The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(09-22-2019 12:31 AM)Petey Hodge Wrote:  Any Redskins fans out there?


Ughhhh.

Going up 17-0 on the road at the most unlikely of houses... only to lose in the second half.
Sound familiar?

FML

I compare the two teams often. It's stressful.

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(09-21-2019 10:01 PM)Old Blue Wrote:  Where was the jet sweep? Everything up the middle, why?

This was my thinking too. Late in the second quarter UVA woke up defensively and began to pin their ears back. We were getting nothing to the outside except the occasional screen. At halftime we needed to make an adjustment and failed to do so. If I remember correctly the jet sweep was a big part of our playbook against VT so why not use it here? Keep the defense honest and reestablish the running game.

I think the failure to make that adjustment cost us the game.

I won’t hammer Wilder and Co - they obviously game planned well and had the team motivated. The first 1.5 quarters were exceptional and showed well for the program.

(09-21-2019 10:11 PM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  We probably lose this game no matter what. We caught them flat footed in the first half

My takeaways:

Our defense played brilliantly. That is absolutely the best an ODU defense has ever played, by a wide margin.

Our offense played well early on the ground. Why did we stop the ground game with Lala? Was he hurt or did UVA compensate? It certainly set up the passing game.
In any event our passing game is otherwise not so good. Smartt is not a great passer (at least in the mold of TH and LaRussa), and he does not "see the field" on the scramble, missing open receivers on a number of occasions when under pressure.
The obvious remedy for that is short slants and quick dump passes; the middle appeared to be wide open for that.

I am sorry but with time and the lead you do NOT try the 4th and 1 deep in your own territory.
If you make it, ok, you still might go three and out the next series. Since it was so deep and just 1 yard, it is not a huge emotional hit on the UVA defense.
However, If you don't make it:
1. You guarantee UVA a score and almost surely the win.
2. You send a negative message to your own defense
3. You deflate your own team's morale
4. You give the opposing team a big emotional boost
The ROI percentages are low even if you make it.
VERY, VERY, VERY bad play call.

There was another very bad run call as well.

Our defense will make noise for the rest of the season.
Our offense needs to be tweaked to fit the skills and abilities of the players, including the QB.

Amen brother

Sleeping on it, I am pleased how our team played in the first half. However, getting skunked in the 2nd half doesn't sit well with me. We had a lot of opportunities to stay in the lead and we didn't capitalize. Hell I saw it in the 2nd quarter when we went up 17-0. We started playing way too conservative and that's super deflating.

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Usually I look at the schedule and see Marshall, FAU and say oh crap. Because in the past our D was not schematically up to the challenge. After the first three games I don’t feel that way anymore. I think that effort will be there as the season progresses. DC comes up great game plans and MAKES ADJUSTMENTS ON THE FLY.

The offense is still walking, but improving. I am more optimistic about this season than I was a month ago. Time will tell.

(09-21-2019 10:11 PM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  Our offense played well early on the ground. Why did we stop the ground game with Lala? Was he hurt or did UVA compensate?

LaLa got hurt. He was on the trainers table for a while. He had his left shoe off.

(09-22-2019 07:28 AM)84Monarch Wrote:  Usually I look at the schedule and see Marshall, FAU and say oh crap. Because in the past our D was not schematically up to the challenge. After the first three games I don’t feel that way anymore. I think that effort will be there as the season progresses. DC comes up great game plans and MAKES ADJUSTMENTS ON THE FLY.

The offense is still walking, but improving. I am more optimistic about this season than I was a month ago. Time will tell.

I agree

(09-22-2019 07:28 AM)84Monarch Wrote:  Usually I look at the schedule and see Marshall, FAU and say oh crap. Because in the past our D was not schematically up to the challenge. After the first three games I don’t feel that way anymore. I think that effort will be there as the season progresses. DC comes up great game plans and MAKES ADJUSTMENTS ON THE FLY.

The offense is still walking, but improving. I am more optimistic about this season than I was a month ago. Time will tell.

I hate to say it, but Bobby failed to act on one of his own keys to the anatomy of an upset, belief. The call to go for it on 4th and 1 at your own 30 is a sign of desperation, not belief. I mean, it was the 4th quarter and we had the lead. Our defense was flat out awesome. UVA could not move the ball on us with any consistency (they converted 1 third down all game long.) The only reason to go for it on 4th down at that part of the field is that you don't believe that your defense can keep it up. Otherwise, why risk giving them such a short field when you have a lead in the 4th quarter? If your behind, you MIGHT consider going for it, though there were still 11 minutes to go. But we were ahead. We were winning the game! Granted, had we converted, he would get praised for having guts. On the other hand, we may have punted the ball away and UVA still may have driven the field and scored. But all evidence to that point was that they wouldn't. They weren't able too all night, so why concede the field position game? Bobby blinked under pressure, and it cost us. No moral victory here. We flat out should have won that game.

One other observation worth repeating. If we don't get some sort of downfield passing game going, we're going to struggle all year. UVA figured out in the second half that we can't throw, so they sold out to stop the run. Our QB is not too accurate downfield, our WRs cannot get any separation, and our O-Line, while pretty good at run blocking, cannot pass protect. While we won't be playing ACC caliber defenses the rest of the way, opposing coaches are going to know what our kryptonite is. We need alot of work on the passing game.

I dont know that we can't throw more so than cant pass protect. Smart started off 6 for 6 and had some great tosses. But the o line in the 2nd half was the adjustments UVA made. They kept 2 guys coming hard at the LT and Smart was running for his life the entire 2nd half. That's what caused the lack of a pass to me. But I guess it doesn't matter what causes it.

We have 1 really good WR and UVa put the best corner in the nation on him. Finding any passing game was going to take some work and they actually surprisingly found a little bit of passing.

