Sunday Morning Coaches (week 2): Pork, the other white meat edition

[RxCowboy]

This game was a tale of two halves. The first half we were getting blown out, the second half was one of the all-time great come-from-behind wins at Oklahoma State. Grades below are divided into halves. I'm only going to give the grades for now, I have to be at church very early. I'll post my observations later today.

Offense: F/B+

Defense: F/C

Special teams: -/A-

Coaching: F/A-
To put it simply, our half-time adjustments were better than theirs. Again. Gundy and staff do a great job of making changes at half-time. Dave and John made a point on the radio broadcast, this is the 20th time since 2014 that the Pokes have come back from 11+ points down to win.

Crowd: A
It was loud and rowdy when we needed it the most, in the second half.

Uniforms: A

Referees: B/F
Yes, I know our cousins to the South automatically criticize the refs even when they win. I've never mentioned the refs before that I can recall in one of these threads and I've certainly never graded them before, but they deserve mention here. Stopping the clock and resetting it to whatever imaginary point they came up with was bad. The illegal procedure call was worse. The tight end went into motion, which he is allowed to do. Our left tackle clearly didn't move until the defensive lineman entered the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do. That only leaves the d-lineman entering the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do and get back onsides before the snap, unless he causes an offensive player to move, and then it is a penalty on the defense. The refs blew that one and it nearly cost us.

Bowman's finger pistols: F
C'mon, Bowman, someone who has been playing the game as long as you have needs to know better. 1st and goal from the 7 looks a lot different than first and 10 from the 22.

 

[DxCowboy]

This game was a tale of two halves. The first half we were getting blown out, the second half was one of the all-time great come-from-behind wins at Oklahoma State. Grades below are divided into halves. I'm only going to give the grades for now, I have to be at church very early. I'll post my observations later today.

Offense: F/B+

Defense: F/C

Special teams: -/A-

Coaching: F/A-
To put it simply, our half-time adjustments were better than theirs. Again. Gundy and staff do a great job of making changes at half-time. Dave and John made a point on the radio broadcast, this is the 20th time since 2014 that the Pokes have come back from 11+ points down to win.

Crowd: A
It was loud and rowdy when we needed it the most, in the second half.

Uniforms: A

Referees: B/F
Yes, I know our cousins to the South automatically criticize the refs even when they win. I've never mentioned the refs before that I can recall in one of these threads and I've certainly never graded them before, but they deserve mention here. Stopping the clock and resetting it to whatever imaginary point they came up with was bad. The illegal procedure call was worse. The tight end went into motion, which he is allowed to do. Our left tackle clearly didn't move until the defensive lineman entered the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do. That only leaves the d-lineman entering the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do and get back onsides before the snap, unless he causes an offensive player to move, and then it is a penalty on the defense. The refs blew that one and it nearly cost us.

Bowman's finger pistols: F
C'mon, Bowman, someone who has been playing the game as long as you have needs to know better. 1st and goal from the 7 looks a lot different than first and 10 from the 22.

Coaching: 3rd time in the last 6 games we’ve been down 14 or more. That has to change.

Was only able to watch most of the first half in the airport on the way to Cozumel. Boarded my flight halfway expecting another UCF, Kstate result & the ensuing SEC crap that I’d hear from our UT friends here. But couldn’t watch on the plane due to the DirecTV/Disney fight. Landed, & we’d won the game!

 

[TheMonkey]

Was only able to watch most of the first half in the airport on the way to Cozumel

 

[PokeJ]

I hate the tri color uniform combo. We look like a junior high team that are dealt the left overs


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[JTOSU]

Referees: B/F
Yes, I know our cousins to the South automatically criticize the refs even when they win. I've never mentioned the refs before that I can recall in one of these threads and I've certainly never graded them before, but they deserve mention here. Stopping the clock and resetting it to whatever imaginary point they came up with was bad. The illegal procedure call was worse. The tight end went into motion, which he is allowed to do. Our left tackle clearly didn't move until the defensive lineman entered the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do. That only leaves the d-lineman entering the neutral zone, which he is allowed to do and get back onsides before the snap, unless he causes an offensive player to move, and then it is a penalty on the defense. The refs blew that one and it nearly cost us.

Bowman's finger pistols: F
C'mon, Bowman, someone who has been playing the game as long as you have needs to know better. 1st and goal from the 7 looks a lot different than first and 10 from the 22.

