squeezing Allen because they dont respect our other WRs, why would you play zone when you can handle our guys man/man? Just put two on Allen and you've stopped our passing game today.
Miami returns it to our 29 - Hankerson on a post to our 7. WHY was Quandon Christian on Hankerson? We call timeout with :14 left to set the defense....Another TD on a slant, Harris staring Hankerson down, against Gilchrist. BAD MAN/MAN TECHNIQUE, not protecting the inside when MG knew he couldnt go outside with such a large split.
End of 1st half
Actually if you look at it, other than the brain farts, the defense had a good half. Miami can't get out of their own way, and won't run the ball continuously for reasons I can't fathom. Lots of drives here that went 3 & out and didn't get them many yards.
Unfortunately the brain hemorraghing by DeAndre McDaniel/Brandon Maye has given them the scoreboard, along with a terrible decision by Swinney to not run the clock out after a bad half of football for the offense.
Also, the DL is not getting any significant pressure on Harris. Steele has shown thus far that he is not as blitz-happy in 2010 as before, but we didn't expect many blitzes today either. Harris has something like 20% better completion percentage this season vs a blitz than when you drop in coverage. His inability to look off a safety would tell you that much on its own. Steele must generate some rush, as Bowers, Thompson, Jenkins, and Branch have been totally nullified in the 1st half.
On offense, KP could not have had a much worse first half. Its just bad. He has had the time to throw some balls, but with the combination of poor accuracy (my only real complaint about KP overall the last two years) and poor WR play has shut down our offense.
Credit does go to the Miami defense though, they are on our receivers, other than Allen, like glue. You have to tip your hat to them for that. They have read our patterns really well. Lovett seems to have given them a talking to about overpursuit, but then again we like to run The Skirt over and over, and we know he's not getting anywhere.
In the 2nd half Napier has to get KP's confidence up with some quick and easy completions, and just throw some screens to hold back the rush. We haven't thrown many screens here, why? This defense overpursues just like Auburn's did, and they would be vulnerable to the zone game, and yet we aren't running those. I just don't see a coherent plan of attack.
Admittedly, its very hard for your OC to implement a plan when your WRs don't catch and can't get open. However its still Billy's decision to play the ones they play, none of whom have ever demonstrated any gamebreaking ability. Zero catches by any WRs in the 1st half.
CU - 135 yds rushing, 34 passing.
Miami - 115 rushing, most on the long TD drive, 165 passing.
3rd QTR
CU starts at our 20 - Very important drive to set the tone of the 2nd half goes 3 & out. JH on a Power, bounces outside for 3....JH on a zone, 1 yard...Clear lets one go through his hands, which was a near perfect throw over the outside shoulder. Punt.
Miami has their safety in the box, giving them an 8 man front. They arent worried about our receivers.
WTF IS DWAYNE ALLEN COVERING PUNTS FOR?
Miami starts at their 31.- Iso stuffed by Bowers/Dmac for no gain....Maye gets pushed back 5 yards and they get 5 on another lead play. Nice pursuit by Hawkins though....First down catch on a crosser by Hankerson where the blitzing LB (Hawk) was coming from....Barry stuffed by Bowers and Brewer for no gain....Hawkins comes up to hit Harris and he lobs it over him to the back for a 5 yard gain, bad play by Hawk....Rennie Moore eats up his Guard to force the punt. 6 plays 16 yards
Clemson is also bringing up DMac into the box to get an 8 man front, and slanting the front line. I still see our guys unable to line up properly in time to react to the play, and it looks like Hawkins, Maye and Gilchrist are jumping around and yelling instead of watching their respective keys.
Better DL play there though.
WHY IS DEANDRE MCDANIEL FIELDING PUNTS with a BROKEN WRIST?
CU from our 37 - Zone by AE for 7....Wildcat AE, trick to a reverse pass, Dye dropped another from KP that landed right in the bread basket. Gotta catch that ball....Hopkins catches the ball thrown behind him on a hitch....off tackle run by AE for a couple...Bullet to Allen was thrown behind him a few inches, but hit him right in the numbers. Gotta catch that ball.....Overthrows Allen on a deep cross, missed Marquan Jones wide open down the middle of the field....4th & 8, quick kick executed nicely.6 plays 22 yards
Its pretty bad when Parker puts them right on the money and nobody can catch the ball. Allen's drop was definitely catchable. Parker was blitzed on the last play and locked on Allen, and never saw Jones on the Post.
Miami starts at their 5 - DMac hits the guy at the LOS on an outside zone, can't get him down, but Maxwell makes it for him, WRAP UP DEANDRE....DMac gets Barry down on an Iso for about 3...Harris stumbles and gets Grounding called. 60 yard punt, holding on Sensabaugh was not needed, Gilchrist was well by him.
