I had to take a day or so to process this one, nobody should be posting in the state that I was in Saturday night. My immediate reaction is this : Unacceptable, Unforgivable. Here’s what I got after a day to cool off.
Starting with Offense. If we’re going to run a 2 QB system, we have to give them plays that suit their individual strength. Don’t have Travis come in and call him plays where he’s going to sit in the pocket. We rarely get the result we want out of that. I don’t think Milton played particularly well or particularly bad. Aside from the dropped snap and the pick, there weren’t any real detrimental plays. I still think if we want this to look like a normal Offense, we start Milton. But no matter who starts, we can’t get cute. We have to attack defenses.
I could go on for days about WRs, but you guys saw what I saw. The 3 best throws of the night we’re all dropped. 1 of them is a TD, the other 2 get us into the red zone. Parchment looks lost, Helton was invisible after the drop.
Corbin and Ward need all the carries. I know the rbc approach keeps people fresh, but I think Corbin and Ward combined for something like 7 ypc. Why is Toafili in the game averaging 1.8 ypc in crucial situations?
Can we PLEASE stop running wildcat. Flexing Milton out wide is making it 10 vs 11. Nobody needs to cover him, and we had success handing the ball off.
Offensive Gameplan— there was none. I honestly think that when Helton broke wide open, MN and Dilly thought they would be able to do whatever they wanted all night. I recall 3 short yardage situations that we threw deep when we’re averaging 7YPC. The wildcat was wildly ineffective. There was no structure to our play calling. Jacksonville State did not want to deal with our athletes and we didn’t force them to. The corners were 10 yards off almost all night and we didn’t take advantage of that. The slant is probably the hardest route to defend in football and I can’t remember the last time I saw FSU throw a slant on an RPO when the backers cheat up. It would’ve been there all night on Saturday. The players didn’t play well, but the failures in preparation and game planning are more egregious than anything the players did.
As far as defense goes, for 3 quarters I was happy with them. At least for their effort. The 3rd down shortcomings are tiresome and there’s a lot to clean up especially in the secondary. But I honestly think Fuller decided that we can play man the whole game and be fine with our athletes against theirs. We are not there yet. I thought it was very apparent that Zerrick Cooper struggled mightily under pressure, but I didn’t see a us dial it up nearly often enough. 3rd and 17 last weekend messed with Fullers head. I have no confidence that Fuller is not in over his head. I hope he bounces back and proves me wrong. The last thing I’ll say about defense is how many dropped interceptions do we have in the last 4 years?? Whether it’s Jay, Dix, or Akeem Dent like usual, there comes a point when you stop congratulating them for breaking up the pass. Catch the dadgum ball.
I know all that sounded really negative, but Im not ready to give up on this team. Norvell has to re-earn the confidence of this fan base now. This loss has a chance to be career defining for him. However, if he can get the team to respond the right way and win ball games, he can make this season career defining in a positive way.
The only positive I can bring from Saturday night, is that it was clear our players were better and it hasn’t looked that way often the past few years. I even felt that way vs ND. We have guys on this team that can win us ball games. Johnson, K Thomas, Sydney Williams, Travis Jay, Corbin, Ward, McClain, plus a bunch more are ball players and we have to put them into better positions. I truly believe that the ND performance is more likely to define this team than the JSU loss.
As always Noleblooded, rain or shine, Milton or Travis, Norvell or Taggart, I’ll be chopping it up whether we’re 10-2 or 0-12. Stay the course Nole fans, this program will never be dead.
