Plusses:
* Renato Brown obliterated and got a straight pancake on the first play from scrimmage right at the first down marker. They ran over him for the 2nd 1 conversion on the play after Huggins-Bruce's fumble. He also had the initial seal block on the LB that sprung Jordan's TD. He appears to have adapted very well to coming inside to RG.
^ Concern about PK hopefully has given way to weaponry. Think how disastrous it would have been for Travelsted to miss half of those PKs. The game somewhat was swung when GA Tech's kicker missed a chippee when it was 28-23.
* Speaking of concerns...the WR corps of last season and the Spring is a distant memory. Thrash is everything he looked like the day I went to practice. There are some very useable weapons across the board and Chris Bell is a welcome physical contrast to his cohorts--a T.O. physical presence flanking players with much smaller frames. I like it as there looks like a lot of catch-and-run skill from among Coleman, Thrash, Calloway and Thompson in particular. Still waiting to see the same from Huggins-Bruce. He was blatantly held on is break on the 3rd and 3 slant that preceded the 2nd Travelsted FG.
* Pleasantly surprised with Guarendo and a little by extension the run blocking but when you take away Jordan's TD jaunt and the Per Rush numbers aren't that hot. But pass blocking was pretty good.
* Tackling and front 6 activity was pretty good in the first quatter--even for the remainder of the 1st qtr after Perry got sent off. It looked like in the 2nd quarter there was some personnel changing throughout and they got caught with bad fits on the sprung pass into the flats. I thought when watching that Minkins had a really bad stretch and took some bad angles but it likely was mistakes in front of him forcing him to plug gaps that shouldn't have been there.
* 2nd half Plummer was very good. I can sum up his 1st half struggles in one word--late. A pretty clear case could be made that the 40 yard completion to Coleman should have gone for much bigger yardage because he cleared the secondary by a good 5+ yards and Plummer was both late with the ball and underthrew him. I can also sum up some of his red zone throwing struggles with two words...tight end. We don't have anyone who can catch a pass with a linebacker on his hip. It's very un-Louisville like what we see at TE. To be fair to Plummer--and Kurisky--on the 3rd and 4 non-conversion where GT's LB got a PBU after Ga Tech's go ahead score to start the 2nd quarter Jordan took his man right into Plummer's throwing lane into Kurisky and it impacted the play.
* I like our numbers on the defensive front; Gilotte was impressive from start to finish. There is quality DT depth. It showed up in the 2nd half. You
Negatives:
* The loss of MJ Griffin is crushing. As best I can tell it's now a casting call at his safety's slot between Neal who started and stints of Cam'ron Kelly. I was surprisingly plussed with Watts coming on for Pery, but we lost something when Perry went out and while Watts may have had a number of real solid hits in the gap, he looked out of position on some iso runs that led to some sprung runs in the 2nd quarter. Minkins had some struggles and looked awful on the 3rd 2nd quarter TD drive throughout that possession.
* And LB was a real mixed bag. Alderman is an interesting fit and I can't tell if Clark is behind Quinn or Alderman. Clark would seem to bring a physical presence that Alderman does not...but is needed. That said, Alderman had a very active game sideline-to-sideline.
* The lack of real TE threat has consigned us to more four receiver sets; they did get alot of that in the 2nd half, but going four wide really would seem to impact the running game. I was impressed with how active both Guarendo and Jordan were in the passing game.
* Renato Brown obliterated and got a straight pancake on the first play from scrimmage right at the first down marker. They ran over him for the 2nd 1 conversion on the play after Huggins-Bruce's fumble. He also had the initial seal block on the LB that sprung Jordan's TD. He appears to have adapted very well to coming inside to RG.
^ Concern about PK hopefully has given way to weaponry. Think how disastrous it would have been for Travelsted to miss half of those PKs. The game somewhat was swung when GA Tech's kicker missed a chippee when it was 28-23.
* Speaking of concerns...the WR corps of last season and the Spring is a distant memory. Thrash is everything he looked like the day I went to practice. There are some very useable weapons across the board and Chris Bell is a welcome physical contrast to his cohorts--a T.O. physical presence flanking players with much smaller frames. I like it as there looks like a lot of catch-and-run skill from among Coleman, Thrash, Calloway and Thompson in particular. Still waiting to see the same from Huggins-Bruce. He was blatantly held on is break on the 3rd and 3 slant that preceded the 2nd Travelsted FG.
* Pleasantly surprised with Guarendo and a little by extension the run blocking but when you take away Jordan's TD jaunt and the Per Rush numbers aren't that hot. But pass blocking was pretty good.
* Tackling and front 6 activity was pretty good in the first quatter--even for the remainder of the 1st qtr after Perry got sent off. It looked like in the 2nd quarter there was some personnel changing throughout and they got caught with bad fits on the sprung pass into the flats. I thought when watching that Minkins had a really bad stretch and took some bad angles but it likely was mistakes in front of him forcing him to plug gaps that shouldn't have been there.
* 2nd half Plummer was very good. I can sum up his 1st half struggles in one word--late. A pretty clear case could be made that the 40 yard completion to Coleman should have gone for much bigger yardage because he cleared the secondary by a good 5+ yards and Plummer was both late with the ball and underthrew him. I can also sum up some of his red zone throwing struggles with two words...tight end. We don't have anyone who can catch a pass with a linebacker on his hip. It's very un-Louisville like what we see at TE. To be fair to Plummer--and Kurisky--on the 3rd and 4 non-conversion where GT's LB got a PBU after Ga Tech's go ahead score to start the 2nd quarter Jordan took his man right into Plummer's throwing lane into Kurisky and it impacted the play.
* I like our numbers on the defensive front; Gilotte was impressive from start to finish. There is quality DT depth. It showed up in the 2nd half. You
Negatives:
* The loss of MJ Griffin is crushing. As best I can tell it's now a casting call at his safety's slot between Neal who started and stints of Cam'ron Kelly. I was surprisingly plussed with Watts coming on for Pery, but we lost something when Perry went out and while Watts may have had a number of real solid hits in the gap, he looked out of position on some iso runs that led to some sprung runs in the 2nd quarter. Minkins had some struggles and looked awful on the 3rd 2nd quarter TD drive throughout that possession.
* And LB was a real mixed bag. Alderman is an interesting fit and I can't tell if Clark is behind Quinn or Alderman. Clark would seem to bring a physical presence that Alderman does not...but is needed. That said, Alderman had a very active game sideline-to-sideline.
* The lack of real TE threat has consigned us to more four receiver sets; they did get alot of that in the 2nd half, but going four wide really would seem to impact the running game. I was impressed with how active both Guarendo and Jordan were in the passing game.
