You don't want to be down 2 scores to Georgia Tech with Johnson's offense. I don't understand Kevin Steele's defensive strategy against Georgia Tech. They started taking away the perimeter option and giving away the middle. With Paul Johnson? That's just insane. That's like daring the fat kid to eat the cake. He's gonna do it all day.
:x Yeah, my one last hope of respectability for the ACC having a chance at a shot for the national championship is being bulldozed by Johnson's offense. I was hoping that Clemson watched the tapes from last week from UM vs GT to stop this offense but they took the night off....
Clemson just doesn't have a great defense, just an ok defense...they've given up a lot of points to some average teasm. Tonight the Ga.Tech offense was just on...
I just couldn't figure out what the hell Steele was doing on defense all night. You have to stop the option up the middle. Period. It's the first read. If you give it up, they won't ever get outside. Early, Tech's QB made bad reads going for the big play. Once they got him settled down on to take the belly play... Clemson was done for.. You could tell they were not prepared for that adjustment, and made the classic mistake of now crashing too hard on the belly thus leaving the perimeter option game open. When that happens, you're dead.
The goods news about the option is that it chews up yards and time. The bad news about the option is that it chews up yards and time. The best defense against the option is get a lead early because it is not a come from behind offense. If you don't do that the defense has to be very very disciplined. Each defender has to stay with his assignment no matter what.
KP, very true. still, it amazes me how some people seem to have no issue shutting down the option by simply making 'speed' changes to their defense. We had a poster here who I use to get in a pissing contest with quite often, but the guy knew what he was talking about (VolJeff, Jeff Ramsey)... Hell, this was years ago that he made the contention that option football was dead in its classic form due to the size and speed of SEC defenses. It pretty much went that way for a good long while until the read zone option brought that game back. The brilliance of what Paul Johnson does is that he brought the classic triple option back and he's dedicated to it. Lord help us if he ever gets a Tim Tebow/Cam Newton type of player. Still, Kevin Steele did not do a good job last night at all. As you said, the upside/downside to that game is pretty clear. The last thing you do is start by even risking the upside.
One thing that puzzles me is that Miami has had GT's number the last two years and has stopped them cold with almost embarrassing losses to Johnson's team. This coming from "very" undisciplined sub-par teams that fail to make it on the radar unless they pull out their bag of tricks from the hood to make headlines....?
Did UM get out to a lead quickly? When Alabama went to the option in the 70's it was unstoppable until other teams in the SEC started running it. Then when everyone was practicing against it every week the defenses got better at defending it. I always thought that should be able to throw from the option since it puts so much pressure on the corners.
The final score was 24-3 and I believe Miami was ahead 14-3 at half time. Both games played the last two years had GT rolling into the game after rolling over everyone else before playing UM. We have historically played well against the option but the last ten years have been very undisiplined which surprises me at our success...?
After you guys handled Ga.Tech so easily I figured UVA would be no problem...no doubt Al Golden has done some good things so far but I guess it's still a ways to go. The bad J'Courey Harris showed up for UVA.
I can't blame it on Harris they just came out so flat they have been nominated honorary members of the flat earth society. It was gut wrenching ugly as a Cane fan. Especially after dominating tech....?
Ralph, One thing you always have at Miami is outstanding and mobile defensive lineman along with super fast LBs. That's a bad matchup for an option offense.