We aren't nearly as bad as we showed. Here is why:

[DAT_man_again]

I was watching Talking Ducks last night, and they showed the replay of the 3rd and 1 when Wilson ran for 62 yards. During the pre-snap, one of the backs shifted to the right side of the line, and our safety was suppose to follow him across the field. However, (and I don't know who it was), our safety for some reason stayed put. If he had just followed his assignment, he would have been right in the gap where Wilson ran through. Just a completely blown coverage. Led to 7 points.

Also, during one of Wilson's touchdown passes, the corner (Ugo Amadi I think) let his guy run past him and stayed put as if he were trying to provide run support. It was clear he was expecting safety help. However, the safety was covering the other wideout, and Amadi's guy just blew past both of them and was WIDE OPEN behind them. Another 7 due to complete miscommunication. Then look at the rest of these:

Fake punt/camera help: Led to 7.
Brilliantly executed punt return: 7.
Halfback pass: 7.

That is 35 POINTS attributed to trick plays, and miscommunication/blown coverages. It wasn't like our corners were simply getting burned, they just were just not communicating and not doing their job.


Mix in 3 turnovers and you get a 42 point beat down. Make no mistake: Utah is not 42 points better than us. We are still supremely talented; more so than almost every single team left on our schedule. We can and we WILL get better. A lot of you predicting 6-6 and 7-5 seasons need to relax. These games happen. Not very often but they do happen.

[pezsez1]

It wasn't like our corners were simply getting burned, they just were just not communicating and not doing their job.

This is actually something I was hearing on the post-game show... the commentator who used to be a player brought up two interesting points:

1) That our guys weren't communicating on the field before the snap, and that was costing them big time.

2) That our coaches were subbing people in like crazy, trying to find guys who wouldn't make mistakes.

[Alan]

I was watching Talking Ducks last night, and they showed the replay of the 3rd and 1 when Wilson ran for 62 yards. During the pre-snap, one of the backs shifted to the right side of the line, and our safety was suppose to follow him across the field. However, (and I don't know who it was), our safety for some reason stayed put. If he had just followed his assignment, he would have been right in the gap where Wilson ran through. Just a completely blown coverage. Led to 7 points.

Also, during one of Wilson's touchdown passes, the corner (Ugo Amadi I think) let his guy run past him and stayed put as if he were trying to provide run support. It was clear he was expecting safety help. However, the safety was covering the other wideout, and Amadi's guy just blew past both of them and was WIDE OPEN behind them. Another 7 due to complete miscommunication. Then look at the rest of these:

Fake punt/camera help: Led to 7.
Brilliantly executed punt return: 7.
Halfback pass: 7.

That is 35 POINTS attributed to trick plays, and miscommunication/blown coverages. It wasn't like our corners were simply getting burned, they just were just not communicating and not doing their job.


Mix in 3 turnovers and you get a 42 point beat down. Make no mistake: Utah is not 42 points better than us. We are still supremely talented; more so than almost every single team left on our schedule. We can and we WILL get better. A lot of you predicting 6-6 and 7-5 seasons need to relax. These games happen. Not very often but they do happen.

Excellent post!

[Duck24]

So what I take from that is that our guys aren't executing as expected and are committing a ton of mental errors leading to long yardage gains/TD's. As a result the coaches are subbing in and out trying to find guys who can execute and have had no luck as of yet.

Why am I supposed to not be concerned about that? If anything that makes me more concerned. Essentially what the coaches are saying is that either we don't have players capable of running the schemes they have installed or the coaches have done a poor job of preparing them to execute the scheme. Either one of those is a mortifying thought headed into conference play. I was a staunch Pellum defender but from what you are hearing from our players and coaches as well as what opponents are saying, we are in deep trouble if things don't improve rapidly on both sides of the ball. Like, struggle to be bowl eligible trouble if they continue to play as they have.

[chapelhillduck]

our secondary of freshman and sophomores are making mistakes that young players make

[gofightingducks]

The coaches have been saying that several players on defense have not been playing their assignments and as a result other players move out of their assignments to try to cover which is creating major problems. It sounds like the coaches are not doing a good job with teaching the players the fundamentals of not making mistakes and playing sound football. Also, what about the offensive side of the ball, its clear there is an issue at QB but what about the offensive line, what is the excuse there?

