CITADEL GAME THREAD

[The Jackal]

The Citadel had two home games against SoCon programs completely upended by the storm and didn't beat either one of them.

[The Jackal]

Well boys, ole FUATT was at the game in their dungeon. I did a shot of the purple drank in the FU shot glass and headed in with the fam.

That was a difficult first 23 min to watch. Defense in some ways played really good ball, but we had 4 penalties on either 3rd or 4th down where we had them off the field and put them back on that resulted in 13 of their points. We have got to stop picking that snake up and daring it to bite us.

Offense... We have to reevaluate the run game. Late when we needed yards we got them but holy bell tower we could not buy any rhythm early and the numbers speak for themselves.

RBs? Can you even pass pro bro? One of the reasons we were not playing one of the younger backs was pass pro. Well, based on what one of our RB was doing in that regard, come on down, you're the next contestant on hit the man trying to kill our QB.

QB... I think this was a huge milestone. HE WON US A GAME. It was one thing to get out there and play. Then he got a win. But this was a back to the wall, knife to throat, now or never deal and the kid came off the wall and make the throws and got it done. There are some things regarding getting the ball out and not taking sacks and especially seeing a blind side blitz coming and changing a protection so you don't get knocked into the next century but... he made the plays when the throw game was all we had.

We did not play the clean game FUATT said we needed to win, esp the penalties, and CID did. But we did some good things. We limited their explosive plays. I thought the defense adjustments to control their run game in the 2nd half worked well. And offense we just threw in the towel on the run game and let 8 throw darts like Ted Lasso in a pub and hey, a win is a win right?

I think 8 can believe now. And I think this team needed this. This team has seen more garbage dumped on its head than any FU team in a long time and its taken a toll and in spite of it all, they figured out how to beat a rival, on the road, who played well.

I was really, really proud of those guys today. They learned something about themselves and can build on this.

Lets gooooooooo.

Its hard to know with pass protection where to throw some of the blame. We also have a freshman center and a freshman QB, so it probably isn't all on the RBs.

Here we are in an empty backfield. The Citadel brings six; that is, they've got more guys rushing than we have to block.

That ball has got to get out fast. It's like Hedden sees Holbrook flash open in the zone, but then resets and allows the Bulldog defense to get home.

[The Jackal]

This play - on third down - is what you sometimes get with Freshmen.

Hedden looks to be trying to throw an RPO to Hester, who isn't remotely looking for the ball. I suspect Hedden is expecting the slant route with the linebacker moving up, but it wasn't there and he takes a sack.

[The Jackal]

Bear could probably weigh in on this, but this just seems like stuff we can get ironed out.

Our LT and RB are blocking the same guy and did not block the defensive tackle. I'm not an expert in pass protections, but my guess is the OT is responsible for the down defensive lineman and the RB's charge is the standup outside linebacker.

I don't think it's an issue of them being bigger or stronger. It's we gotta sort out who is supposed to block who problem.

[The Jackal]

Good grief, Luke Clark.

If you want to watch a pass rusher abuse an offensive lineman, this is a good video.

[The Jackal]

This is super impressive.

Watch Hedden just stand in the pocket. Chaos all around them and he trusts his OL to protect him. Throws a bullet.

I couldn't figure out why this play took so long to develop, and then noticed the Citadel defensive back absolutely mugging Ben Ferguson down the field. I have no idea how that did not draw a flag to grab a receiver by his jersey 7 yards downfield and try to throw him down.

Credit to Ferguson to keep his feet and balance and get where he needed to be.

[The Jackal]

Another nice throw here. Knows that Pryor has the positioning and size advantage and throws a ball where he can adjust to it.

Another non-called defensive penalty on the Citadel DB, who has Pryor's arm locked and isn't looking for the ball. Great job making the catch anyway.

You can also see the Citadel double team Brock Chappell. Having our secondary TEs win 1 on 1 matchups may be a big theme this season as it's appearing our opponents know Chappell is a matchup problem for them, especially inside the red zone.

