Monday October 19, 2009

Impressions before looking at the film, WF

Not much to complain about without looking at the film of this one. FF is doing a game review post and I'll add my thoughts to it.

-Very balanced offense today, looked like they tried to simplify things. Good changeup with the amount of playaction passes and usage of the Tight Ends. I noticed a few calls I didn't agree with, particularly one where we went empty-set in the red zone, and I would've preferred to run the ball more inside and establish it. Another was a pitchout to Harper in Shotgun, he should get the ball inside, not on the perimeter. WF is susceptible to the zone scheme because of their slanting fronts, but I was not impressed at how we couldnt take full advantage.

-Although we had 195 yards rushing, if you look at the stats and take out the long runs, we dont have much. I wanted to see us churn out a sustained drive on the ground, and we didnt do that even at the end, when it was clear we were no longer going to press for a TD. One zone play gets 2, the next 30. That kind of thing doesnt happen as much against a fast Defense like Miami's.

-I was not happy with the overall push up front, but the first string did well in pass blocking I thought...except for Cory Lambert's lazy *** giving up that sack at the end. 4 sacks, 3 on Korn with the (partly) backup line.

-If Ellington wants more carries, he needs to learn to hold onto the football. Harper might've just taken back some of what he lost to Andre today.

-I could tell Parker had been told forcefully to scramble on his first one in the first half. You could see him look to throw it away, then looked at the coaches on the sideline and ran towards them. We had 13 QB carries (-4 sacks) today, the option keeper and a few of the draws were called, but the rest were them making plays with their feet.

-Parker still needs to go through his read progressions better and look off his primary.

-You know we scream for Allen to get the ball and then when he gets a chance to get a 1st and Goal or a TD, he fails to catch it. Only drop I believe.

-Defensive line and Palmer deserve the game balls here. We played Cover 2 Man for a good bit of this game, and our DB's were all over them like glue. Bowers totally ate Skinner for lunch today:

"We basically had everything broken down to a tip of looking at their heels to tell if they were going to pass or run," said Bowers, who had three tackles for loss. "We were actually calling the plays that (Skinner) was going to run, so he had no choice but to check down.

"We could tell exactly what they were running by the way the line was lined up and the things that he was doing. He was getting frustrated. I could tell in his eyes. I kind of said something to him, and he just looked at me and shook his head. So I knew something was wrong with him."

Deacons center Russell Nenon walked away impressed with Clemson's defensive front."You take a week off against a team like Clemson and you see the athletes like Da'Quan Bowers and Ricky Sapp -- they're freaks out there."

-Rumph and Dan Brooks are earning their paychecks, the entire front was just on fire today. There were some plays where Maye again gets himself blocked out with bad angles and trying to hard, and another where he got crossed up in his coverage assignment, but otherwise there's not much I can say without looking at the film tomorrow.

****Clemson had a large contingent of recruits in town today, a dozen committed and several uncommitted for this year and 2011. Among them were the #6-rated LB Justin Parker and 2011 commit Martin Lane (RB) with his teammate Cortez Davis, who committed tonight (for 2011). He has garnered an offer from Miami, LSU, FSU and Oregon, and plays Safety. He was recruited by Rumph.

Roll Tide.