• Colgate

 #3812  by gofurman
 Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:46 pm
The Jackal wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 12:31 pm
Couple other thoughts watching a few highlights. Colgate has had strip sacks in the first two games. Elon managed one as well. Grainger is a tall guy with a long delivery. He's gotta know that the Colgate DL is coached to swat that ball out of his hands. We have been abysmal with ball security the first two games from our QBs. That has to be a point of emphasis this week.

Defensively, teams tend to pressure Colgate up the middle. They are not a pure drop back passing team, and often run with 5 OL and RBs in protection. I do not think their OL is going to be the caliber of Elon's. I think we will be able to pressure them, especially in more predictable down and distance. I think we are going to have opportunities to take calculated risks in pressuring the QB.

Also slightly beneficial, they will probably have a hard time replicating our offense in practice. I doubt Colgate sees a lot of three back looks, and they certainly haven't seen a Kealand Dirks yet. Offensively, Grainger is going have to make throws. We've got to force defenses to give us space and respect the passing game. Our offense isn't going to do much if teams can just stack the box and we can't make throws.

Like any other game, we need to tackle, possess the football, and limit stupid mistakes out there. Get in a rhythm early, get some swagger back, and get after them.
Jackal I thought the same thing as I glanced at their highlight video - they like to strip the QB of the ball and can do it. Our QB needs to keep the ball secure, be able to feel pressure and the OL needs to give him time. Until those things happen we are going to be fighting a -2 turnover ratio every game. And we can't overcome that - almost no one can. Going to have to learn it eventually bc I guarantee every team we play from here on out watching our film is going to be told to try for that after watching our early games

OL really needs to help - protect Grainger and allow us to run the ball for 200+ so the DL have to lay back and respect the run