Mercer 11/12

[AstroDin]

Really proud to be a DIN.
This team is proving to be resilient.
This game had some crazy moments but this time, Furman fought through it.

I hope we all don't lose sight of how Jack Barton is contributing.
Jack started the season as the backup to the injured J Jackson.
He's been a critical piece of the Furman D.

I ditto Jackal's comments about our linebackers.
Gilby and McCormick are becoming quite a tandem that can lay the wood.

I wouldn't take any d-line in the SoCon over the Dins d-line. Furman's philosophy of playing a lot of players on defense is showing late in the season. Our d-line rotation was whipping the Mercer o-line all day.

[gofurman]

Didn't see this elsewhere, but Dae'One Wilkins was back in uniform tonight. Looked like he primarily played special teams.

He'd be a nice addition if he can come back close to full strength.

Jackal, Nice catch. Didn’t see that

[gofurman]

Really proud to be a DIN.
This team is proving to be resilient.
This game had some crazy moments but this time, Furman fought through it.

I hope we all don't lose sight of how Jack Barton is contributing.
Jack started the season as the backup to the injured J Jackson.
He's been a critical piece of the Furman D.

I ditto Jackal's comments about our linebackers.
Gilby and McCormick are becoming quite a tandem that can lay the wood.

I wouldn't take any d-line in the SoCon over the Dins d-line. Furman's philosophy of playing a lot of players on defense is showing late in the season. Our d-line rotation was whipping the Mercer o-line all day.

Spot on Astro. Don’t let one play affect you for a quarter. Way to fight through everything Furman !!!

[The Jackal]

This is great.

Furman gives a run heavy look with Gissinger, Roberto, and Thomas in the backfield. Mercer is in man coverage.

I love the play design here and the discipline from the coaching staff. As best I can tell, this play hasn't appeared on Furman film all season. Maybe Holy Cross ran it with Roper last season, but I've never seen a Furman team run it.

To the defense, everything about this looks like a power run with Roberto as the lead blocker.

Because all three eligible guys in the backfield are running the same direction, Mercer has to quickly sort out who is responsible for who. Roberto runs right at their safety as if to block him, and then just accelerates up field.

You can see the moment the lightbulb goes off with the Mercer defender. Once he sees Huff square to throw he knows he's been duped and that Roberto - his coverage responsibility - is behind him. He wheels and runs like a scalded cat. Credit to him for some hustle though. He covered a lot of ground to make the tackle.

[apaladin]

Roberto had to wait on it for just a second or it might have been 6. These are type of plays we haven’t seen in a while,

[Sad Din]

the great thing about this play is that the D had to respect 1st the handoff 2nd QB faking run that allowed target to escape without coverage

Roper is goooooood!

[FUBeAR]

Looks like he’s borrowing some of that Wake Forest long, delayed mesh option game. Way cool!

[The Jackal]

Looks like he’s borrowing some of that Wake Forest long, delayed mesh option game. Way cool!

I noticed that too. Hard to tell whether some of that is window dressing or he's making a read.

Looking back, I think Mercer was a little more conservative with their standup OLB/DE than they were against UTC. Against UTC, that backer was knifing into the backfield nearly every snap. Against Furman, he was hanging back more along the line of scrimmage.

Honestly, I imagine Mercer's coaches saw the UTC film and realized that Furman's QB could outrun them to the edge if they attacked him too aggressively. The few times Mercer really came after him he was able to break contain.

[The Jackal]

Can't get over the defensive effort yesterday.

Cronic is considered by many to be an offensive guru, and his offense yesterday was basically reduced to him trying to find different ways to hide Devron Harper in the hopes that he'd break a tackle and score a touchdown. Even on plays where he had a little space, Furman did a good job of getting him to the ground.

Harper had a lot of yards, but he was also about the only guy they were trying to get the ball to. Harper had 25% of all of their offensive touches yesterday. You feed any good player the ball that much and they are going to put up some numbers.

Essentially, we turned one of the nation's most prolific offenses into a one-trick pony.

[FUwolfpacker]

Some game highlights from a FCS podcast/youtube group called The Blue Bloods. I think they're at a few games each week. It's mostly from one end zone and field level. Different look at some of the big plays. Could substitute nicely for a condensed game recap if you're looking for something like that.

[The Jackal]

There's a good angle of the targeting on Chizik at 4:25.

I know Mercer fans didn't like the call, but in my view, this was the correct ruling. James created forcible contact by leading with the shoulder or forearm to the head or neck area of a definitionally defenseless player (one trying to field a punt).

From the looks of it, James wasn't trying to make a tackle or recover the fumble - he was trying to knock Chizik out of the game. He took three steps after the fumble to make that hit.

Unfortunately, the play cost both teams one of their better players.

[Furman Sports Report]

http://www.furmansportsreport.com/2022/ ... ercer.html

I appreciate all of you who enjoy my work at the Furman Sports Report and I apologize for the delayed story about Saturday's game. I'm big on being factually correct and to be honest, I've spent a great amount of time since last night using the TV broadcast (as stellar as it was) and Dan's radio call to try to correct some things in the official game stats and play-by-play.

[Furman Sports Report]

There's a good angle of the targeting on Chizik at 4:25.

I know Mercer fans didn't like the call, but in my view, this was the correct ruling. James created forcible contact by leading with the shoulder or forearm to the head or neck area of a definitionally defenseless player (one trying to field a punt).

From the looks of it, James wasn't trying to make a tackle or recover the fumble - he was trying to knock Chizik out of the game. He took three steps after the fumble to make that hit.

Unfortunately, the play cost both teams one of their better players.

It was a textbook definition of targeting. One of the easiest calls you'll see.

[The Jackal]

"Make 'em like it."

[The Jackal]

One final Mercer note. I think the only dark spot in the game, which has seemed to plague us a bit this year, is fourth down conversions. We tried thrice and failed thrice.

Some of our inability to convert fourth downs left me with a little bit of a feeling we weren't able to finish drives. Against good teams and in the post season, we need to pick up those fourth downs in the no-man's land that's too close for a punt and maybe too far for a try.

Unique set up here. Fourth and 1.

Furman is "tackle over." The RT, Toomey, flips sides and lines up between Johanning and Tomlin. So, Furman has three offensive linemen to the left of the center.

Xavier Stephens, a defensive lineman, enters the game as the TE. I don't know if Stephens is our third TE and Gissinger wasn't available or whether that is the personnel package. Stephens is a legal receiver here. Ryan Miller slotted behind him.

Backfield is Roberto, Shiflett, and Gilby. Huff lines up at receiver. I'm not entirely sure what Shiflett brings you at QB that Huff doesn't on this play, but fine. Maybe if you are just going to tuck and run, you'd rather Shiflett fling himself into the fray than the QB.

I don't dislike what we're trying to do here, but we really didn't execute it. We have numbers at the point of attack. A lot of beef heading that direction. Looks like Gilby gets a nice kick out block. There's a hole there.

Just my view of things, but the defensive end gets too much penetration, which stacks up Roberto. The linebacker fills in to meet Shiflett in the hole.

Oddly, the two primary guys making the stop - #0 and #3 from the backside - are Mercer's two best defensive players. I don't love not blocking the defenses two studs on a fourth and short.

At some level, I love that we lined up with a bunch of beef and signaled that we were going to run it at them. I like the mentality. Didn't love the execution. Hats off to Mercer, though. They made a play.