Questions after two games

[Chairman of the Board]

The game day thread has kind of died down so I wanted to start a discussion about some thoughts:


First, I'm thrilled we won. Arkansas was much better than expected and we found a way to win, BUT let's be honest, Arkansas also imploded on itself.
In the past, our "clunker" game meant we lost big (see USA, UCF last year), so to get out this with a win is huge. Proud of the team for that.

To point out the good: Martin and Rucker were all over the place in the 2nd half. Bowman and Pressley made huge throws and catches. Kendall Daniels obviously made the huge play at the end, and the play before, but otherwise still struggles. Dunn called an excellent 2nd half. Nardo found a way to get stops in the 3rd quarter to keep us in the game.




Here's my questions that I think need answered if we want to be a playoff team:

--Can Nardo come up with a better first half game plan instead of just making (pretty good) adjustments at half time? He gets badly outschemed in the first half often. Coming back from big defecits will eventually bite us.

--Will we ever solve our secondary bust issues? Neither of the huge plays they hit in the 4th quarter were complicated routes, yet guys were running free at the most pivotal time. Green also missed a few that would have been huge plays, including the wheel route to RB in double OT.

--Will Dunn and Dickey figure out how to run the ball? Teams are stacking the box, yes, but Dunn's usual answer is usually to just run Pressley in motion and run inside zone or power into a very outnumbered box. We do a lot of pre snap shifting, which looks cool, but if you notice the defense is rarely confused or even has to move much to keep their leverage.

--Will Gundy ever get more aggressive at the end of a game and try to get first downs instead of just running it 3 times for little gain? (the answer is no)

Anyway, the big thing was that we won. But many of these issues are lingering from last season. The team really improved from this point on last year, so if we do it again we should be in great shape.

 

[Georgia Poke]

The only consistency about Bowman is his inconsistency. The WRs were open. He wasn't hitting them and forcing Arky to defend the pass. Execution was the problem, not the plan.

Defense on the other hand, a 3-man front just isn't going to cut it (unless you bring heat from elsewhere).

 

[H2Orange]

Not to make excuses, but we only had one game to watch with Green at QB and Petrino as OC. Petrino is one of the best offensive minds in college football. Arkansas has a lot of talent on the offensive side. Their starting lineup included transfers from A&M, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan State, and Utah.

Green had all day to throw on many of those big plays. We just don't have a great pass rush without bringing extra players. We are going to have to get creative if Oliver is done for the year.

 

[Poke Rocker]

The game day thread has kind of died down so I wanted to start a discussion about some thoughts:


First, I'm thrilled we won. Arkansas was much better than expected and we found a way to win, BUT let's be honest, Arkansas also imploded on itself.
In the past, our "clunker" game meant we lost big (see USA, UCF last year), so to get out this with a win is huge. Proud of the team for that.

To point out the good: Martin and Rucker were all over the place in the 2nd half. Bowman and Pressley made huge throws and catches. Kendall Daniels obviously made the huge play at the end, and the play before, but otherwise still struggles. Dunn called an excellent 2nd half. Nardo found a way to get stops in the 3rd quarter to keep us in the game.




Here's my questions that I think need answered if we want to be a playoff team:

--Can Nardo come up with a better first half game plan instead of just making (pretty good) adjustments at half time? He gets badly outschemed in the first half often. Coming back from big defecits will eventually bite us.

--Will we ever solve our secondary bust issues? Neither of the huge plays they hit in the 4th quarter were complicated routes, yet guys were running free at the most pivotal time. Green also missed a few that would have been huge plays, including the wheel route to RB in double OT.

--Will Dunn and Dickey figure out how to run the ball? Teams are stacking the box, yes, but Dunn's usual answer is usually to just run Pressley in motion and run inside zone or power into a very outnumbered box. We do a lot of pre snap shifting, which looks cool, but if you notice the defense is rarely confused or even has to move much to keep their leverage.

--Will Gundy ever get more aggressive at the end of a game and try to get first downs instead of just running it 3 times for little gain? (the answer is no)

Anyway, the big thing was that we won. But many of these issues are lingering from last season. The team really improved from this point on last year, so if we do it again we should be in great shape.

That sounds like the same set of questions I had last year after the Iowa State game when we stood 2-2! I have to go back in the archives to see if I can find it LOL! I think I said something like WE ARE DOOMED AT QB!!!

 

[Duke Silver]

Kendall Daniels obviously made the huge play at the end, and the play before, but otherwise still struggles. Dunn called an excellent 2nd half. Nardo found a way to get stops in the 3rd quarter to keep us in the game.

Did you see we had Oliver and Kirkland in on the dline at the same time? They blew that up from the beginning and Kendall was cleared for smashing. Kirkland was there too being held and double teamed. The two giants should get huge credit.

A big issue I have is we should be more versatile against teams that offer different looks. We should have had two tackles and two ends more earlier in the game. I als get we thought that they would spread and air it out more. That was only in the 1st quarter though. Since the end of the quarter on we dominated the game

 

[OrangeFanatic2]

Did you see we had Oliver and Kirkland in on the dline at the same time? They blew that up from the beginning and Kendall was cleared for smashing. Kirkland was there too being held and double teamed. The two giants should get huge credit.

A big issue I have is we should be more versatile against teams that offer different looks. We should have had two tackles and two ends more earlier in the game. I als get we thought that they would spread and air it out more. That was only in the 1st quarter though. Since the end of the quarter on we dominated the game

Kirkland does a great job of demanding and taking on double teams. However, he gets out of his gap a lot of the time also, which creates space for the backs to cut, leading to chunk plays in the run game. All of the defensive issues I’ve seen so far this season seem to all be ones that can be fixed. However, what I’m concerned with is that some of these are the same issues as last season.