Canadian Fan

If Jamies had blocked that last trick play properly it was a TD. Missed opportunity.

....I think a lot of it has to do with routes. Our routes are too predictable and too conservative. Why have we not seen Betts or Fleming running fly, corner or post routes?

What exactly does Jergens have to do for Will Farniok to get into a game? Of note, I'm thinking Piper needs to get prepared to play center next season.

Jeegens owned again. NT pushed him back 2 yards on that last run play.

Glad to see Frost at least called a deeper passing route and Luke took a shot, even if he missed it. The opposing DB's need to be kept honest and at least know their is the threat of getting beat deep.

So did anyone rewind the two crossing patterns to see who should have picked them up?

Amazing how lost our guys get on crossing patterns.....

Bad timing for a cornerback blitz....

Farniok got owned on that last run play. The DT slanted hard outside right into the designated run lane. Good (and quicker) decisions by AM to pull the ball down and run.... although that last pass should have been accompanied by a "My deepest condolences" card. Yikes!

So let's see if Frost calls another behind the LOS play from the two yard line. Man I hope not.

DL is certainly doing their job so far....

Man I hate Frost's "behind the LOS" East-West play selections. So much risk and too little reward. And Jergens? Time to move him to Guard. The experiment should have been over a long time ago.

We have multiple problems with trying to throw “quick throws to speed guys” 1. That is that’s exactly what Frost has telegraphed for multiple seasons and so corners are looking to jump those routes every single time (after having practiced for them all week) with both safeties having no fear of deep balls and so stacking the box in anticipation. Until Frost starts sending Fleming or Betts (or anyone else) on deep routes over 15 yards, the rest of our offence will be hamstrung as we’re forcing the opposing defence to only protect a very small portion of the field. Force their 11 guys to defence 30 yards of field? Or only 10? Which is easier for them to do? 2. Despite enough time in the system, both QB’s are horrible at those throws. At this point I think they’re more likely to need a psychiatrist than a new QB coach, but until they can hit simple things like a swing pass (when it’s open) we’re going to have a rough time. 3. I thought our OL played their worst game of the year. Between the bad snaps and inability of the right side (Wilson in particular) to either pass block or run block, all your play call options are going to be hard to execute. On the snaps issue, it could be argued that an OC playing to his strengths and away from his weaknesses would install a bunch of plays where the QB is under Center to see if on balance those provide better outcomes. All-in-all our OC seems to be aiming for Einstein’s definition of insanity: “Doing the exact same things over and over and expecting different results.” There will be no success until that changes.

I think three out of four LB positions have played fairy well. As others have said, I think Ruud has done a good job on the ILB’s. In the fourth spot (OLB opposite Domann) I remain of the opinion that Nelson needs to get his head on straight as his regular loss of edge containment costs us too many first down conversions. My best guess is he must be a great practice and locker room guy and they’re trying to reward him for that and are willing to give him some mistakes as he grows into the position. But the way he crashes inside on our side of the LOS which makes the opposing TE or OT’s job soooo easy, is frustrating to watch. On a couple of plays they barely had to touch him as he ran just into the pile. On the limited snaps he was in, I thought Payne appeared much more positionally sound although more of a run stuffer at his current weight. Wish Greene had stuck around. Would have like to see him get some snaps at that position.

I'm not going to disagree with you as I know you've watched a lot of football in your day, but on my streaming laptop (hate it!), it felt like we had no one capable of covering IMATORBHEBHE (copied and pasted his name as I had no hope of spelling correctly on my own). My recollection was that after beating Bootle early, they tried Cam, and lastly I thought he beat Newsome. I also think the soft zone is a reaction to a QB who can run as man coverage takes the CB's eyes off the opposing quarterback. That all being said, it kinda feels like we're trying to pick out details on a NASCAR crash. It was so ugly all around it hurt my eyes.

Just $0.02.... I think we need to separate defensive play calling and scheme from the talent. What I believe I saw was: 1. Veteran QB who showed up and was dropping dimes all day long. 2. One opposing WR we had no answer for at cornerback. You would like to plan on doubling him but as soon as we did that, then that veteran QB was aware enough enough to identify the space created and often scrambled in that direction. 3. Nelson may be a huge energy guy, but his lack of discipline in holding the edge cost is more times than I can count. He repeatedly crashed inside and lost containment giving up numerous first downs. If his position coach will not bench him then Chin needs to pull rank and do it until Garrett learns his lesson. Bottom Line is that opposing OC’s have shown themselves competent in identifying their mismatches and exploiting them. While our OC has appeared not to adjust at all and keeps wanting to use his “square peg” (scheme, personnel and play calling) regardless of the opponent’s strengths or weaknesses.

I also think it's the coaches are hamstringing themselves. The opposing defenses start each game saying "Well this is the game we have to be careful they're going to throw the deep ball", and keep their safeties off the line-of-scrimmage. As the game progresses, they realize that that our coaches are still only calling passing patterns that are relatively short in order to minimize likelihood of interceptions (or sacks and fumbles), so they can push their safeties further up to the LOS and into the box. This makes the shorter pass routes very dangerous as they're often sitting in 10-yard deep zones watching our QB's eyes to jump routes or alternatively jumping into run blitzes creating too many men for our OL to block at the point of attack in our run game. Bottom Line: Even if it increases the risk of interception (or sack and fumbles), Frost has to throw at least one deep ball over 20 yards per half, in order to keep the opposing safeties from choking all our running lanes and short passing routes.

