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September 2, 2011

Boise State: 3 Questions

So, I guess I actually have to think about the game, right?  Here are the questions I have going into the Dome:
  1. Can we make them earn points?  Boise State is going to score points.  Get over it.  The key will be to keep them from scoring in five or fewer plays.  Their offense isn't tooled to handle long sustained drives.  They want to use the running game to set up 20+ yard passing plays.  I like our chances if this thing is 20-17, either way, going into the 4th.
  2. Can our coaches play to win, even if that means going away from a script? Look, we've all gone crazy over the balance thing.  If it were me, the first offensive play we run will have Mitchell or Branden on one side and Brown or King on the other and everybody running fly patterns, with Orson splitting the middle. Dare them to beat us.  If we find something that works, go with it until the defense stops us or the officials turn off the lights.  If we are more successful rushing four, go with it.  If we are consistently sacking Moore rushing 9, do it.  If Brandon Harton is getting seven yards a tote, give him the rock.  Take the fight to them, instead of waiting for the fight.
  3. Can we come back if we get down early? It is a fair question.  We don't need to confuse our (the fans') mindset with the team's. I know what the fans will do.  What will the team do? Honestly, Boise State lets up when they jump to big leads.  They did it against Virginia Tech, they did it in their loss to Nevada, they did it against Oregon State.  I expect them to jump to a lead.  Can we stick around long enough to win it?
A couple of things I'm looking for is being strong on 3rd and long and inside our own 20.  Calling any play in the book from any place on the field with any personnel in the game.  Not wasting TOs.  No missed assignments on defense.  Nothing fancy from the running backs.

Am I expecting too much?

I wrote it the other day and it was the most honest manifestation of what I think the program needs: We have to be totally and honestly committed to the single minded pursuit of playing the best football possible with the goal of humiliation and domination of Boise State.  Do that tomorrow, and we win.

TD

7 comments:

Scott said...

"Can our coaches play to win, even if that means going away from a script?"

This is a question that has to be asked of Bobo. Since he's taken over the play calling, I have questioned his imagination--or lack thereof. Bobo has not demonstrated call playing and has been very predictable, which I think was a major part of last year's downfall.

Let's hope that will all of the changes Richt has been trying to make in Athens, one thing he does is either convince Bobo to be more creative in play calling or start overriding Bobo and call the plays himself!

Unknown said...

Bobo is a dramatically better play caller than Richt was by any statistical definition you can dream up. It's not even close.

However, we didn't win from '01-'05 on offense. We won because we kept a defensive scoring average under 17 points per game and got the other team off the field on 3rd down.

In '09, we allowed around 25 pts per game. And last year was well over 20 as well.

Unknown said...

And back when Richt was calling plays, the team still gave a damn. Which was definitely not the case last year.

Tony Waller said...

Scott, I am talking about all of them. I agree with Paul that the Bobo offense is better statistically, but Bobo seems to get locked into a mentality that now we have to run X play. Grantham needs to put his best players on the field and take the fight to the offense(I'm thinking Colorado, Kentucky and Georgia Tech). We should rarely, if ever, fair catch a punt with the return guys we have. Either let it bounce and see what happens or field it and burn. Fake punt sometime. Rush 11 on a punt sometime.

And last year's down fall was a combination of poor run defense, uninterested offensive line play, the inability to leverage our favorable mismatches and the inability to stop or slow others from leveraging their favorable mismatches, something we used to be very good at.

Ginny said...

I wouldn't mind seeing some blocked punts, field goals, etc. Especially against Boise. We used to be good at that.

Skeptic Dawg said...

Td...All of the issues you listed above are a direct reflection upon the coaching staff. I posted this morning on another site that I hope our staff has pulled their heads from the sand and are capable of putting together a complete gameplan. This has been the issue for multiple years now, on one or both sides of the ball. Hence the reason I have become a skeptic. I see no middle ground for this season. It will either be corrected or it will remain broken.

RJ said...

BoBo is a terrible play caller he proved with same tired predictable plays as always. Run the ball on first down until you start losing pass the ball on early downs after we have already lost the game. Short passes on early downs would allow our young QB to get rhythm. Richt is mediocre leader at best he can't keep the players heads in the game at all penalty after penalty, Willie Martinez may have been only decent coach in the mix. Fire them all and start over.

 
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