I love what they do offensively. They show you a lot going East to west. Everything is motion and misdirection. And they do a really good job of having plays build off each other. So it’s difficult to identify what is coming at you because it looks like the previous play, meanwhile it’s a throw to the TE across the field. It’s really good stuff and difficult to defend, while not being difficult to install.
Their passing game against Miami wasn’t really great until Miami had to cover Tutu with a safety. And then he went off. We need to keep him contained.
We need a lot of TFLs to force them to have to throw the ball. Everything feeds off of their stretch play. Even with a few minutes left in the game and down two scores, they were running that stretch play. They do not want to have to come out of it. We need to get them out of it.
Defensively I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like them. They run a 3-4, but run it with small players. There’s no lane clogging nose tackle. It’s a bunch of under 300 pound gap shooters. It would be like running a 3-4 with three Kanceys
They also ran a lot of zero high safe looks against Miami. We have to take advantage of that. How? I’m not sure. On one play Lashlee motioned the WR to draw in the safety near the line pre-snap, and post-snap pulled the guard like it was a run and had the QB take off forward like a QB power run so the LBs and that safety came forward, then had the QB step back and throw it to a wide open RB. It was more creativity than Whipple is capable of on his best day. So I’m not sure, “just do what Miami did” is an answer to how we exploit it?
Ideally I’d like to see the OL plow through their undersized 3-4. Slow the pace of the game down so it’s not a scoring fest. And if they bring their safety down so there is nobody on the backside, our WRs just have to win the one on one matchup before the pressure gets there.
Pickett needs to not get happy feet and bail, because I really think the plays will be there. Our WRs should be able to win these matchups a lot. He just can’t take off the second the pocket moves any.