Well, I remember something that Lou said one time, "it's never as good, or as bad, as you thought." Last week we obviously weren't as bad as we thought, and my guess is that ECU made us look a bit better than we are. Still, how could you not come out of this game DYLAN OUT OF NOWHERE, BEST QB IN THE COUNTRY, HE SHOULD START FROM HERE OUT without just grinning from ear to ear?
OFFENSE
QB: A-
Hello Dylan Thompson, nice to meet you. No, he wasn't going up against an SEC defense, but he shredded the ECU defense for 330 yards. Think on that for a moment, Dylan Thompson passed for 330 yards. OK, so why the A-? Well, there's always room for improvement. He stared down his primary too many times, lacked velocity on a lot of throws that get picked against a team like LSU, and failed to throw the ball away like he should (the coaches do mention this to them, right?). But it's nice to know we have a backup QB that can come in... and win.
RB: B
It was really nice to see us establish a RB rotation. All the backs did reasonably well when running the ball, so much so that it seemed that there was no drop off regardless of who was on the field. Where they excelled was in the blocking game. The guys picked up blitzes, chipped ends, and helped out blocking down field. I gave them a B for the few dropped passes they had, and the lack of a really big play.
WR/TE: A
What a difference a week makes. Although we still had one too many drops, these guys came out this week and played with passion. After some early nerves, Shaq heated up and started bringing in some catches. Also, nice to see Smith make one of his Spring Game catches in the regular season. Buster Anderson owned ECU... just owned them.
OL: C+
I might catch some heat for this, as Dylan was very rarely pressured, but as bad as the pass blocking was last week, the run blocking was about as bad this week. We faced a D-line that was without it's top two DT, and we still couldn't establish an interior running game. Yes, we were throwing the ball like Mike Leach on amphetamines, but we failed to open up large running lanes. Yes, we did go away from the zone read a good bit, but still... come on guys, blow somebody off the ball.
DEFENSE
DL: A
I heard a lot of people on the call-in shows that were disappointed with the lack of QB pressure from this unit. Those people know nothing about football. This unit kept containment, clogged the lanes, got their hands up, and denied the run. In short, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. I remember that the QB thought he could run a draw right at Jerideau. He could not.
LB/Spur: A
LB play is quickly looking like a strength this year. These guys did equally well in pass coverage and run support today. Over and over ECU tried to hit the TE seam, and over and over again our LB's shut it down.
Well done.
CB/S: A-
Jimmy Legree is proving me wrong. The minus is for their tackling technique. For some reason the "Culliver-high-shoulder-push" seems to be the method of tackling taught to our CBs. Please, please, please stop this.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Overall: A
KICKOFF COVERAGE WAS AWESOME. Why does every school have a better punter than us?
COACHING
Overall: A
You tell me Spurrier didn't have fun today. Passing all over the field, trick plays, throwing late in the game when up big... oh yeah, Head Ball Coach had fun. Once he got comfortable with Dylan, he really opened up the playbook. Hello mid-range pass, I've missed you, glad to see you again. Also, was that both the I AND the offset-I I saw out there today? Holy crap, I'm in love with our play calling all over again. It's almost like someone else called the plays last week and Spurrier called them this week.... NAH... that's crazy talk.
Ward continues to impress me. Yes, we gave up over 330 yards passing today, but they were mostly YTDM (Yards That Don't Matter). Plus, the defense force 5 turnovers. ECU had no answer for our team speed.
INTANGIBLES
Overall: A
Confidence, you can never have too much of it. It's a great thing for your team to know that the backup QB can come in and win a game. No, ECU isn't a world-beater, but they're a solid team, definitely better than say... a Ball State, and we ran them out of the State. While the team may have questioned their ability last week a bit, they got a good bit of their mojo back this week. Based on what I'm seeing right now we'll need that against Mizzou, so it's good to know that our team is focusing on execution, it showed today.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This should dispel a lot of the bad feelings people had after last weeks game in Nashville. Still, we need to keep in mind that all we've done so far is gut out a road win against the 5th place team in the East and light up a decent Conference USA team. For where we are right now, I'll take it. If we can get better play out of our OL, and consistent performances from our WR, we've got a legit shot at the East. From there? Well, anything's possible.
