The Jackal wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:45 am
FUBeAR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:21 am
The Jackal wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:37 pm
Did not get a chance to watch much of the game, but went through the box score.
Mercer had a strong defensive day. JSU is a good offensive football team with an impressive QB.
Offensively, I was surprised at some of the looks from Mercer in the limited amount I caught. As I suspected they might, it appears they did everything they could to get the ball to their best player - Devezin. He had close to 40% of Mercer's touches on offense.
Yep - he’s a big-a$$ Clydesdale that the Bears love to ride...
gotta say, though, Deondre Johnson is 1 Special walk-on...slippery & sneaky fast with really good vision & instincts
And...the Bears have recruited a whole stable of ‘baby’ big-a$$ Clydesdales...Fred Davis (5-11/210), Al Wooten (6-0/220), and Devin Crosby (5-9/215) that all show a Devezin-like punishing running style. They, along with Johnson, et al, can take the pressure to tote the ball 30 times off of #34.
Let that ridiculously young D mature a little and get more threat/production from the QB slot, and Mercer will compete with Furman and Chatt, IMO, for the SoCon Championship this Spring.
On the QB slot, I’ve seen what Frost has / can do over the past 2 years. I’d really like to get a look at True FR Carter Peavy (6-3/210) in Mercer’s next outing. Played on a top team in a very tough Gwinnett County region of the highest level of Georgia HS Football...and was hIghly productive & VERY impressive in his vids. In that O, you need a QB who is a threat to run and can get rid of the ball quickly with velocity...and who can throw a nice deep ball. I saw Peavy do all of those things in HS. Of course, they have to be able to whirl & hand the ball off to the right one of the 9 guys that are in motion in 9 different directions on every play.
I'll have to see them in action, first. Having big physical backs can be a luxury, but there's only so many things you can do slamming the ball up the middle. Those big guys have to add some dimension. Maybe they will.
The danger of Devezin is that he's a thick physical runner with great lateral movement. He's not a one trick pony.
Some of the issue Mercer may face is what plagued Furman in 2017 when Cronic was the OC - if a defense has enough lead in their pants to control the middle of the field, you've gotta come up with something other than attacking with the big backs. Remember, Furman had two backs on that team (Wilcox and Dirks) that were bigger clydesdales than those listed above. They were not threats outside, though, where Devezin is.
The most glaring stat, to your point, is at the QB position. In that offense, completing fewer than 50% of passes on a 5.5 yard average per attempt isn't going to work. Especially when the QB offers very little threat to run.
Yep - good stat ‘catch’ on the QB slot.
On the RB’s - these 3 seem to be more cut from the Devezin cloth than the Wilcox/Dirks cloths. Won’t discuss, but both had some challenges - different for each.
I think the O is designed (in large measure) for the Devezin slot to have 90%+ of those carries between or off-tackles, but with a whole host of different schemes / combinations of lead blockers (Pulling/Trapping OL, TE’s, Jokers) at the POA. The outside game comes mostly from the Jokers - a biggun & a swift one, it seems. Not concerned about diversity of Rushing attack or having enough RB’s with apt size/speed/style to execute it - just need a trigger man with a bigger, faster gun & more bullets in it.
The Bears’ D Lineup was most interesting - started...
3 True FR (NT, LB, S)
2 R-FR (DT, CB (Navy Xfer))
4 SO’s (DE, LB, S, S)
1 JR (CB)
1 GR-T (LB (who, as far as I can tell, never played a down in 3 years @ The Citadel))
Top 5 Tacklers were...
FR LB
SO LB (2 TFL’s)
FR NT (2 TFL’s, 1.5 Sacks)
SO S
FR S
Dang near put a HS All-Star Team out there on D. Their performance was the biggest surprise. Wasn’t perfect, but way, way, way more physical & aggressive than in recent years & should get better.
