VMI

[apaladin]

Speaking of pass defense. VMI’s gameplan was obviously to throw the ball. They came out throwing from the getgo. They threw 55 times or 23 above their average, completed 35 or 12 above their average. They had 448 yds passing or 210 above their average. Only Sammy gave up more yardage(barely). No one else is close. We did hold them to 87 yds. rushing about 65 yds below their average,

I guess everyone saw next week’s opponent Sammy scored 42 points in the first half against Florida. That was the most points scored against UF in a half ever.

[The Jackal]

Yardage is sort of a misleading stat. It tells you some things, but teams don’t win by moving the ball between the 20s.

Defense played well enough. An excellent WR had a banner day, but we stopped him when it mattered.

[FurmAlum]

That was a gutsy win. It shows we do have some talent and all the coaches aren’t stupid.

There is nothing wrong with the offense and the play calling when it works.

QB played great except for a little fumbleitis near the end.

VMI QB made some great throws to receivers that were covered pretty well and still made the catch. A couple could have been intercepted if just slightly off.

It’s about time we had a break go right. Every questionable call went their way until the last one.

Not a bad FU weekend.

[Affirm]

Speaking of pass defense. VMI’s gameplan was obviously to throw the ball. They came out throwing from the getgo. They threw 55 times or 23 above their average, completed 35 or 12 above their average. They had 448 yds passing or 210 above their average. Only Sammy gave up more yardage(barely). No one else is close. We did hold them to 87 yds. rushing about 65 yds below their average,

I guess everyone saw next week’s opponent Sammy scored 42 points in the first half against Florida. That was the most points scored against UF in a half ever.

52 in the game! I did not see that about the first half 42 (wow). What will they score on us?

[Affirm]

Whats the odds of VMI scoring on this last drive? 100%?

I love it when you predict a loss. Keep it up.

You know you can count on me there also. I’m surprised, but very glad, that we made it to 5 wins.

[gofurman]

That was a gutsy win. It shows we do have some talent and all the coaches aren’t stupid.

There is nothing wrong with the offense and the play calling when it works.

QB played great except for a little fumbleitis near the end.

VMI QB made some great throws to receivers that were covered pretty well and still made the catch. A couple could have been intercepted if just slightly off.

It’s about time we had a break go right. Every questionable call went their way until the last one.

Not a bad FU weekend.

Good FU weekend for sure. Louisville win was AWESOME. AWESOME!.

But I don’t want two good offensive showings in football - when they work vs bad defense of Western and VMI - to mask the fact that we DO NEED OFFENSIVE changes. We do. This is what some of us feared. We will score more on Western and prolly Sammy but we still need work on Ô when when we score THREE points twice in a year !!!

We really do have problems on pass D. Big issues. I Liked apaladin stat that VMI chose to throw 20 more times vs us than they do on average !! Now that probably has some to do with our strong run D .. but also our weak pass D. And we also - years long thing here that Hawg noted - have for a long time had trouble stopping third and long. Something needs to be improved there. Improve PASS D. Improve offense in general - especially some more 10 yard pass completions to back off the opponent run D.

For now , It is in our favor when we play weak run D

[apaladin]

GF, yep you hit the nail on the head. Samford defense is ranked last in all of FCS so highly likely a lot of offense next week. We will end the season with 3 straight good offensive games against 3 horrible defenses and nithing will change, status quo. Of course next week we may give up 800 yds passing!
What a job from the ETSU coaching staff today. They gave up 35 points to Western in the first half and zero in the second half. Thats how you make adjustments.

[The Jackal]

There are a few ways of looking at it, in my opinion.

Are there instances where our offense looked awful this year? Yes. Those instances are concerning.

I suppose where I disagree with you is that I am already seeing changes in the offense. No, the play caller and coaches are the same, but the team is doing things differently:

1. They made a QB change. I think when the playoffs were still a possibility, the coaches were a bit unsettled in whether to go with the young guy or the veteran to try and win. Now that the playoffs are off the table, they are letting Wilson play.

Wilson has the makings of an excellent QB. While he is still making rookie mistakes, he's getting better every week and made some excellent plays yesterday against an aggressive VMI defense. Maybe with a complete offseason and this year's experience, our QB question mark may be solved.

2. The staff has realized Roberto is "the guy." In the three games where the coaches have decided to make him the focal point of the rushing attack (VMI, WCU, and Citadel) he's put up excellent numbers and averaged over 100 yards per game.

Going forward, I think we are going to see Abrams/Anderson/Kendall/Abshier complement Roberto like Gibpson/Carter/Mays complemented Felton. Felton's a big comp, but I see it in Roberto - low pad level, excellent vision, good hands, hips and feet, and speed burst from a big man.

3. Our play calling has matched our personnel. In our three really bad offensive showings against FCS teams (Mercer, UTC, ETSU), we ran the ball about 30 times. The last few weeks we've been running the ball 50+ times.