[FUATT]

GREAT Vids.

On the pass pro it is not one thing. Our FR C has heart and was battling but they got a lot of penetration right up the cack.

RBs just did not execute well and missed one or two blocks.

There was one play in particular where Trey should have seen the blitz, didn't and they had numbers and it was an ugly backside sack. There were also at least two throws, one of which Hinton would have lit up the scoreboard and he just does not pull the trigger and he takes the sack.

BUT... he also did not throw a terrible horrible interception that would have cost us the game. Sometimes the sack is not the best play but its not the worst.

So its stuff across the board I think. It usually is not one thing.

But man to the big picture. This young team has had the kitchen sink thrown at them. Death, hurricane, suspension. Would have been easy to be discouraged by all of it and just lay down.

Got up. Fought. Won. I hope we turned a bit of corner.

[dins13]

I mean. Can you imagine losing like that then having to head straight to the local Hilton for a luggage carrying shift?

Being a bellhop can be rough.

[apaladin]

A great gutsy effort .We finally went to the real strength of our O , our receivers.

As much as it is not in Furman's DNA, I'm fairly convinced at this point that our best path forward is to just let Hedden sling it.

Our pass catchers - WRs, RBs, TEs - have a lot of depth and are a difficult matchup up for most defenses. It's just hard to cover all of those guys for four quarters.

We agree. See my post above #91581

[apaladin]

Another nice throw here. Knows that Pryor has the positioning and size advantage and throws a ball where he can adjust to it.

Another non-called defensive penalty on the Citadel DB, who has Pryor's arm locked and isn't looking for the ball. Great job making the catch anyway.

You can also see the Citadel double team Brock Chappell. Having our secondary TEs win 1 on 1 matchups may be a big theme this season as it's appearing our opponents know Chappell is a matchup problem for them, especially inside the red zone.

That was true freshman to true freshman.

[FUBeAR]

Bear could probably weigh in on this, but this just seems like stuff we can get ironed out.

Our LT and RB are blocking the same guy and did not block the defensive tackle. I'm not an expert in pass protections, but my guess is the OT is responsible for the down defensive lineman and the RB's charge is the standup outside linebacker.

I don't think it's an issue of them being bigger or stronger. It's we gotta sort out who is supposed to block who problem.

Looks like Slide Right PassPro for 4 of 5 and the OT is wrong, but ad hoc calls can be made at the LOS, including the OLmen using hand signals to swap blocks with the RB’s. No way to know really, but 1 of those 2 is running 10 extra banks on Monday for a Mental Error…maybe both if it was a communication issue.

[Davemeister]

The biggest play of the game may have been the one decided by the Zebras.

I'm sure Citadel is telling itself that it was a fumble/scoop-and-score which would have made the game 22-10 in favor of the Bulldogs. We at Furman know for certain that it was an incomplete forward pass.

No worries. These are the things refs are paid to sort out. Some of them go our way, some of them don't. In the long run they balance out.

Just win, Baby!

[The Jackal]

Citadel fans can complain about the refs all day. They missed calls both ways.

They didn’t lose because of one call. They lost because they had a team with superior talent on the ropes at home for most of a game and couldn’t do enough to separate before their opponent got its feet and started swinging back.

[tya1]

That was a game we somehow won while playing good on offense for only about 8 minutes in the whole game, most in the second half. The defense gave up big plays at least 3 times on 3rd and ten. Usually a great way to assure a loss. My quick count shows the Paladins with 33 yards of offense in the first half. 33 total. For the half. 80 yards in the second half, 67 of those on the drive for the FG. Then two TD drives in the last 5 and a half minutes of the game. I don't remember a game ever quite like this.

The Citadel had 13 yards total on their last five possessions. I had a feeling they got too conservative on offense trying to protect their lead. Or maybe we just stopped making mistakes on defense at key times. Defense seemed to be getting good pressure most of their game.