Game Report

[PirateVOL]

Offense:
QB:  Hooker was a bit off tonight.  Was high on several throws to the perimeter and on his only deepish ball he overthrew Hyatt badly.  That being said he played a solid game
Milton is improved.  Sure he overthrew the TE on the TD but I think he was so wide open he aimed it, it was a touch pass, unusual for him.  His TD toss to Holiday was on target, left a bruise between the numbers.  Jackson wasn’t allowed to do anything and his one pass opportunity the 3rd string OL played bull fighter

RB:  Small and Wright, then pray for rain, though Sampson showed promise

WR: Really weren’t showcased tonight, we were so vanilla even the WR screens seemed like yogurt.  wR blocking needs work.  IMO Warren outplayed Fant, easily.

OL:  Thought played OK, seemed to improve as the game went on.  I think Crawford outplayed Mincey at LT.  Pass  pro was better but then we weren’t playing a SEC team

Coaching:  very vanilla, rarely went warp speed.  Started rotating all but the QB and OL early

Defense:
DL: Same as last year, as in no pressure without blitzing.  Interior bottled up the run , filled gaps well but need them to step up.  Young and Barron weren’t factors at all.  Joseph played early and a lot late (he and Peirce rotated a lot in the 2nd half).  Frankly disappointed in their play overall.

LB:  Beasley came out with his hair on fire, cause the T-Mac pick.  Banks was not a factor, though he popped up a few times in the 3rd quarter  Backups, not impressed.  Mitchel out for a non injury per media

Secondary:  Scarry, VERY scary!  TO be fair there was some good coverage (Haden’s pick was good coverage and excellent technique when the ball got there) but all too often the corners and T-Mac let receivers roam free.  The safeties?  Did they play?  Didn’t observe any play of note, other than poor closing speed.  I think we are worse than last year.
Also, we still can’t play  zone for squat.
Got very lucky on one of their drives, they didn’t cover anybody for the entire drive, but the ball hit the pylon and we go it back

Coaching:  Need to teach to not telegraph blitzes (talking to you T-Mac) but he was far from the only one.  Few, if any stunts, vanilla blitzes

Special Teams:
Kick offs need work.  Coverage wasn’t bad but got more tackles (Turrentine stood out).  KO returns need work, far too many penalties
Punting, good
Punt returns not observed, not thrilled with Flowers back there

Summary:
We one, no significant injuries I observed, plenty of people got PT (different than the 1st game last year) so a lot of film on essentially the entire team.  And we kept the playbook out of sight ahead of the Pitt game

[murfvol]

Excellent write-up as always. I expected more from Barron and Young, but was pleasantly surprised with Haden.