A perspective on Wyoming game
Posted on: September 12, 2018 at 23:54:18 CT
Tiger Tank MU
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I spent some time watching the Wyoming game the last couple days. Some observations and opinions on the run O and run D follow.
OL: Durant is our best OL. He was almost never beat and had some strong blocks in the run game. Very, very solid. The two illegal man downfield calls were mainly a function of the calls. Both were RPOs where the line was blocking a run play and Lock pulled the ball and threw it. Durant probably should have realized it was a pass quicker when the defender didn't come to him though. I'm assuming that's the way they coach it.
Adams is good but never overpowering. The guards can maul but sometimes get overextended or drop their heads and whiff. Castillo gets pushed back quite a bit (Poona Ford was knocking him 2-3 into the backfield every play in the bowl game) but has very good feet and can often get his body in position in spite of that.
As a group the OL rarely get vertical movement in the run game. Wyoming rarely blitzed, and when they did the line picked it up well in pass pro. Wyoming did run games a lot and the line picked those up masterfully. Pass pro is quite impressive.
TEs: They were very hit and miss in the run game. A few times they got into the defender and moved him. Unfortunately there were several more instances of whiffing or getting beat immediately. Albert doesn't always bring a lot of effort to his blocking.
Overall I REALLY like Dooley's offense. The run game is varied. So far I've seen all the basic schemes: inside zone, outside zone, pin and pull sweep, iso, power, counter trap with the tackle leading and with the H leading, even speed option once. Backfield actions were often varied as well.
The thing I like best is the various ways he uses constraints: hitches, seams, slants, bubbles, now screens. Sometimes pre-snap due to alignment, sometimes true RPOs where Lock rides and reads. There were a few bad run plays where I thought Lock should have pulled the ball and thrown to the constraint concept. Wyoming's SS--#27 I think--was down in the box unblocked for much of the game and was responsible for several quick stops. On a few of those occasions pulling the throws looked open to me.
Defensively, Beckner and Elliot are the best DTs by far. Both very quick and active. Williams can get lost a bit at times. His he doesn't read and react to the blocks very quickly. Turner plays hard but is sometimes manhandled by bigger, stronger players. Anderson is much better than last year. I like him much better than I thought I would. Very steady.
At LB, Hall is the man. Diagnoses quickly, absolutely blows up blockers at times, finds his gap and tackles. He was good in coverage too, in spite of his PI.
There were a few times when D linemen got reached and turned out of their gaps. This was the cause of most of the successful run plays, obviously. On the TD both tackles got utterly washed down and the MLB--can't remember his name for some reason--was slow finding his fit.
On the long pass Gillespie was utterly out of position, taking off toward the LOS even without a play fake. I think it was Hilton, though, that was most responsible. He just got flat out beat over the top.