Bye Week Pressers

19 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

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That is one example, but Shilo wasn't afraid to tackle him (maybe should have been), and did bring him down. Running over a guy is a great flex and knocking him out of the game more so, but I would rather he actually gets past the defender when it's one on one in space. Through them, around them, I don't care - just don't get tackled by them which is what he's been doing. Hunter makes this same business decision no matter who is running the ball, had nothing to do with Dowdell and the play previously.

 
Dowdell kinda runs like he’s a blocking fullback, ie like he doesn’t have the ball and he’s just trying to knock people over. 

 
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Mavric said:
Considering how often Rhule has brought up needing to break bigger plays, I don't know that suspicion is really grounded in all that much fact.
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Was he saying that recently, or back at the start of the season when he made Dowdell the starter? It's possible for a coach to decide that they need to change strategies over the course of a season, you know. (This isn't Kirk Ferentz we're talking about.)

 
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Toe said:
Was he saying that recently, or back at the start of the season when he made Dowdell the starter? It's possible for a coach to decide that they need to change strategies over the course of a season, you know. (This isn't Kirk Ferentz we're talking about.)
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Early in the season as well but I'd have to find it.


 
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If he really wants more home run plays then as people have said Rahmir and Emmitt need to play more.   Rhyme also needs to get his receivers and TE to block quite a bit better.  So far it’s been less than desirable.  

 
Mavric said:
So that's one out of 74.
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Here is what I said originally - "I agree with you on all points but I do think there is something to the bruising style he runs with.  Early on some defenders didn't really want to tackle him.  Since hitting B1G play, that has changed imo.  He is just an average to below average back in league play."

Not sure why you are making something more out of this than I was?  He ran over several other defenders early in the season but it is obvious that isn't working now against better defenders.  I agree we need a change but early on I can see why the coaches had him at #1.  

 
One interesting thing Rhule mentioned was the tackling is easier to fix on the defensive side of the ball. We weren't tackling well, so we went live on the scout team for 2 days and after the first drive or two the tackling was excellent against Rutgers.

Fixing the offensive side, breaking tackles/making guys miss, is harder. Teams are tackling us low, and we're not going to have the scout team diving at Fidone's knee, or chopping down Dowdell. There's still drill work that can be done, but how guys are "tackled" in practice doesn't match how they are tackled in a game which he thinks is contributing a bit.

 
If Rhule truly wants home runs in the running game then it needs to be Johnson & Johnson Corporation back there like BRB said.

I think our biggest issue is Dowdell is a square peg in a round hole. We're running so much zone with him and that's not what he's good at. If he has to make a cut in the back field he's going to have a minimal gain or a loss. Rahmir is the back you want if we're going to run zone plays, he's shifty like Ameer was, and we saw last game how he stops on a dime. Like Mav said he also keeps defenses honest with his ability in the passing game.

That said, I'm not totally sold on Emmett.. He didn't have a great game last week, and I've been critical of his vision for awhile. There's more upside than Dowdell, but he often misses the obvious cutback lanes.

 
ZRod said:
If Rhule truly wants home runs in the running game then it needs to be Johnson & Johnson Corporation back there like BRB said.

I think our biggest issue is Dowdell is a square peg in a round hole. We're running so much zone with him and that's not what he's good at. If he has to make a cut in the back field he's going to have a minimal gain or a loss. Rahmir is the back you want if we're going to run zone plays, he's shifty like Ameer was, and we saw last game how he stops on a dime. Like Mav said he also keeps defenses honest with his ability in the passing game.

That said, I'm not totally sold on Emmett.. He didn't have a great game last week, and I've been critical of his vision for awhile. There's more upside than Dowdell, but he often misses the obvious cutback lanes.
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Agree. 

I would say we don’t have a really good RB and not a complete RB. Maybe we can try to get a Sr. from the transfer portal. I think EJ and DD are both So. 

 
Moiraine said:
Agree. 

I would say we don’t have a really good RB and not a complete RB. Maybe we can try to get a Sr. from the transfer portal. I think EJ and DD are both So. 
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I was very disappointed that we didn't go after a quality back in the off season. That was a glaring hole and I hope we put an emphasis on it this year.

I'm almost of the opinion that Rahmir should be the feature back, but not sure how he'll hold up in league play.

 
ZRod said:
If Rhule truly wants home runs in the running game then it needs to be Johnson & Johnson Corporation back there like BRB said.

I think our biggest issue is Dowdell is a square peg in a round hole. We're running so much zone with him and that's not what he's good at. If he has to make a cut in the back field he's going to have a minimal gain or a loss. Rahmir is the back you want if we're going to run zone plays, he's shifty like Ameer was, and we saw last game how he stops on a dime. Like Mav said he also keeps defenses honest with his ability in the passing game.

That said, I'm not totally sold on Emmett.. He didn't have a great game last week, and I've been critical of his vision for awhile. There's more upside than Dowdell, but he often misses the obvious cutback lanes.
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We were sitting in the south east corner on Saturday.  There was a play at the north end (going south) where the RB got the ball, the hole opened up, he's gong for the hole and he makes what looks like a 90 degree turn right into the back of the linemen.  Everyone around me was like...WTF?

Don't know who the RB was, but it looked bad from our vantage point.

 
BigRedBuster said:
We were sitting in the south east corner on Saturday.  There was a play at the north end (going south) where the RB got the ball, the hole opened up, he's gong for the hole and he makes what looks like a 90 degree turn right into the back of the linemen.  Everyone around me was like...WTF?

Don't know who the RB was, but it looked bad from our vantage point.
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If it's the play I'm thinking of that was EJ. I think him and RJ do have the best home run threat but we really just don't have a great back right now. I feel like missing out on Kewan Lacy is something that is already hurting us and next year even more so if we can't land a good HB in the portal after this year. I just don't think we have anyone special on the roster currently. 

 
I know people have seen what NU has right now in DD, however when he was plucked from the transfer portal, it was thought of as a pretty nice coup. He was 4* coming out of HS and had some playing time on a roster that had NFL talent on it ahead of him (Bucky Irving et al). 

It isn't like they ignored this position, as selective as they were for portal additions. 

GO BIG RED!!!!

 
Mavric said:
Early in the season as well but I'd have to find it.
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Well while you're trying to find your quote, here's a quote from back in spring camp: “Today I saw a burst in him (Dowdell), I probably haven’t seen a long run from him in other scrimmages,” Rhule said. “It was great to see that from Dante, he’s had a good spring.”

So Rhule knew a long time ago that Dowdell doesn't break long runs very often, but still decided to make him the starter.

 
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