(10-01-2018 09:37 AM)odu09 Wrote: (10-01-2018 09:22 AM)Monarchblue Wrote: I have been defending the end of game pass plays, but I don't agree with everything. I think there are some interesting takeaways.
1. ECU should have won easily. Their coach made the dumbest decision of the night when he switched to the running quarterback and his team couldn't move the ball for most of the 2nd half. Everybody knows we can't stop the pass, and if you watched the Tech game you should have known we can stop your running qb. He saved the disaster by putting the real qb back in the game late, and as expected, we couldn't stop them.
2. Our play calling reverted back to run for 1 yard on 1st down every time putting the offense in a hole with 2nd and long and everyone knows you are going to pass. We did a good job of mixing it up against VT, and it worked.
3. Duhart is incredible. He is unstoppable.
4. Cox cannot be the primary back. He can be effective in the second half if we wear the defense down, but we need a little more quickness more often. I say split carries 50/50 with someone, anyone, who can run the ball in the 1st half, the let Cox bring it home late.
5.3rd downs! Why the hell have we been unable to get off the field on 3rd down for 10 years?
6. Pass defense it awful. Awful isn't even a strong enough word to describe it.
7. Everything that all of y'all are mad about, tracks back to #5. We can't stop anyone through the air, so BW felt he had to win it on offense and could not play traditional safe football down the stretch.
This team has improved, but it is still flawed. Winning consistently this year does not seem to be in the cards.
Good summary. I agree. Another to add is our o-line seems to really struggle with run blocking and they struggled with pass blocking late. They were able to hold off VT but not ECU? How does that make sense?
Another to add is I can appreciate BL chillin in the pocket longer than average, but he really should start rolling out more often as he is subject to his passes getting blocked at the line. He did an amazing job extending plays vs VT and didn't really see it against ECU. By the time he felt the pocket collapse it was too late.
Here is why we had more problems with ECU.
VT stubbornly stayed in a man press. Our 2 big WRs were able to go up and over their relatively small DBs and get the ball almost every time.
VT further stubbornly did not blitz much or otherwise try to put pressure on BL especially on the edges.
I mean no disrespect to Bud Foster, but I believe that his ego got the best of him on that game.
Three of four ECU DBs were over 6' so we lost the over the top advantage. The obvious example was the INT to Duhart in the end zone.
I believe (not sure, much beer) that ECU also utilized a lot of zone pass coverage as well. (VT should have done that)
Additionally, ECU went back to the old two-for-one 'beat ODU' formula of run/pass blitzes that bottle up inside zone run or pressure the passer at the same time, whether the play was run or pass,
ECU also ran some edge blitzes on obvious passing downs that contained BL's roll outs, especially late in the second half when they were less worried about the run.
All of the above could be greatly mitigated with a more versatile running game. I would especially like to see play action as well. Barring that, the OL needs to step up. It still seems to be too slow overall.
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