Many of those plays are outside zone runs that are not option reads. Our offensive line can block these plays well. Our backs run these plays well. It takes the pressure off the QB to make a lot of decisions. We've started hammering teams with it. We still had this stuff in the playbook earlier in the season, we just didn't run it with near the frequency with which we are running it now. In fact, I didn't see much of the zone-read stuff yesterday at all.

Our offensive line, in this set, looks a whole lot less confused about who to block. VMI had their entire defense in the box and the OL was able to pick their man and drive him off the ball. That's what we need to be doing.

These, to me, are all "changes." It's not status quo. It's what we were doing isn't working, what can we do differently.

[The Jackal]

When I see this:

and this:

It reminds me of this:

[AstroDin]

Would love your take on this Jackal… I could be imagining things—in the red zone on the running plays with Abrams that ended in a touchdown Furman IMO was noticeably quicker at the QB/RB exchange and thus Abrams was hitting the line fast. This felt like a little tweak to me???

I also want to call out VMI for playing punk ball—I have no idea what sparked the scrum at the end of the game. Clay mentioned it in his post-game around something like when you lose, look the other man in the eye and congratulate them.

Another play that pissed me off—the facemask on Jace and the ba!!s of VMI players to whine about the call.
This isn't the VMI of old—but I don't respect their attitude. I know I wear purple shades but the Keydets we're getting the benefit of the doubt on a lot of roaming hands by their offensive lineman on Furman's pass rushers, and the VMI receivers were guilty of at least two obvious push-offs. Moving on…

Furman played a bunch of freshmen yesterday… Kudos to Dyan Davis and Dominic Morris for stepping up.

[apaladin]

Jackel, I enjoy all your posts and analysis but I think it is just painfully obvious. We look pretty good against awful defenses where we can run the ball and look really bad against decent defenses where we can’t run. We are not going to beat anyone passing. The last 3 games we will/have faced 3 really bad defenses and the worst is next week.

[Furmanoid]

Buzzkill.

[cavedweller2]

That was a gutsy win. It shows we do have some talent and all the coaches aren’t stupid.

Which of the coaches are the stupid ones? Do tell.

[The Jackal]

Jackel, I enjoy all your posts and analysis but I think it is just painfully obvious. We look pretty good against awful defenses where we can run the ball and look really bad against decent defenses where we can’t run. We are not going to beat anyone passing. The last 3 games we will/have faced 3 really bad defenses and the worst is next week.

I realize that fits your narrative. If the offense looks good, it has to be because the defense sucks.

VMI isn't a bad defense. They are about middle of the pack and prior to yesterday were statistically close to ETSU in conference play. Of course, a few weeks ago they pretty much shut down Mercer. You'd think that as bad as we are on offense, we wouldn't score on anyone.

Believe what you want.

[The Jackal]

Would love your take on this Jackal… I could be imagining things—in the red zone on the running plays with Abrams that ended in a touchdown Furman IMO was noticeably quicker at the QB/RB exchange and thus Abrams was hitting the line fast. This felt like a little tweak to me???

I also want to call out VMI for playing punk ball—I have no idea what sparked the scrum at the end of the game. Clay mentioned it in his post-game around something like when you lose, look the other man in the eye and congratulate them.

Another play that pissed me off—the facemask on Jace and the ba!!s of VMI players to whine about the call.
This isn't the VMI of old—but I don't respect their attitude. I know I wear purple shades but the Keydets we're getting the benefit of the doubt on a lot of roaming hands by their offensive lineman on Furman's pass rushers, and the VMI receivers were guilty of at least two obvious push-offs. Moving on…

Furman played a bunch of freshmen yesterday… Kudos to Dyan Davis and Dominic Morris for stepping up.

Generally, I think we've done a better job of getting down hill in the run game. I think we've jettisoned some of the zone read stuff. At least it seems like we have.

I like what we're doing in the red zone, though. Some of it is variation on a theme. We're blocking down and sending a player backside on a "wham" block. The RB is looking for the cutback.

Here, the line blocks to the right, the fullback blocks the backside end and Roberto cuts back into whatever gap he finds.

Almost identical play

Furman added a wrinkle yesterday. Instead of lining the fullback offset with the QB, they used Roberto in the wing, then motioned him to the left (giving a pretty heavy load on the left side of the formation), and off the snap he went back to block the backside. Same thing - RB looks for cutback lane.

On each of these plays, too, the QB sells the pass. The backside Safety freezes for just a second to make sure that the QB doesn't roll out away from the action. Freezing the safety helps open the window on the cut to score.

This is also how you combat a bit teams stacking the box against us. There's a lot of traffic in the middle of the field for linebackers to sort through to get where the ball is going. Teams risk a big run by overcommitting to loading up front.