Can anybody spare a LB or two?

Scott88 · Oct 4, 2014

While you're at it, a few WRs who will catch the ball would help too.
Ugh, the Aggies played a very poor game against a salty MSU team.
I suspect we would have come up short even if we pull in all those drops but might have had a chance.
The defense is playing with one sericeable LB. The rest are actively horrible.
The line is actually doing OK, but when no one fills the correct gap...
Ugh...
I didn't think we'd win them all, but it was fun to be overranked for a while.

kp · Oct 4, 2014

Scott, yep Hill did not have a good day and too many dropped passes. :?

IrishCorey · Oct 4, 2014

So Miss State has blown out LSU and Texas A&M in consecutive weeks and they did so this week without their center... maybe it's the Dogs turn in the sun?

Don Ballard · Oct 4, 2014

Scott,

Life is much more pleasant when we win! :roll: I know I felt terrible after that loss to Virginia Tech here in Columbus.

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 5, 2014

You get Ole Miss at home...redemption is just 6 days away!

Scott88 · Oct 5, 2014

This is the weirdest year ever.
The Aggies played lights out their first game.
Precise and deadly.
QB on target and on time with every throw.
WR's had ZERO drops.
ZERO penalties.
Since then... complete regression.
We know it CAN be done... they have six days to figure out where it went.
Of course they'll have 107K roaring Aggies there to help them.

Hopefully Miles Garrett can do what the Bama front didn't - Hit Bo, and bring out his BAD BO side.
8)

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 5, 2014

I think you guys can beat Ole Miss. Obviously they are good and it's not like they have never been in a big loud stadium before....but I think you guys are due and I think they might suffer from game of the century (for them) hangover.

:twisted:

kp · Oct 5, 2014

Scott, Ole Miss has a good defense but if you look at the stats, Alabama beat them in just about all of the stats, so they are vulnerable, but you need to have no turnovers and few stupid penalties. Easy huh? :wink:

IrishCorey · Oct 6, 2014

Provided A&M doesn't implode, I think they house Ole Miss.

Scott88 · Oct 6, 2014

This is some good stuff from one of the guys in the pay area of AgTimes.com.
He doesn't mind if I share here.

Well we find ourselves at the mid-point of the season and in virtually complete offensive gridlock. Let me share with you guys what I've seen as this 1st half of the season has unfolded. I've decided to call it the "Rice Effect" as we have David Baliff and his staff to thank (sort of, other D coordinators were bound to stumble on it eventually).

We were euphoric with the road super nova at Columbia. A great season opening win against a good, though overrated South Carolina team. USC came into the opener with a clear defensive approach centered on forcing our offense to complete underneath and execute. Lots of two-deep safety and cover 3 looks. A few blitzes to mix it up that our O-line handled in a rocking chair. This approach left the intermediate zones, both middle and sideline, completely exposed and gave room along the line of scrimmage for unfettered execution of our sideways passing game. This played directly into the strength of our offense, our receivers did not have to be meticulous with catching the ball at 95+% on short comeback routes. We found open looks all over the place hitting receivers on the move and high on the body where size and athleticism could take over and we could move the ball in large chunks almost at will. USC was woefully unprepared to adjust their beleaguered secondary approach. Spurrier was pissed. We were ecstatic.

Two games later, Rice showed up. Nothing to lose, sharp staff. What Rice put together would largely become the blueprint for all that have followed. Formationally, Rice gave us some variety, some cover zero looks, cover one press, cover 2 tight. What they did consistently, regardless of the look was a heavy dose of safety robber type looks. Baliff decided they were going to do everything they could to create traffic in the intermediate zone. They were also going to liberally sprinkle in tight umbrellas to harass our bubble, lateral game. The final advantage, is this strategy allows the safety's to be tighter in box run support. The obvious weakness is the deep outside and late deep middle. Baliff was wiilling to live with the lower percentage throws and hope we would be less willing to turn to that part of the game given Kenny's youth/skillset and our desire to stay "in the offense". For a half, he was right until we ultimately opened it up and our better athletes won out.

Since then, our opponents have largely adopted similar strains of the Rice approach, but with better athletes and better complimentary offenses. Watching from the stands in Arlington, and particularly in Starkville it was painfully, cripplingly, debilitatingly apparent that single man coverage on the deep outside was all over the menu. The Bulldogs absolutely refused to remove the intermediate zone traffic and they jumped our lateral game like it was a Ruth's Chris buffet. I thought our O-line actually played well, we were effective in the run game and protection was good until the game became decidedly uphill. The truly painful thing to watch is the total lack of vertical aggressiveness and playing right into their defensive game plan. It doesn't even compliment our talent at wide-out, we've made abjectly clear the fact that we will not reliably handle the ball, but we can contest the ball in the air against man coverage. We have inconsistent, but big and athletic wide outs, so at least make their catches count and at least force the defense to acknowledge that you might challenge them. Prescott made a living throwing contested deep balls against man coverage, it was, for 3 quarters their best offense.

Bottom line, we simply cannot continue working into crowded short and intermediate zones manned by SEC athletes. The deep sideline needs to re-emerge in this offense. Until the coverage look is forced to change, we should go there virtually every pass play. It will lead to some short :30 second 3 & outs, but, with our athletes it will also yield big plays and quick strike scores, along with some badly needed excitement and momentum.
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Can anybody spare a LB or two?

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Can anybody spare a LB or two?

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