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OL: Grade D-Grades to follow
QB: Grade D-Grades to follow
WR: Grade D-Grades to follow
OC: McCall: Grade FGrades to follow
DC: Grade D-Grades to follow
Head Coach: Fitz: Grade FGrades to follow
LB: Grade C+Grades to follow
DL: Grade D-Grades to follow
DB"S Grade DGrades to follow
Special Teams: Grade BGrades to follow
Mr All Turk: Paddy FisherGrades to follow
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...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.
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.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.
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.
Dunno, but I'm glad we don't play Notre Dame until mid season next year.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.
You are grading pretty high this week. Being generousGrades to follow
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.
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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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.
I didnt notice the empty backfield but since we dont have the ability to run block, then why not use it more?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.