Totally agree with this. That was frustrating to watch.

Anyone else wonder if on longer 3rd downs we should be putting in an extra DL instead of OLB as one of the designated pass rushers? Just looking at performance to date, I would rather see just about any of our 2-deep DL in instead of Nelson, Tannor or Payne, with Domann as the OLB on the other side. I would also argue with the preponderance of athletic QB's in the B1G, collapsing the pocket appears more effective in keeping them contained than speed rushing way outside the very good OT's that are also common in the B1G.

I think you may want to give the Redshirt Freshman more than one start before making any final determinations. As others have mentioned the playcalling has not been helpful to the young man.

The one thing I believe I'm seeing is that when there are protection breakdowns, LMC appears MUCH quicker both in terms of instincts and footspeed. I caught myself at least three times watching AMC escape and get positive yardage, where I thought AM2 would've been tackled (and potentially fumbled). Even one of those could have been the difference in the game.

Positives: 1. Although imperfect, I think LMC earned the right to be the starter. I'm afraid that would have been loss three with AM2 at the helm. 2. Some of the run plays with Wandale where he was slashing in the Guard-Tackle gap looked really good. 3. Although still lacking NFL-calibre talent at key positions, Chin's Blackshirts continue to improve,. I would add that most of the mistakes I noticed were individual mistakes (bad angles in particular) as opposed to schematic failings. 4. Some real nice glimpses of youthful talent today. Betts in particular was a pleasant surprise today. Negatives: 1. LMC needs a tonne of reps as in the passing game he doesn't see the field that we'll. 2. Frost needs to run more deep routes. His propensity to cut off all the routes at 10-15 yards is making it way to easy for the opposing defenses to sit in zone and stack that area. 3. The OLB coach needs to threaten to bench any player who overruns the play. I lost count of the number of missed tackles as OLB's including Domann were schemed perfectly to make plays and whiffed. 4. "Snaps" .....damn snaps. Very happy for team to get the win. They deserved a break. Kudos guys.

I'd just like to flag that there's a difference between "being mentally fragile" and "players not being confident in executing the plays that have been called." In another thread I proposed that one of the biggest reasons for the years of repeated OL penalties is that the OL lack faith/trust in their ability to execute the blocks required for certain of Coach Frost's plays. They get nervous at those plays, and they jump. Over and over and over again. In my opinion, one thing Coach Frost has failed at dramatically is identifying which plays are within the comfort zones of his offensive players and building plays to suit. In contrast, he seems fixated on attempting to use "his system" and "his plays" and then appears shocked when his players can't actually run them well, on a consistent basis. Step one for me after going 0-2 shouldn't be deep introspection on the part of the HC in isolation. It should be getting his offensive position coaches to talk to their players (starting with the OL and QB's) and build a new call sheet based on their preferences. Step two is them giving the QB audible options for their favourite plays so if they step up to the line and see a play they know they can nail, they have the freedom to make that switch.

Just my opinion..... Although I'm impressed that Coach Frost more often points the thumb back at himself (and means it), than pointing the finger at others, I'm increasingly concerned about his diagnosis of what is actually wrong (and what he needs to get fixed). It appears that over the last several seasons he has been absolutely intransigent in his formations, his personnel and his play preferences....regardless of outcomes that repeat themselves over and over again. So whereas we on the outside say "Hey, it's first and goal at the two. How about going i-Formation for 4 straight plays and see what happens?" He always sees each set of downs as a new opportunity to show his preferred formation and playcalling will actually work, if his players just get enough reps. We've beaten to death his WR screen passes, East-West Run Game, lack of a Full Back on short yardage, etc., but I have another one to add: I really wonder whether all the OL False Starts we get are because the kids don't actually believe they can execute the block that is being asked of them.....so anxious, they jump. I really think that's something that Austin needs to have a "Come to Jesus" meeting about, because that means that structurally Coach Frost has installed an offense his own players don't believe they can execute, and that is a serious problem. If my assessment above is correct, I really hope he figures it out and changes course. Otherwise he's going to drive the program he loves into a place where it may be unable to recover. You can't keep coming out looking like Elmer Fudd, and expect to be able to recruit the difference-makers you need to be compete at the highest levels.

I also thought that Day was experimenting more with playcalling against PSU than he did against Nebraska. He appeared willing to run plays he knew his OL was struggling to block to give them practice reps for the sake of practice, while against Nebraska I think he was more focused on calling the plays that worked (targeting the mismatches in his favour). Overall I thought both our DL and OL performed better than PSU's, but their talent at WR gave them an ability to compete against OSU in the passing game that we simply didn't/don't have yet. The one thing I will say is that if OSU faces an opponent with elite DB's, their lack of an exceptional run game this year could put them in a position for an upset.