Nice DL penetration. Clemson playing UNDER front with DMac in the box.
CU starts at the 44 - Zone AE for a loss, Chris Hairston missed a guy coming outside, but really just a good play by them....Tunnel screen to Hopkins for 4...Walker beat off the corner badly for not moving his feet forces the throw to AE, who turns it into a 1st down....JH zone for 5...Screen to Harper for 14....Parker hits his last option, AE in the flats for another 1st down. Everyone else was covered, AE is the last read for KP here....AE iso for no gain...Toss sweep AE for the TD. Excellent crackblock by Dwayne Allen. 27-21 Miami, 8 plays 56 yards, 03:57
Imagine that, screens and zones work? Love that crackback by Allen.
Miami starts at their 21 - Maye on a blitz forces the early throw that is dropped. Both WLB and MLB blitzed...Pass to Benjamin is dropped after Maxwell slams him....Run blitz comes into a Draw play, and two guys miss tackles, gets 8 himself, then we get pushed backwards another 3 yards because we can't wrap up...Flare/out route gets 8 yards underneath Maxwell...Another quick slant gets 5-6 against Maxwell...They run the same play again, gets tipped at the line....Rennie Moore TFL after beating his man badly...Blitz in Harris' face from Branch on a twist stunt forces errant throw deep. He had him open though.
Miami is passing because we have decided to stack the box, thankfully we are blitzing with our Press coverage. Slant calls by Whipple are smart playcalls against this coverage.
CU starts at our 22 - JH zone for 2, too many men in the box to run there. Dalton Freeman forgot to hit the MLB, who scraped to make the play...START OF 4TH QTR....JH Zone, nobody in the middle blocked for him...Nuke made a good catch and fumbled it, good throw, didnt secure the football...
Some bad OL blocking on that series.
Miami recovers at the CU 45 - D stands up and forces a 3 & out. Maye blitzes and forces an incompletion...Maye dives at Barry's legs to stuff an Isolation, nice play by Brandon....Bowers blows right by Seantral Henderson to force a fumble, Miami recovers it. Punt.
Again, nice DL penetration.
CU starts at the 33 - PA pass, everyone covered and KP runs out. All the WRs running downfield and not coming back to the QB. KP could've run for 5 if he wanted....Screen pass to Brown off the mark, but bounced off his hands....Another pass bounces off Jaron Brown's face mask, dropped. PI Called. Gotta catch that ball....AE Iso for 4...AE cuts a zone outside off tackle for over 15, holding on McClain pulls it back. The hold wasn't needed, that DT would not have caught AE....JH on a flare for 5-6.....Jaron Brown catches a shallow crosser and runs 23....A screen to Allen is well played by Miami LB, short gain...Wildcat off tackle by AE for 6....3rd & inches, Isolation and looks like Diehl (or McClain) missed a block, LB came right through to hit JH for a short loss....4th & 1 at the Miami 20, would be around 33-35 yard FG, Dabo elects to go for it with a pitch to the field side with AE, stuffed. Turnover on downs at the Miami 20.
Terrance Ashe was blocking out there and got pushed backwards into the play by the CB 3 yards, AE had to run around him and was caught on the boundary. I thought Ashe was in for his blocking? Got his feet crossed up and knocked backwards.
Jeff Scott:“First of all, the guy travelling with Terrance came around and actually made the play- he made a great play,” Scott said. “We never would’ve thought that the guy travelling would be able to make the play. Terrence did get his feet caught together and didn’t have a great base. Because he got contact with his feet together, the guy knocked him back. Definitely something that could’ve helped the play would be to set the point like we coach. He had been the best guy doing that in past, but didn’t get it done when it mattered.”
I don't mind us going for it, but it would've made it a one possession game (27-24) if we had hit the FG. Would Catanzaro have hit it? This is a debateable call either way. Take the points or trust your defense? We had pretty much stonewalled them in the 2nd half to this point.
Playcall is more debateable to me. Why run the Iso with JH and then a pitch out to AE? Why run wide on a speedy defense?
The announcers are touching on one important issue: when they see KP roll out, the WRs are continuing in their routes and not coming back to the QB. When your QB scrambles (not a called roll or bootleg) you have to know to break off the route and get open no matter what.