Ref did blow the illegal procedure call. The lineman called offsides and you can clearly see him call offsides and point to the Hogs as he is running to head Ref. Some other ref must have disagreed and in the ref huddle it was overturned.

Stopping the clock: Actually they got it mostly right. Whoever ran the play clock is the one who messed it up. They started play clock with 25 seconds instead of 40. Ref huddle this time got it mostly correct (although should have been reset to 1:31 instead of 1:34).

 

[KK10]

The refs didn't come across as biased IMO, they came across as unsure/inept. They didn't seem like they were confident in their decisions or knew WTF they were doing at a few key points.

 

[Big8+4-2-2+2-2+4+4]

Our zone run blocking is terrible. I think we gave SDSU too much credit last week. Now that we have 2 games for data points, it’s obvious that needs to be fixed, but at this point I don’t know it that’s possible.

Alan Bowman had no reason to showboat. Definitely cringey coming from a performance that was subpar. They sold out on stopping the run and he didn’t make them pay for it. The only thing that saved his grits was a lucky botched punt return.

Our success on offense relies on how many times we can get Presley, Owens, and Stribling the ball. Those guys are solid.

Any pass Arkansas threw that attacked our safeties hit for big yards. Almost exactly where SDSU was targeting last week. Our Cover 2 is getting picked apart.

Nick Martin was a beast that game. He single handily saved us on several drives.

Gundy said the only reason we won that game was due to conditioning and that makes sense. We only started getting real yardage on offense until late into the 3rd quarter.

We should not have won that game, but we were talented enough to take advantage of good fortune. If we play that bad in conference we will lose a few games.

 

[DxCowboy]

Lol, not exactly. This trip is usually the curse, ie S Alabama last year.

 

[zone2poke]

Love the thread title!

 

[OSU79]

Lol, not exactly. This trip is usually the curse, ie S Alabama last year.

Double flex.

He goes every year!

 

[RxCowboy]

The refs didn't come across as biased IMO, they came across as unsure/inept. They didn't seem like they were confident in their decisions or knew WTF they were doing at a few key points.

I didn’t say they were biased, I said they blew a couple of calls that hurt us.


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[OrangeFanatic2]

What an insane game.

Offense: Obvious issues in the run game. A lot of give and take here that we have to be able to take advantage of. SDSU and Ark both devoted 7-8 guys to the box to take away Ollie. At times we executed and took advantage and a lot of times we didn’t. However, there’s been times that they had 5-6 guys in the box and we still didn’t run the ball effectively. Have to correct some issues and I believe they will.

Bowman just needs to be consistent. He was off yesterday. Made some really nice reads/throws and then made some poor ones. Need him to play more like he did against SDSU and the 2nd half against Ark. He has delivered some dimes to both Stribling and Owens in the corner of the endzone that have been dropped (I believe over the last 2 games it would have been 5-6 additional TDs)

Defense: Nardo makes great halftime adjustments. However, we have to get better at the least making some of those adjustments in game before half. I realize that this is partially to blame on the O not staying on the field longer. I’m mostly worried about us still give up way too many chunk plays every single game. 1-2 maybe even 3 is understandable but 8-10+ per game is atrocious. Our tackling has been solid. At times in the first half we weren’t lined up right / a gap short. Our DL got out of their gaps several times in first half. Seemed to be missing our backside safety run fitter a lot during both half’s when we were playing with just a Mike LB. Several issues that need to be fixed if we want to be in Arlington. I think Nardo is a good coach but some of these common issues need to be resolved because it’s zero improvement from last year in these categories.

Gundy/Glass: Absolute culture win. Gundy is able to keep everyone level headed at all times in these games because he displays the same. I believe his postgame comment was 100% correct in that we were the better conditioned team and that’s how we won. Glass is the absolute best at his job in the country and I full believe that. So many of these wins like this over the last 20 years come as a result directly from Gundy/Glass and what they’ve established here in the program. It is really special.

After observing the rest of the games yesterday. Wow, college football is insane! So much parity throughout the entire country. I will gladly take this W, even if it was super ugly. Go Pokes, on to Tulsa.

 

[Georgia Poke]

Bowman just needs to be consistent.

In a discussion with Arky fans this past week, I told them that Bowman was streaky. He had WRs open. He just wasn't hitting them.

If only he had made them pay.

