Turk's Player Grades and Unit Assessments
- Thread starter Turk
- Start date
OL: Grade D-
Not one holding call that I remember, no off sides calls. But no holes at all. Zero running lanes. That said, Fitz told us that the OL will shuffle between 7-9 guys until he can find out which ones fit in the best. So this is a work in progress. IMO, similar to last year. I believe we could have adjusted the game plan and made the game more competitive, but Fitz wants these guys to learn on the job. It didn't appear that they were incapable or that they broke down on pass coverage, they just can't run block at all as a unit at this time. I saw the same thing last year. I won't fail this group since I do think coaching is to blame, and the QB has some blame.
QB: Grade D-
The downhill started after the second sack....which was on Thorson. He failed to recognize the unblocked defender on his right hand side and didn't bother going to his hot receiver. After that big sack, Thorson had happy feet in the pocket and threw everything high or offline. He still gets rattled in games after a few hits. But a few things to note. Setting Thorson up 100% of the time behind center and not moving the pocket or rolling him out, or calling any running plays for him is a complete disaster and will always be a complete disaster. The defenders knew exactly where he would be. And on running plays, they knew exactly who wasn't running the ball. It's pretty simple and the backers really didn't even have to guess on much at all. It's hard to know what McCall is thinking. Does Thorson have the green light to take off? Is Throson saving himself for the NFL? I dont' have the answers but something is wrong.
WR: Grade D-
They have to win more battles when that ball is a bit high or when they have a defender really close. But overall, it wasn't so much that this group cost us drives, but rather they just didn't make those plays they are capable of. Breaking through that first tackle would be nice. One of our bigger receivers caught a pass and only had one defender that he almost beat but got tackled with a simple arm tackle. When I watched our WR last week, they fought and clawed and broke tackles, similar to the Dukies yesterday. But we didn't have any energy it seemed. For that reason, a C- but subtract 1 letter grade for the early fumble. Two games in a row, a wr fumbles. They are better than that.
OC: McCall: Grade F
Really a poor job of coaching yesterday. I assume Fitz gives McCall the green light to run the offense. A few things to exhibit to show how this is about coaching as well.
1. Same Pocket every time.
Watch the Duke offense, or the Okie, or OSU or whoever else was on TV yesterday, and you will see an OC who moves the pocket, calls QB running plays, Calls rollout passes, etc. Then compare that to our offense. 100% of the time yesterday, McCall had Thorson drop back in the same spot every time. Imagine if you are a LB or DE and you knew exactly where the QB would be? It's not easy to imagine how fun that would be to be on defense, right? Now, imagine if you already determined that the only guy running the ball would be the guy behind the QB. Get the picture? Pretty easy to defend that.
2. Empty Backfield
So, I noticed only one other offensive scheme yesterday, i.e., the empty backfield. It was incredibly successful believe it or not. We employed it during the last series of the first half. Thorson is actually DAMN GREAT with this setup when he knows he has to get rid of the ball with minimal protection. Right down the field, TD. Duke struggled with this. So, you may say that Duke was in 2 minute prevent mode, right? But, As I explained to fans in the stands during halftime, I was hopeful that McCall picked up on this and would start the second half off with an empty backfield as well. He did. The result was an immediate positive pickup. Then he shut it down for some unknown reason. The only other time we went to the empty backfield was in the late 3rd quarter when we were on the 24 yard line after Moten's KOR for a few yards. And yes, Duke wasn't prepared again and it was a 9 yard reception (we took a penalty instead of the 9 yard gain so the play was rerun).
What I have noticed is that Thorson executes a empty backfield very very good. And I hope that we see more of this in the future. When he knows he has to get rid of the ball, he is pretty good. It also spreads the field better and puts less pressure on our OL, presuming Throson executes quickly. I'd be interested to see this later.
Why don't we see it that much? I presume we want to give our OL some Saturday work, and I can see that argument to prepare for the Big ten. Those OOC losses really didn't hurt us at all last year, and our OL did a bit better after getting in the OOC work. So, there is an argument to stick with the game plan.
DC: Grade D-
Hard to give Doc an F when he has no DE's that can hold down the edge. But he was vanilla and didn't trust his players. I can see not trusting, but in this game, you have to trust your players and take the losses and take the wins. Sure, we lack speed and missed a lot of arm tackles and got planted by the stiff arm of a QB who was quick enough, but that QB isn't Dan Marino and shouldn't have broken a Duke record of being the first Dukie QB to toss for 300 yards and run for 100. We aren't THAT bad.
Here is an example of how to mix it up. At the beginning of the second half. Doc blitzed on first down. I think the play was a pass that only went for 4 yards to the hot read. Well done by Doc. Breaking the predictability. So, along comes 3rd down. Duke is prolly expecting a blitz. Wrong. Doc rushes only 3. And we get a sack.
The rest of the game was all predictable flat footed things. For that reason, I give Doc a D-. Could you imagine being the opposing QB and already knowing nobody was going to blitz you? Yea, you get the picture.
Head Coach: Fitz: Grade F
Although Fitz didn't have his team prepared, he realized he was also outcoached per the press conference. I don't think this is the end of the world, after all, when was the last time that Fitz lost to a private school? Yea, years ago that I don't remember. But, as I've said for at least 7 years, loyalty is not necessarily always a virtue. And until we address the OL, Fitz will have to continue optimizing other units and also make sure he continues to motivate his players to get the most out of them. Mostly, that is exactly what he does and the team ends up as a decent team capable of 6-8 wins with the occasional bowl victory. That has always been good enough and I think it will remain good enough even though Fitz sold the Admin on the huge lakeside facility and hundreds of millions of dollars. But is it fair to the fans? Players? Program? to continue doing the same bad thing over and over again.....insert insanity here.....and pay no attention to the yearly problem of the OL? I think Fitz is just a loyal guy, for the sake of loyalty but if not then someone needs to bring him back to Kansas.