OFFENSE
QB: A-
Hello Dylan Thompson, nice to meet you. No, he wasn't going up against an SEC defense, but he shredded the ECU defense for 330 yards. Think on that for a moment, Dylan Thompson passed for 330 yards. OK, so why the A-? Well, there's always room for improvement. He stared down his primary too many times, lacked velocity on a lot of throws that get picked against a team like LSU, and failed to throw the ball away like he should (the coaches do mention this to them, right?). But it's nice to know we have a backup QB that can come in... and win.
RB: B
It was really nice to see us establish a RB rotation. All the backs did reasonably well when running the ball, so much so that it seemed that there was no drop off regardless of who was on the field. Where they excelled was in the blocking game. The guys picked up blitzes, chipped ends, and helped out blocking down field. I gave them a B for the few dropped passes they had, and the lack of a really big play.
WR/TE: A
What a difference a week makes. Although we still had one too many drops, these guys came out this week and played with passion. After some early nerves, Shaq heated up and started bringing in some catches. Also, nice to see Smith make one of his Spring Game catches in the regular season. Buster Anderson owned ECU... just owned them.
OL: C+
I might catch some heat for this, as Dylan was very rarely pressured, but as bad as the pass blocking was last week, the run blocking was about as bad this week. We faced a D-line that was without it's top two DT, and we still couldn't establish an interior running game. Yes, we were throwing the ball like Mike Leach on amphetamines, but we failed to open up large running lanes. Yes, we did go away from the zone read a good bit, but still... come on guys, blow somebody off the ball.
DEFENSE
DL: A
I heard a lot of people on the call-in shows that were disappointed with the lack of QB pressure from this unit. Those people know nothing about football. This unit kept containment, clogged the lanes, got their hands up, and denied the run. In short, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. I remember that the QB thought he could run a draw right at Jerideau. He could not.
LB/Spur: A
LB play is quickly looking like a strength this year. These guys did equally well in pass coverage and run support today. Over and over ECU tried to hit the TE seam, and over and over again our LB's shut it down.
Well done.
CB/S: A-
Jimmy Legree is proving me wrong. The minus is for their tackling technique. For some reason the "Culliver-high-shoulder-push" seems to be the method of tackling taught to our CBs. Please, please, please stop this.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Overall: A
KICKOFF COVERAGE WAS AWESOME. Why does every school have a better punter than us?
COACHING
Overall: A
You tell me Spurrier didn't have fun today. Passing all over the field, trick plays, throwing late in the game when up big... oh yeah, Head Ball Coach had fun. Once he got comfortable with Dylan, he really opened up the playbook. Hello mid-range pass, I've missed you, glad to see you again. Also, was that both the I AND the offset-I I saw out there today? Holy crap, I'm in love with our play calling all over again. It's almost like someone else called the plays last week and Spurrier called them this week.... NAH... that's crazy talk.
Ward continues to impress me. Yes, we gave up over 330 yards passing today, but they were mostly YTDM (Yards That Don't Matter). Plus, the defense force 5 turnovers. ECU had no answer for our team speed.
INTANGIBLES
Overall: A
Confidence, you can never have too much of it. It's a great thing for your team to know that the backup QB can come in and win a game. No, ECU isn't a world-beater, but they're a solid team, definitely better than say... a Ball State, and we ran them out of the State. While the team may have questioned their ability last week a bit, they got a good bit of their mojo back this week. Based on what I'm seeing right now we'll need that against Mizzou, so it's good to know that our team is focusing on execution, it showed today.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This should dispel a lot of the bad feelings people had after last weeks game in Nashville. Still, we need to keep in mind that all we've done so far is gut out a road win against the 5th place team in the East and light up a decent Conference USA team. For where we are right now, I'll take it. If we can get better play out of our OL, and consistent performances from our WR, we've got a legit shot at the East. From there? Well, anything's possible.
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