 

[ST2]

At my house there was:
Much cursing
Much screaming
Much alcohol consumption
Much cheering
Much relief
More alcohol

In that order.
Can't believe we won after looking at the stats.

Defense has to be better in the first half. Good adjustments at half, though. We got gashed at the line, and receivers running wide open across the middle continues to be a problem.

Bowman missed too many throws, especially in the first half. Some nice plays in the second half. Able to take advantage of the turnovers, which led to the win.

There was some discussion about whether we won, or if Arkansas lost.

Doesn't matter now. It all looks the same at this point.

2 - 0. GO POKES!!

 

[KK10]

I didn’t say they were biased, I said they blew a couple of calls that hurt us.


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My comment was in general; that’s why I didn’t quote anyone

 

[TheMonkey]

The biggest weakness of Nardo’s schemes seem to be the flats. We keep leaving holes there. A receiver/back getting the ball there is wide open and miles of space to run. QB scrambles are similar.

If we lose edge containment or don’t have an outside LB/CB who can slide to that zone, we get roasted. I’m not a schemes guy, so I don’t know the solution. I may not even be communicating this right. I just know this is a gripe with 3-3-5 based schemes.

 

[HacklemanPoke]

Bowman might be the most head scratching QB in some time (and we had Sanders). He makes some absolute NFL throws (the one to Presley w the penalty, the Presley TD that got called back and the one that Presley dropped) then makes a couple where you just think “how is this guy our QB. He also throws a very catchable swing/flat pass that lets our receivers/backs get extra yards. I am surprised we don’t throw those more. Gundy will get the running game fixed. We will start to run more outside.

Defense seems to be a pre snap issue. On the TE TD to tie it up I was watching 9. He was lined head up 20 yds off the TE. At the snap he immediately ran to the middle 1/3 and didn’t even check the te coming straight down the seam. Daniels dropped back expecting 9 to be over the top. Problem was he wasn’t. It was almost like he thought the wr split out had covered the TE making him ineligible. Just really unbelievable. Then in 2nd OT when they ran the back on the wheel and their QB dirted the ball to a wide open TD, our CB on that side saw the whole thing but at the snap just stood flat footed and the. Broke way too late.

My question is are we asking them to think too much? This isn’t typical of a Gundy team. He likes them to play.

Special teams are playing well. Heard them say post game that Kaak puts a funky spin on the ball. I was wondering why we weren’t punting Pahl when we needed to flip the field.

I continue to be more impressed w Gundy. His anal retention for details matter and in this game little things like using a different punter caused a muff and a score for us.

Nick Martin is proving to be an all timer. Kid is a football player. Just unbelievable he doesn’t get the recognition nationally. He’s just awesome.

BPS amazes me. Crowd yesterday was a bedlam type crowd. Helped us win the game.

 

[swamppoke]

Arkie had a great game plan out of the chocks. Unfortunately, AB got flustered, our OL forgot what run blocking was, and as a result, Nardo never had a chance to make adjustments before halftime. It's hard to do that with 77 yards and 3&outs from your offense. That's only a small bone to Nardo, as the base defense sucked eggs. The timely pick-6 kept us in the game rather than blown out. Can't really fault playcalling, as the O just did not execute.

We did adjust well at half. On both sides. LB's did a much better job of stopping the cutbacks. Whenever we pressured, it worked. When we didn't, it didn't. This chunk play thing is getting annoying, and has a habit of ass-biting. really think we should have been bringing it on that last Arkie drive, but we dint. AB got some drives going, and Arkie started getting tired. The flicker to the FB was a thing of great beauty.

My other comment is, I'm not all in on Nardo's defense, but he knows talent, and him bringing Ezeigbo in to cover for Oliver was a blessing. Dude played lights out, and is obviously flourishing with our strength and position coaching.

Gundy gets a lot of criticism, some well deserved, but; his teams don't quit so long as there is a chance. THAT is culture, and he owns it.

TL;DR - we got effing lucky.

 

[cowboyinexile]

Coaching: 3rd time in the last 6 games we’ve been down 14 or more. That has to change.

Was only able to watch most of the first half in the airport on the way to Cozumel. Boarded my flight halfway expecting another UCF, Kstate result & the ensuing SEC crap that I’d hear from our UT friends here. But couldn’t watch on the plane due to the DirecTV/Disney fight. Landed, & we’d won the game!

 

[Herecomesbullet]

This weeks Highlight Video has Dropped in case anyone might wanna check it out.