OTOH, going on 4th and 1 (ignoring the numbers saying do it) shows confidence in the offense and defense. “If we dont get it, the defense can hold them.”

Even if you dont get the FD, the defense has a chance to get a stop which they couldnt do. Then the offense still gets a chance to redeem themselves, which they couldnt do.

I dont think many people truly believe we win the game with a punt there. It takes guts to make that call because you know if you dont get it the coach potatoes are going to be out in full force. Our guys had a chance to make a play and win and couldnt convert.

Next week is going to tell us a lot about this team.

(09-22-2019 09:57 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  I dont know that we can't throw more so than cant pass protect. Smart started off 6 for 6 and had some great tosses. But the o line in the 2nd half was the adjustments UVA made. They kept 2 guys coming hard at the LT and Smart was running for his life the entire 2nd half. That's what caused the lack of a pass to me. But I guess it doesn't matter what causes it.

Its a difficult matchup. They have the best corner in the country and an awesome pass rush. They found some plays to slow down the ends from crashing down but once they just started attacked, our guys couldnt nake enough plays on screens/quick passes.

Agreed about next week. Big game and really looking forward to getting loud for them. We are exactly where we thought we'd be after week 4, record wise. Let's get to .500.

I’m not sure what to think after this one. I was so confident with the start, but it seems adjustments and bad play calling cost us...again. They need to change something with the decisions/play calling. Sadly we have posters on here that are blindly loyal to Bobby and constantly willing to look past these common mistakes. I’m not saying fire Bobby, but someone needs to step in on these bonehead decisions. I think we should easily handle Ecu from what I have seen from them so far.

(09-22-2019 01:23 PM)ODU2011 Wrote:  I’m not sure what to think after this one. I was so confident with the start, but it seems adjustments and bad play calling cost us...again. They need to change something with the decisions/play calling. Sadly we have posters on here that are blindly loyal to Bobby and constantly willing to look past these common mistakes. I’m not saying fire Bobby, but someone needs to step in on these bonehead decisions. I think we should easily handle Ecu from what I have seen from them so far.

Time to bench Scott and put in our backup OC.

(09-22-2019 10:03 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  We have 1 really good WR and UVa put the best corner in the nation on him. Finding any passing game was going to take some work and they actually surprisingly found a little bit of passing.

OTOH, going on 4th and 1 (ignoring the numbers saying do it) shows confidence in the offense and defense. “If we dont get it, the defense can hold them.”

Even if you dont get the FD, the defense has a chance to get a stop which they couldnt do. Then the offense still gets a chance to redeem themselves, which they couldnt do.

I dont think many people truly believe we win the game with a punt there. It takes guts to make that call because you know if you dont get it the coach potatoes are going to be out in full force. Our guys had a chance to make a play and win and couldnt convert.

Next week is going to tell us a lot about this team.

I’m just in awe about some of the nonsense you post. Also you clearly don’t watch college football, Ecu is terrible.

(09-22-2019 09:57 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  I dont know that we can't throw more so than cant pass protect. Smart started off 6 for 6 and had some great tosses. But the o line in the 2nd half was the adjustments UVA made. They kept 2 guys coming hard at the LT and Smart was running for his life the entire 2nd half. That's what caused the lack of a pass to me. But I guess it doesn't matter what causes it.

A lot of the time he was running for his life because he takes too long to process and get rid of the ball. He also has no ability to find receivers once he takes off running, which he often does way too quickly. The passing game is terrible, and Smartt is responsible for a lot of that. Receivers were open in the second half, he jus never found them.

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(09-22-2019 01:23 PM)ODU2011 Wrote:  I’m not sure what to think after this one. I was so confident with the start, but it seems adjustments and bad play calling cost us...again. They need to change something with the decisions/play calling. Sadly we have posters on here that are blindly loyal to Bobby and constantly willing to look past these common mistakes. I’m not saying fire Bobby, but someone needs to step in on these bonehead decisions. I think we should easily handle Ecu from what I have seen from them so far.

Let's face it, we are not as deep as a P5, personnel wise.

Our best rusher went out with an injury. The offense was balanced before he went out.
Our OL just was worn down. Once they started to cramp we were too thin to compensate, our running broke down as did our pass protection.
The good news is that we won't face a defense of that caliber again this season.

The bad news
Running straight ahead against a 9 man box was bizarre.
Going for it on 4th from our own 29 was reckless given that we were not yet in desperation mode.
Our use of timeouts is downright weird.

I would like to think I hit the nail on the head with my pre game analysis.

(09-21-2019 01:23 PM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  Some final thoughts.

On offense we need to use more slants, quick outs, and play action to the RBs. We do not have the WRs to go long unless we can surprise them once or twice with Kumah. We should have some success on the ground. Hopefully Smartt will be more patient with his reads to his second sec option and check downs before he immediately tucks and runs. He should get more comfortable with the offense throughout the season.
EDIT: assuming Smartt has TIME to go through his progressions. We will learn a lot about the OL, which up to now has not looked bad.


If we run the old Dallas Flex lookalike/Bandit defense we ran vs VT, it is as good a scheme as any to contain Brice Perkins on the ground. It has a built in spy and very disciplined gap coverage; including edge containment.
What this scheme does not do is put a huge amount of pressure on the QB, and with the soft corner coverage, opens up the underneath, especially down and outs.
It is otherwise good vs the run and good vs the long pass.

If our offense works at all, the key to this game will be containing Perkins on the ground.

We still need to tweak the offense, and we need to have some bona fide short yardage plays, including play action .

Overall, we played way better than anyone expected us to play in large part because our defense was magnificent.
I like our chances for every game we play going forward.

The game is being replayed tonight at 6 on one of the ESPN channels.