LB: Grade C+
2 outside backers were really out of position and I expect better from them because they are better. Paddy Fisher is phenomenal. I was at the game and his name kept getting called so much that I started watching him. He is a great positive out of this game. We got a keeper and everyone will know his name soon. He picked up where AWalk left off and I am very impressed, even if his coverage skills aren't as good as AWalk.
DL: Grade D-
We have a monster weakness at DE. We can't hold any edge to speak of. Lancaster missed a tackle or two on the inside but otherwise I thought he played a very good game as DT. Thompson needs to make some plays. A few young guys showed up a time or two but are too inexperienced at this time to play with any consistency. Yesterday looked awful but we have talent.
DB"S Grade D
Kyle got picked on at Corner. McGee was ruled out by targeting. Godwin looked decent. But I found it odd that Trai Williams didn't play much at all, but then played most of the second half. Obviously, this unit is banged up. Unfortunately, I doubt it's out of healing mode for a long time. Just unfortunate but that's football. The young talent just lacks experience. Nothing else to say.
Special Teams: Grade B
Solid punting all day long. Great.
Kickoffs solid. FG unit Solid. The kicking game as great.
The return game was awful. Thankfully, a big punt return was called back for Duke. And our own KOR were awful. Austin Anderson isn't the right guy to have back there. He simply doesn't block and also lacks proper perspective on where the ball is. He misled Moten twice yesterday. Speaking of Moten, I'd rather see him backing up Jackson instead of Fitz cutting him in line on KOR. Me thinks Roberts was built for it. Oh well.
RB: Grade Incomplete
I feel as though it will be entirely unfair to grade the RB's unless we expect them to run through a brick wall in front of them with no creases, nothing. I mean no other back in the history of NU would have done any better.
I feel as though it will be entirely unfair to grade the RB's unless we expect them to run through a brick wall in front of them with no creases, nothing. I mean no other back in the history of NU would have done any better.
Good point about rolling out the QB and moving the pocket. We saw the same problems in 2014 with Siemian, and McCall finally started having him roll out against Notre Dame, which resulted in a career performance for him. Our QBs just don't have the time to sit in the pocket and find receivers. Duke's QB, on the other hand, had all the time in the world...
If we had Ohio State's d-line, we could get pressure with the four guys rushing, but that's not our team this year. Very little pass rush so far this season.
Prudent observation, and I thought this was more of the story yesterday than the OL, which we knew about. It almost like Thorson forgot how to run. If you watch Daniel Jones, he was much more the dual-threat QB I thought Thorson was.
And some of his reads yesterday were just strange. One time, the presnap had Duke's best DE lined up against JJ on CT's strong side. Now JJ's a decent blocker, but this was a mismatch. Instead of audibling to have JJ sprint to the flat, or scrambling right, he drops back in the pocket, and waits for the inevitable to happen seeing it unfold the entire time since it was directly in his line of vision.
Perhaps it was just an off day. Or perhaps someone with better knowledge of the game can point out to me what I am missing. But it just seemed like CT did his OL absolutely no favors, which is odd since he knew they were a weak link coming into the game.
Dunno, but I'm glad we don't play Notre Dame until mid season next year.
At any rate, I felt we could score against anyone at the midseason point last year and I imagine it will be similar this year.
WR fumble is an automatic F for the unit unless they absolutely light it up in other aspects of the game. That obviously did not happen this game. When you touch the ball two, three, four times a game at best, you simply must protect the ball.
The one thing I hoped CT learned at the Manning academy was the ability to sense pressure and step away from or through it. So far I am not optimistic. It has been puzzling in both games how once a pass rusher gets his hands on him, that is that. Has anyone with more knowledge observed this as well? Am I wrong? It just feels like CT should be breaking some of these arm tackles from blitzers or d-lineman, especially given his size and athleticism.
Yes. He still lacks the awareness to step away from rushers and tuck it and run. We have seen how great he can be when he gets up to full speed (Stanford, Nebraska 2015 come to mind).
I don't know if he's being coached to just be safe and avoid injury, or whether it's something psychological after several fumbles over the past two seasons. But Clayton needs to make teams pay with his feet. Duke looked like it had the better NFL prospect, by a large margin.
Turk, I realize you have a man crush on CT but please dont blame McCall for CT jitters in the pocket. I have a hard time stomaching your suggestion that CT doesnt run due to the Coaches.
TS was allowed to run even when he played with a mid ankle sprain.
CT is leap years behind TS and your talk about him being NFL ready is not only annoying but shows your lack of knowledge. I believe he is soft and timid about running and ive watched him alot. And he doesnt know how to run when he does, so he takes big hits. Isnt even aware where the sticks are. No running instincts at all.
I guess Turk could have summed it up by simply noting we played our D game while Duke played their A game. Have to believe Saturday's quarterback play was an anomaly with one of the early sacks having had a role with regard to subsequent play.
Looking ahead, one has to be optimistic given that we have both a less competitive game and a bye week ahead before the beginning of B1G play. Hopefully both JJ (with the recently disclosed leg injury) and CT can return to 100 percent by then.
One nice hole on JJ's 5 yd. TD run (so not zero), but not enough to raise the grade to D.
I didnt notice the empty backfield but since we dont have the ability to run block, then why not use it more?
We employed and empty backfield several times, and it seem to work better. Turk can make a better comment about that because he was paying particular attention to it