Miami starts at the 20 - Nobody in the B-gap to stop Barry on an Isolation, unbalanced set giving us troubles again. This gap was Brandon Maye's and he got isolated. 5 yard gain....Bowers forces another intentional grounding that was uncalled. That ball was 2 yards short of the LOS....Offsides on Jenkins on 3rd & 10...Miami rushes to the line again, hitting Hankerson on DMac for 10. DMac had proper inside leverage and let it go....Barry strung out well by Maxwell and Gilchrist, holding called....Spencer Shuey in. Harris runs right by him on inside blitz, and he's not fast, for 17. Shuey is slooooooooow....Safety (Hall? cant tell) misses a tackle in the backfield, and they get 14...Power and Shuey gets pushed out of the way, but still makes the tackle on a 5 yard gain....PI called on Brewer, pushing Hankerson out of bounds. I don't think that was PI....Kourtnei Brown lost the edge and the RB ran right past him for 15...Dmac stuffs one in the backfield, jumped right through the B-gap....Bowers jumps around the LT to stop Barry...3rd & 15, we have 10 in the damn box and Barry still gets 7, Shuey too damn slow to make a grab....29 yd FG, 30-21 Miami. 10 plays 69 yards, 05:40
Only bad drive for the D in the 2nd half. Miami went back to the unbalanced sets and quick snaps that gave us trouble earlier. As you can see, no other single reason or player that killed us on the drive, but Shuey is just too slow to be in there against Miami.
Gilchrist sets us up at the 47 - KP sacked from behind, Landon Walker's man, and fumbled. He has to hold onto that one.
Miami from our 49 - 3 & out. DL and LBs stuff 3 runs. Punted.
CU from our 20 - 1:14 left and the game is essentially over. Parker throws back over the middle to Brown, trapped it....Pass is tipped by Forston, intercepted.
Summarizing Thoughts
So why did we lose it? I still come back to just mental mistakes, and bad gameplanning by the staff.
Offense
My original opinion that our OL had a poor day should be revised. They gave KP enough time to throw quite often. You cannot expect to give him 5-6 seconds against a good DLine, but several times he had a 3 or 4 count, and thats all youre going to get here. The lack of execution on his part on his throws and the WR corps are more to blame.
I will not say they had a great day, but it wasn't poor, considering the talent of the opposition. Their quick DEs gave Walker/Hairston some problems, as we predicted in the game preview post, but there were some key blocks inside by Freeman, McClain, and Thomas that ended up giving sacks and/or negative yardage. I was more distressed by the 2nd level blocks, which were few. Their LBs were basically free to roam for most of this game, and only their own overpursuit gave us serious yardage.
KP had a horrible first half. I don't know if it was the back injury that made him throw high, ahead and behind, but he was clearly off on his throws. Some of the WRs were open, in the sense that guys are open in the NFL, which isn't much of a lane to throw into. In the 2nd half, he fixed it for the most part.
Seems that when KP threw a beauty, it was still dropped. He threw some perfect passes that our guys just cannot catch.
As for those WRs, I said in August that we would hold the staff responsible for who they played when performance was zero. I said the same thing in the PC game review. If our staff cannot find WRs who can catch a football then either they deserve blame for not teaching, or not evaluating worth a damn. Its one or the other, plain and simple. Ashe and Dye have been here 4 years and cannot catch simple passes, much less the hard ones. If the staff wants to keep playing those two, then heads should roll just for being blatantly stupid and blind. There is no excuse for dropping passes that are on the money.
Marquan Jones is the most invisible man on the field. I believe he can play, but if he doesnt want to show it either, bench him. There were times when he was open and wasnt seen. Marquan has to MAKE a play, not expect it to be handed to him like Dye appears to.
Ashe and Dye should not see the field again until definite run situations, because all I've seen that they do well is block. I don't care how they practice if they cannot catch the easy ones.
Bryce McNeal and Nuke Hopkins should be on the field right NOW. I've long pushed for them to start Jaron Brown as you all know. Might as well go with the rookies when the veterans dont know what to do. Talent always wins when you give it experience. We must find a downfield threat to take the top off the defense, or opponents will always squeeze Allen.
And I don't even think the experience or blocking argument applies to Hopkins too much. This kid can flat out play some football. He may not know everything, but he can catch and he will hit you. Just tell him what route to run.
For the running game, Jamie Harper should not get half the carries that Ellington does. I said it last week and again he gets more carries, and does nothing. Now I see more Clemson fans are realizing that he deserves less; shame it'll take the staff a month to realize it. Its almost like they think they are saving AE for something, but when your toughest opponents come 3-in-a-row, what are you saving him for? Rest him later, run him now.
The Wildcat plays looked like we actually repped them for once, and they did work fairly well against the Miami front. JH should not be running them though, he should be taking ballroom dancing instead.