[maxduck]

I'm wondering how cohesive this group of players are. Several pre season practice reports mentioned upperclassmen getting on younger teammates for not practicing at the usual pace. I recently saw a quote from Rodney Hardrick that some of the younger players had a sense of entitlement.

Hopefully it is one big happy family, but both conditioning and communication appear lacking compared to previous years.

[pezsez1]

Also, what about the offensive side of the ball, its clear there is an issue at QB but what about the offensive line, what is the excuse there?

It has been pretty clear against MSU and Utah that our QBs are really struggling with downfield throws. VA threw two picks on deep balls against MSU, and Lockie had two against Utah... and VA could hardly complete anything past the first-down marker.

As long as this is the case, opposing defenses will be able to stack the box and cheat up to stop the run, which means our line isn't going to have much luck getting a running game going.

I'm not trying to remove all accountability from the line, but football is a very symbiotic game, and our line isn't built or schemed to be a "three yards and a cloud of dust" kind of unit. We NEED a quarterback who can throw more reliably past the first-down marker to keep defenses honest and give our offensive line the chance to be successful.

[dthomas=ddixon]

So what I take from that is that our guys aren't executing as expected and are committing a ton of mental errors leading to long yardage gains/TD's. As a result the coaches are subbing in and out trying to find guys who can execute and have had no luck as of yet.

Why am I supposed to not be concerned about that? If anything that makes me more concerned. Essentially what the coaches are saying is that either we don't have players capable of running the schemes they have installed or the coaches have done a poor job of preparing them to execute the scheme. Either one of those is a mortifying thought headed into conference play. I was a staunch Pellum defender but from what you are hearing from our players and coaches as well as what opponents are saying, we are in deep trouble if things don't improve rapidly on both sides of the ball. Like, struggle to be bowl eligible trouble if they continue to play as they have.

Pretty much my thoughts as well. Our schemes are notoriously complex; if the coaches knew we had a crop of young, inexperienced kids taking the reigns this year and anticipated them struggling to grasp the defensive schemes then they should have spent the off-season tailoring a defensive plan for them. Instead all I hear are excuses from the coaching staff. It's inexcusable laziness on their part.

I also find it really, really hard to believe that these players just aren't smart or talented enough to play solid defense, let alone FREAKING TACKLE. Most of them aren't actually that young, almost all of them are at least redshirts and have been here for over a year. And we know they are all smart talented kids. Again, when coaches head down the path of blaming their players I get very scared. Disaster looms for a staff that doesn't take responsibility for developing their players and scheming to their strengths and weaknesses.

[dthomas=ddixon]

Also, what about the offensive side of the ball, its clear there is an issue at QB but what about the offensive line, what is the excuse there?

It has been pretty clear against MSU and Utah that our QBs are really struggling with downfield throws. VA threw two picks on deep balls against MSU, and Lockie had two against Utah... and VA could hardly complete anything past the first-down marker.

As long as this is the case, opposing defenses will be able to stack the box and cheat up to stop the run, which means our line isn't going to have much luck getting a running game going.

I'm not trying to remove all accountability from the line, but football is a very symbiotic game, and our line isn't built or schemed to be a "three yards and a cloud of dust" kind of unit. We NEED a quarterback who can throw more reliably past the first-down marker to keep defenses honest and give our offensive line the chance to be successful.

We went years under Chip without throwing the deep ball. There's other ways other than a lethal vertical passing game to keep the defense from stacking the box. The horizontal passing game for example, which we took advantage of all the time under Chip. Spread the D then gash them up the middle.

We can't open lanes for the RBs and we can't protect the QB. That's the problem. In our offensive system, the vertical passing game is something that results from doing those things first. Not the other way around.

[pezsez1]

We went years under Chip without throwing the deep ball.

Right now, though, it's not about whether we throw the deep ball... we're struggling just to throw downfield for first downs. That's the problem.

Sideways passes are great for a few plays, but once those get taken away then we've got to be able to at least throw down field for 10-15 yards. Those are short, quick throws that Masoli, DT and Mariota could make pretty reliably without requiring the O-line to hold off a pass rush for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, defenses will come at us hard and our O-line will pay the price.

