MGN Film Room: HOD Run Game

[aztecskin]

http://meangreennation.com/hod-recap-nt-run-game/

NT had some success early but Army's linebackers blew up some plays at huge moments. 

[Harry]

Wow man good stuff here.  Love the detail.  Actually makes me feel a lot better about the play calling and personnel.  Cannon Maki is just a RS soph and he could be really good if he keeps improving.  I also saw Jordan do some good things.  We will miss Sam Rice.  Your analysis reinforces that this coaching staff knows what they are doing, we just need to improve the personnel and I believe that will happen. 

[ttunt1970]

Harry we will miss Rice, but remember we have the starter in Barr coming natural center!

[Christopher Walker]

Fantastic analysis.

[aztecskin]

On 12/31/2016 at 0:00 PM, Christopher Walker said:

Fantastic analysis.

Thanks! 

[Aldo]

It was frustrating not to be able to see the same success on the ground that we saw during the first meeting, but Morris did relieve some of that pressure.

If it weren't for Morris, could've been a long[er] day.

[aztecskin]

1 hour ago, Aldo said:

It was frustrating not to be able to see the same success on the ground that we saw during the first meeting, but Morris did relieve some of that pressure.

If it weren't for Morris, could've been a long[er] day.

Army really was shooting the gaps to stop the run. As it was, we did a good job of still getting yards. The offense was moving, which is encouraging but still was not as productive as it could have been because of penalties and mistakes. Another year and a new set of players in here should help improve that some. 

While I agree that Morris was solid, I think he was simply doing his job. He didn't make any overly impressive plays. I mean that in the best possible way. He didn't _have_ to fit passes in (especially) tight windows, but just made easy throws for a major college QB. There were huge passing lanes because of Army jumping to stop the run and keeping soft zones behind it. 

If you want to nit pick, when he was actually pressured (final two pass plays for example) he looked a bit panicky, and rushed his reads. 

 

[greenminer]

3 hours ago, aztecskin said:

If you want to nit pick, when he was actually pressured (final two pass plays for example) he looked a bit panicky, and rushed his reads. 

I thought there were a couple questionable throws into double coverage.  Seemed to be trying to force something.

[aztecskin]

1 minute ago, greenminer said:

I thought there were a couple questionable throws into double coverage.  Seemed to be trying to force something.

Agree. The interception was a throw into a tight window. He got hit and that caused him to float it a bit, but there was little room for error there. 

On at least one (that I can remember) throw to Smiley he fit it into a tight window in a zone. That's the kind of thing that is a Nice To Have from the starting QB, and one that NFL types, better QBs can make regularly. 

At the lowest level, we want our QB to run the offense, read the defense and hit the open dude. Mason did this for the most part. Morris was a little slow doing this early, but he mostly tired to do the next thing.

The next level is checking into *better* plays, finding the open dude in stride, on time, and exploiting mismatches. Mason did this when he had a clean pocket. Morris did so also, and  I think when he wasn't pressing he was able to do some good things. Some of his struggles may have been WR mistakes. Morris checked into good plays a time or two.

The highest level includes making NFL type throws, making plays, turning losses and no-gains into positive gains and regular plays into Big Plays. Outside of the Fine's running, this was lacking. Morris had one scramble in the bowl, but mostly was flustered when pressured.

I think Morris was right on that second level at his best, but it was a struggle. He would try to force a pass in there. I guess you could say he was trusting his guys to make a play, but . . . we really needed a guy to just run the offense and not throw 50/50 balls.