I rewatched Syracuse last night in heavy segments and came away with something a little different both good and bad than first blush:
1. I'm really uncomfortable with the number of snaps taken by JHC, Kelsey, Hearns and Fields. They are working in Greenard as an OLB/DE and it looks like in some cases the other OLB/DE isn't from among Famurewa or McCrae but Stacy Thomas. Think back to last year...not only have we lost Young, but we also lost Dawson-Brents and Keith Brown to Western. We're alright at DT with Chris Williams and Bailey providing lifts for Brown and Richardson, but the snap numbers are non-DTs are putting up is very heavy.
...that said, Williams really has a knack for bursting a gap and looks tough to block at the point of attack. Bailey's height makes him tougher shading the B gap as a DE in a 3-4 look than lined up over a guard in a 4 man front as a DT. Greenard looks like he just needs reps and I had hoped the lead we were afforded would have yielded more Friday; he has a great frame.
2. I thought we were alot better at the point of attack than is being portrayed elsewhere on both sides of the ball. One thing that struck me about Jackson's designed runs, as well as Radcliff's...there wasn't a missed block on any part of the line of scrimmage and it wasn't just a pure example of bad leverage by Syracuse or us flipping the strongside of the line of scrimmage with our TEs or them blowing a tackle. Christian was outstanding, Kahlil Hunter was very good and I saw very few missed blocks. The touchdown by Samuel saw outstanding blocks by Christian and Hughley. The touchdown Jeremy Smith sprung saw perfect blocks by the second string across the board--especially Charles Standberry on the edge.
I didn't see the line bleeds we saw against Charlotte at all.
3. Kickoff coverage should be lauded, especially considering even in the Dome kick depth was lacking. Even without it the 20 yard line looked like the line in the sand drawn by our coverage unit, and it's a different gunner making the first hit everytime. WE WILL MISS DEE SMITH in that capacity though in the first half on Saturday, at least I hope we will...alot of kickoffs
Ronald Walker, Isaac Stewart, Stacy Thomas, Smith, Peete and Iakopo all had very physical hits.
4. We played more bullets offensively than I would have thought; my God the drop by Radcliff was one of them and probably shows why he hasn't been a downfield target much if at all in his four years at Louisville. That entire play design was for him and worked to perfection because teams HAVE to put their eyes on Jackson--and he's got the rare arm for a delivery of a ball from one hash all the way to the other sideline 40 yards downfield. The plus is that there will have to be some sort of honor for the RB coming out of the backfield, and that might be added depth for a backside DB or a safety having to take a wider/deeper angle to the hash the RB is going up. And that opens up the deep intermediate areas for the Staples, Bonnafons and Quicks of the world.
5. Lamar's accuracy really has improved, but his footwork can still be a little dicey. The Staples deep ball he threw off his back foot, with the proper footwork he leads him for a TD; it didn't matter because Staples was a good five inches taller than the corner he was working on, but you don't get that throw against FSU. He missed Quick on a deep post that would have been a touchdown if he led him towards the sideline rather than going straight between the hashes (and you could see Quick point with his left when the ball hit the turf). The coaches were all over him on the Bonnafon drop on third down and I'm reasonably sure it's because he didn't come off Bonnafon onto Staples or the curl route being run on the other hash that was open. Either way, like some earlier instances in the game...the play was well blocked and should have resulted in a first down.
6. I thought defensively the game was largely decided by the series of three and outs we got in three of the first four series from scrimmage for Syracuse. We contained the run, we rushed Dungey just a little bit and I thought our coverage was good. The touchdowns scored at the end of the half looked like we got heavy on snaps and fatigued, which is why I was a little alarmed at the number of snaps taken by the edge and LBs in our front six/seven.
1. I'm really uncomfortable with the number of snaps taken by JHC, Kelsey, Hearns and Fields. They are working in Greenard as an OLB/DE and it looks like in some cases the other OLB/DE isn't from among Famurewa or McCrae but Stacy Thomas. Think back to last year...not only have we lost Young, but we also lost Dawson-Brents and Keith Brown to Western. We're alright at DT with Chris Williams and Bailey providing lifts for Brown and Richardson, but the snap numbers are non-DTs are putting up is very heavy.
...that said, Williams really has a knack for bursting a gap and looks tough to block at the point of attack. Bailey's height makes him tougher shading the B gap as a DE in a 3-4 look than lined up over a guard in a 4 man front as a DT. Greenard looks like he just needs reps and I had hoped the lead we were afforded would have yielded more Friday; he has a great frame.
2. I thought we were alot better at the point of attack than is being portrayed elsewhere on both sides of the ball. One thing that struck me about Jackson's designed runs, as well as Radcliff's...there wasn't a missed block on any part of the line of scrimmage and it wasn't just a pure example of bad leverage by Syracuse or us flipping the strongside of the line of scrimmage with our TEs or them blowing a tackle. Christian was outstanding, Kahlil Hunter was very good and I saw very few missed blocks. The touchdown by Samuel saw outstanding blocks by Christian and Hughley. The touchdown Jeremy Smith sprung saw perfect blocks by the second string across the board--especially Charles Standberry on the edge.
I didn't see the line bleeds we saw against Charlotte at all.
3. Kickoff coverage should be lauded, especially considering even in the Dome kick depth was lacking. Even without it the 20 yard line looked like the line in the sand drawn by our coverage unit, and it's a different gunner making the first hit everytime. WE WILL MISS DEE SMITH in that capacity though in the first half on Saturday, at least I hope we will...alot of kickoffs
Ronald Walker, Isaac Stewart, Stacy Thomas, Smith, Peete and Iakopo all had very physical hits.4. We played more bullets offensively than I would have thought; my God the drop by Radcliff was one of them and probably shows why he hasn't been a downfield target much if at all in his four years at Louisville. That entire play design was for him and worked to perfection because teams HAVE to put their eyes on Jackson--and he's got the rare arm for a delivery of a ball from one hash all the way to the other sideline 40 yards downfield. The plus is that there will have to be some sort of honor for the RB coming out of the backfield, and that might be added depth for a backside DB or a safety having to take a wider/deeper angle to the hash the RB is going up. And that opens up the deep intermediate areas for the Staples, Bonnafons and Quicks of the world.
5. Lamar's accuracy really has improved, but his footwork can still be a little dicey. The Staples deep ball he threw off his back foot, with the proper footwork he leads him for a TD; it didn't matter because Staples was a good five inches taller than the corner he was working on, but you don't get that throw against FSU. He missed Quick on a deep post that would have been a touchdown if he led him towards the sideline rather than going straight between the hashes (and you could see Quick point with his left when the ball hit the turf). The coaches were all over him on the Bonnafon drop on third down and I'm reasonably sure it's because he didn't come off Bonnafon onto Staples or the curl route being run on the other hash that was open. Either way, like some earlier instances in the game...the play was well blocked and should have resulted in a first down.
6. I thought defensively the game was largely decided by the series of three and outs we got in three of the first four series from scrimmage for Syracuse. We contained the run, we rushed Dungey just a little bit and I thought our coverage was good. The touchdowns scored at the end of the half looked like we got heavy on snaps and fatigued, which is why I was a little alarmed at the number of snaps taken by the edge and LBs in our front six/seven.