[SuperDuck]

So what I take from that is that our guys aren't executing as expected and are committing a ton of mental errors leading to long yardage gains/TD's. As a result the coaches are subbing in and out trying to find guys who can execute and have had no luck as of yet.

Why am I supposed to not be concerned about that? If anything that makes me more concerned. Essentially what the coaches are saying is that either we don't have players capable of running the schemes they have installed or the coaches have done a poor job of preparing them to execute the scheme. Either one of those is a mortifying thought headed into conference play. I was a staunch Pellum defender but from what you are hearing from our players and coaches as well as what opponents are saying, we are in deep trouble if things don't improve rapidly on both sides of the ball. Like, struggle to be bowl eligible trouble if they continue to play as they have.

Pretty much my thoughts as well. Our schemes are notoriously complex; if the coaches knew we had a crop of young, inexperienced kids taking the reigns this year and anticipated them struggling to grasp the defensive schemes then they should have spent the off-season tailoring a defensive plan for them. Instead all I hear are excuses from the coaching staff. It's inexcusable laziness on their part.

I thought that was something that Pellum was going to modify when he took over from Aliotti? The idea was to stop making things so complicated, which was actually having some players consider transferring, and simplifying it so the kids could simply be in a position to use their talent to make plays.

Honestly, I don't think that running a "vanilla" defensive scheme is a bad thing at this point. Keep things simplified and allow the players to react. Add a bit more here and there as the kids are ready for it, but not before.

I don't think they'll have any choice but to start blitzing more regularly because of our schedule. Colorado is going to throw the ball, WSU, Cal, USC and ASU are all heavy passing teams, so they'll have to at least bring the threat of pressure mixed in with actual blitzes. They can't allow those talented QBs to just stand back there and have time to throw every down or we'll get picked apart.

A couple positive things about those teams is their lack of depth and the lack of mobility of their QBs.

I also find it really, really hard to believe that these players just aren't smart or talented enough to play solid defense, let alone FREAKING TACKLE. Most of them aren't actually that young, almost all of them are at least redshirts and have been here for over a year. And we know they are all smart talented kids. Again, when coaches head down the path of blaming their players I get very scared. Disaster looms for a staff that doesn't take responsibility for developing their players and scheming to their strengths and weaknesses.

I agree about the kids being young, but talented. I will say that it's different to insert 1-2 pieces into the two deep without much dropoff than it is to add 3-5. Yes, some of those guys are redshirts, but they still haven't actually seen the field against competition other than our own offense, which, unfortunately, isn't up to its recent standards.

They need time to grow up and it's going to be a process. Patience will pay off.

Also, we're still going to win some games this year and go to a Bowl game. Count on it.

[greenyellow]

Tyler Johnstone was saying after the game and a couple of the practices this week that the OL has been making a bunch of small mental mistakes that have caused their poor performances. He cited things like snap count awareness, leverage, and blocking shifts that have been mistakes on their part. He said they are correctable things that he feels are partially related to having a new group that's still getting used to working with one another.

[dthomas=ddixon]

We went years under Chip without throwing the deep ball.

Right now, though, it's not about whether we throw the deep ball... we're struggling just to throw downfield for first downs. That's the problem.

Sideways passes are great for a few plays, but once those get taken away then we've got to be able to at least throw down field for 10-15 yards. Those are short, quick throws that Masoli, DT and Mariota could make pretty reliably without requiring the O-line to hold off a pass rush for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, defenses will come at us hard and our O-line will pay the price.

Yeah... I don't think completing more 10 yard passes will do much to help out the OLine's inability to block ha. Obviously if we can't complete easy throws then we won't get anywhere on offense but even if that element is working the defense won't have to adjust so much that our OLine will suddenly be running free into the second level. The problem is bigger than that.

I can't say what Lockie's deal is but VA's issue may have something to do with having a broken figure. IMO, once he's back healthy a lot of our offensive issue will work themselves out.

[pezsez1]

I actually have quite a bit of confidence in Lockie's ability to make those short, quick downfield throws that will keep opposing defenses from blitzing so heavily. Lockie only really struggled on the slower-developing plays when he was either trying to go deep or throw into the endzone.

I have total confidence in VA to make those throws, too, but not until he's 100 percent. He was making those throws easily against EW, and the offense rolled with no issues.