Miami did stuff our run game, aside from the AE run we didnt get much consistently overall. The zone game with ellington was the better bet, and I don't think we ran those enough. Our gap scheme plays didn't work, and that is due to the talent of the opponent, weak push, and their superior LB play compared to our own. They fit their gaps very well today. Some plays took too long to develop (particularly JH) and someone would come from the C-gap to tackle us from behind.
As for the playcalls, as I said above theres not much to do when no one can catch. There are not that many that I find distasteful by themselves, but where were the screens early? Something to keep them off KP another second and force them out of man/man coverage had to be tried, and Napier waited til the 2nd half to try them. I don't see why, particularly when they had some overpursuit problems early.
Jeff Scott on Monday following:
“ I think some of the guys that have been around here for a while didn’t make the plays we expected them to make, and when the younger guys went in, I felt like they made some plays and did some good things. I think we are starting to see a little separation, and some of these younger wide outs have earned the opportunity to have a start. So we’ll up their reps this week and go from there.”
“I think the four guys that are going to get a lot of reps this week will be DeAndre Hopkins, Jaron Brown, Bryce McNeal, and Marquan Jones,” Scott said. “Those are the four guys that, based off of our film study of the games, have performed the best in the first four games, so they’ll get more of the reps. That doesn’t mean the other guys are going to get thrown off a ledge or something. They’re going to continue to practice. Obviously, we have a long year and they’ll get their opportunities. They’ll be fighting back for whenever their opportunities come, and hopefully do a better job than they have the first part.”
“Obviously the drops are glaring. I think Brandon Clear’s was a very clear drop,” Scott said. “And, with Xavier's, the thing I was most disappointed in was the way he played the ball. I felt like he should’ve come back and attacked the ball a little bit more, as opposed to let the ball come all the way down to his hands. In the video, the defensive back is knocking the ball away while it’s in his hands. When I went back and watched the video, it was not a clear thing of hitting his hands and a drop, but I think he could’ve played the ball a lot better by turning back and attacking the ball like we coach.”
Defense
- I saw the hit on DMac that knocked him silly, but whatever happened to his mentality? He was timid today, reading the wrong plays, and Miami took advantage of it. They saw he was coming up early on film, and challenged him directly, and it paid off. He had a horrible day. No more All-American status for him thus far this season. None of his performances have really stood out as gamechanging, and I expected that from him (and Hall, to be honest) this year. He was tied to 3 of the TDs they scored.
One deep to Hankerson, he was supposed to be the deep safety. He was at the line against an Empty set formation, why? He wasnt playing Press man, Brewer was on Hankerson there.
The one where Hankerson was totally uncovered, where he took the back with Maye, was also his fault. He took the back and not his receiver. He knows what to do there.
The wheel route was Maye's responsibility, but DMac should be helping him and he never got any depth or width in coverage.
I don't know whats up here. Its mental for him. It was mental for most of the day, at least after their 1st TD drive. I don't see how it can be the scheme's complexity. Its the same one, and we arent even blitzing that much.
- Miami watched the film of us so far this year. They saw we have problems lining up. They saw that Auburn had success when they ran to the line and snapped it. They saw on film from last year that we couldnt adjust to unbalanced sets very well. They saw that no one was challenging Byron Maxwell, and that it was Brewer that they could pick on.They exploited all of the above.
- Brewer and Sensabaugh both have been picked on, and will continue to be from here forward. Nobody will bother with Maxwell. Miami moved Hankerson around to get the best matchup for him, which was usually not Maxwell. Thats why he played so much in the slot. I don't know why Steele didn't adjust to have BM on Hankerson on every down, that would've been my call if we play Press man. The other Miami receivers didn't scare me.
- LBs did not have a great day, particularly Maye, and then Shuey when he was in. Spencer seems to know where to go but isnt playing fast. Hawkins was fine, Christian didn't show up to me really, but he was in for much of this game and seemed to be in his gap most of the time.
- Bowers wasn't playing well in the 1st, but came ready in the 2nd. It would've been nice if the interior linemen had made plays, but they were in their gaps plugging up holes, otherwise we would not have forced so many 3 & outs. However, that was not a great OL we faced. They are young, and we should've made a few more plays inside. Rennie Moore should probably get more snaps going forward.
- We'll blitz more going forward, but only if both CBs can play man/man.
- Overall, the same thing that beat us against Miami beat us this year, big plays. Last year they had 300 yards or so on 10 plays. This year they got 260 on about the same number. If you take out those big plays, we handled Miami well, so there is plenty to be encouraged about. Notice all the 3 & outs we forced today?
Steele Post Game:
Animated Drive Chart
Napier Tuesday:
Clemson WR drops. I think I caught em all.