Saw this posted on the Rant ...these post regarding Dan schooling Pete and Nick on Saturday.....
Not quite finished but my takeaway is actually a little different than what I first thought.
The narrative the last 24 hours has been that we were "bullied up front". I don't think that's the case at all. What we were was tentative against the read option, and almost every single one of Florida's runs the 2nd half were read option plays where we had a man in position to attack the mesh point and he didn't do it. Secondary to that, HTT/Harris got sucked into the LOS mess repeatedly, so anytime that our OLB/DE (Sanders/Braswell/Young) forced a give on the read option play...........there was nobody behind them to follow and drop the ball carrier.
TL/DR - The DL wasn't great but they weren't terrible. The biggest issues were tentative play by the OLB on the Read Option (which may actually be taught, thinking the ILB/S will fill in behind and take the ball carrier once the give is forced). On top of that, just quite frankly poor play by the ILBs and Hellams. We looked like we just got frozen by the read play early and we never recovered. And Mullen, smartly, based his entire 2nd half offense around the read option (read options, play action off what looked like read option, speed option off a read option look, etc).
Ole Miss' entire offense is based around Read Options (with more of a slant towards RPO and not traditional old read option). The good news is we got a wake up call and tons of film on our failures now. The bad news is we looked like we didn't have any f'in clue what to do against it up the middle (ILB, S).
Per my review
Florida Rush Breakout
Option (Speed/Read) : 18 carries, 131 yards (7.3 YPA)
QB Scramble : 2 carries, 20 yards (10.0 YPA)
Straight Run (QB/RB) : 21 carries, 88 yards (4.2 YPA)
I'm missing 2 runs and 6 yards in there somewhere, but you get the gist of it.
- 20 carries for 151 yards on Options/Scrambles (7.6 YPA)
- 21 carries for 88 yards on straight run plays (4.2 YPA)
Saban teams have usually been known for strength up the middle. Nose-DT/MLB/Safeties. Yesterday that is where the gators ate our lunch.
#2 was a mess - bad read 1st step then could never get back in position. When he should force an outside release he kept allowing a quick release to the inside and got toasted.
#8 - about mid 2nd qtr UF started creating a false read 1st step by Harris then he was getting caught in the wash or out of position.
#10 - the false read issue that hammered Harris was also an issue for HT. his reaction was not as bad but it caused him to respond a little more slowly than normal and he would have to step back 2 or 3 steps to go around the OT attempting to seal block him. The result was and extra 3 plus yards beyond his normal reaction time to the ball carrier.
#50 was playing too high and got pushed or washed out of the play too often. This created quick hit holes for short yardage or a cut-back lane for bigger gains #94 did better at anchoring but never got much penetration.
All of these issues were generated intentionally by Mullen. Dan gave OM/AU/UGA a diagram to follow.
As noted, Florida only ran 5 speed/read option run plays in the 1st half. They ran 13 in the 2nd half.
Mullen either saw something in the 1st half or gameplanned multiple things to see how we reacted and then zeroed in on the read/speed play in the 2nd to effect our eyes and open the rest up.
The good news is - we won and we got great tape for veterans to review and work through. The bad news, what if it isn't fixable during the season for those 2 and their quick decision making?
Kiffin will absolutely test it early in 2 weeks. But with the added slant attached to it.
Another poster....
If you want to see what Mullen did to us with the option , go to 15 seconds left in the 1st qtr. This test play was repeated over and over the rest of the game and we never properly adjusted
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The interior DL has the dive back, tackle him every time.
There was no dive back
quote:
The DE/OLB has the QB
Due to a Mullen choice of formation vs our tendencies - #14/#2 had the QB and CB and Mike LB have the pitch. Will LB should have the clean-up if the pitch back comes back inside.
#31 was basically playing a 5-tech DE pushing inside the OT. OT bump and RG reach to take him out of the play. Too much power for #31 to over come in that phone booth. OT slipped past #31 to seal off the Mike LB (#10). #10 looped deep to get past the OT seal put #10 5 yards deeper than he should have been and 12 yards away from the pitch back he should be chasing.
CB playing bump and run on WR. That took him out of the play for run support. Will LB (#8) went the wrong way. Away from the flow of the play. LG now between him and the play. #8 can no longer have ANY impact on the play unless he catches up 15 to 20 yards down the field.
#14 (in some cases later #2 did the same mistakes) got caught in no-mans land between QB and pitch back. QB cut up field. First contact with the QB was 5 or 6 yards beyond the LoS when the FS (#3), Nose (#94), and SAM (#20) from opposite side of the formation converged on the QB.
Mike LB (#10) was 3 to 4 yards further down field still being pushed by the OT seal block. Will LB (#8) was still a good 4 yards trailing the SAM (#20) who had to run around him to get to the play.
Had the QB pitched the ball, the pitch back would likely have gotten 2 or 3 yards more than the QB did. The QB got about 8 yards gain on the play.
quote:
IMHO, all our offensive problems come back to the poor offensive line play.
#71 & #70 got overpowered a lot. #70 and #55 got beat with quickness a lot. #79 got abused with speed and then with power when he started trying to jump out in anticipation of the speed. #73 looked to have had a pretty good game.
Someone else needs to step up at LG and RT when we face DL power and we want to run.