national champs baby
Another Game Theory Debacle
Another weekend of pulling my hair out watching coaches or players making the most amazingly stupid decisions. Ryan Mundy is my hall of famer for biting onthe 2nd and 1 in The Game in 06. This weekend was great.
Fat Bastard Genius Weis-Up 14-0 they stop Mich near midfield. Mich faces a 4th and 2 a place to be wary of the fake. We line up and ND calls time out, Mich still goes thru half their play before they hear the whistle so you see the roll out punt. The ND brain trust sees all this talks about it and they overload the formation to the other side Zoltan rolls out no one is there and 1st down. Simply amazing.
Not sure of the coverage I think cover 3 on ND's bomb. What in the name of Mundy is Harrison thinkin?? ND hasn't ran the ball in 2 years we have a great front 4 they don't need safeties in run support. How he can take a false step on 1 and 10 is beyond me just terrible. If it's the Lions and your front 7 is getting blown up yeah maybe, but the ND rush game in the 1st qtr come on.
Romeo Crennel last night is too much down 10-3 with 5 minutes at the Pit 30 he hands off to J. Lewis then huddles on 2nd down hand to J. Lewis then huddle. 3rd down incomplete pass. It's 4th and 6.....then he brings the FG team out??? Are you kidding?? Let's see what are the better odds make a 4th and 6 or make a 40yd fg in a slopped up field with wind and rain, kick off into the wind and don't allow Pitt 1 1st down then march 70yds with no timeouts and get a td which you haven't acomplished in the 1st 58 minutes of the game. Fire him now.
The decision which actually has some merit to debate was Shannahan going for 2 and the win. For the situation I love it. His D had stopped no one in the 2nd half so instead of letting your game rest on a coin flip he took matters into his own hands. Most times I 'm not sure I would agree, but given his d's perfoprmance I liked it. Then with 24 seconds and no time outs they allow SD to complete a pass and get out of bounds adn was an inch from getting into fg position. No idea how that happens...
So far from Rich Rod I did not like allowing Sheridan to throw against Utah at the end of the half and swinging a pass to Minor seemed kinda senseless on the 1st drive but so far not a lot of data in yet.
Rod did fall into the same thing I see a lot of coaches fall into when games are getting out of control. We should have went for it in the 4th qtr when we were way down. I think a lot of times coaches are worried about giving away points and getting blown out. Chances were very slim for a comeback, 3 scores with 7 minutes to go, but there is nothing to lose other than some meaningless scores just keep going for it.
Thanks for your time, let me know your thoughts or other boneheaded play you saw this week.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:31 AM | 
The power of 72.
The power of 72.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:41 AM |
72 solved
72 solved
When I signed on to aol. I entered my nickname handed down thru my brothers friends. Knowing Mike wouldn't be unique. To my amazement Ziff was taken, even more shocked Ziff1 was taken Ziff2 was taken then I thought outside the box. I'm a golfer at the time my best score was 72. Bam!!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:34 PM |
Ah, the days of AOL
Ah, the days of AOL
and funny nicknames. The reason why I get asked once a week, "why is your nickname sdogg1m?"
September 16th, 2008 at 7:09 AM |
That was fortunate for you.
That was fortunate for you.
I am really not supersticious (sp?) but I believe in the power of 72.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:01 AM |
Tressel always does play action on that down and distance
Tressel always does play action on that down and distance
Mundy biting on the play action in 2006 has always made me crazy.
I thought RR did a great job on Saturday. The offense moved the ball well. The fake punt was great. The blocked punt was great. That kind of stuff never seemed to happen under Carr. I don’t really get the criticism for the swing pass to Minor. That’s not supposed to be a backward pass so it’s perfectly safe. It’s hardly RR’s fault that a bunch of freshmen fumbled in the rain. Those games will happen and it’s not surprising we had one in this teams first road game. They fought back but were up against fate. This loss leaves me much less disgusted than 2004 or 2005 where it seemed like the coaches didn’t particularly want to win.
Crennel botched plenty last night. At the end of the first half, they should have called their last TO after the 9 yard gain and preserved 23 seconds. That gives you two endzone shots before you kick the FG on 4th. That was all time would allow so the first down didn’t really matter. After the Browns got the first down they needed to use the remaining 8 seconds to kick the FG. I thought Crennel’s mistake at the end of the game was taking 7:30 of the 4th quarter to kick a FG that left them still needing a TD. On the last set of downs they ran on first and second. Tick tock, Romeo, you need two scores. Stop with the 3 play 10 yard increments. Going on 4th was probably the play that gave them the best chance of winning from there on out.
Give it to Wheatley!
September 15th, 2008 at 9:59 AM |
Agree 100% with
Agree 100% with
the RAC comments in the Browns game. Two gamse in a row that RAC makes a stupid decision. Really, Lewis who is averaging 2 yards a run, lets run him 2 times in a row and leave 3rd and long. DA can tip off the slant to Edwards we all knew was comming then we can kick the FG. Hey , you didnt want points on the board? But hey if they hold them to 3 and out they can drive the 70 yards with <2 min and 0 timeouts just like the OP said. So whatever.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:38 AM |
Harrison had the top half of
Harrison had the top half of
Harrison had the top half of the field (from the TV camera angle) on that bomb. They were in Cover 2. That TD to Golden Tate was all Morgan Trent and/or Steve Brown.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:13 AM |
Hopefully Brian has the
Hopefully Brian has the
Hopefully Brian has the reply on his UFR in any case I would love to know what the coaches are telling them in film study all week. The ND line is/was horrid they may be improving, but going into that game I can't imagine the coaches were worried that they would have to get the safteies involved in the run game so to bite is inexcuseable. Maybe Gsimm has some insight on what keys they are looking at. In rudimentary HS ball FS position I was taught unless I was blitzin I wasn't allowed to make a move forward until the ball passed the LOS.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:05 AM |
Re: safety play
Re: safety play
I thought that was Brown that bit on the PA as well. Gsimmons seemed to think it was Trent's fault, based on the coverage, that he shouldn't have been relying on safety help. Dunno. Either way, it was clear that Trent, Brown, and Harrison weren't on the same page.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:25 PM |
like i have said
like i have said
it looked like shafers 2 match defense... which is a two read safety robber defense.... no number 2 to browns side, so he is run support, (notice his allignment closer to the los on the weakside then the strong safety who has a number 2 that could go vertical) and or help underneith of number 1. that was what RR was refering too when he says "some might have looked like stevies fault" its tough being a safety, becasue most fans that have no idea what defense is being taught, see the closest man to the ball and assumes he was the one responsible for that play.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:11 AM |
it also
it also
looks like it may be a cover three roll concept, in which case the other safety didnt get to the middle of the field, either way, trent should have squeezed it. stll dont see it as browns fault... that would also expalin his tighter to the los allignment, in that case his job would be to get under number 1 working towards the flats....
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 AM |
thanks
thanks
Tthanks for the input. I kept hearing people trashing Brown and couldn't understand why. He had some problems, but unless he got the defense wrong I couldn't have been to blame. I think you explained it well. Trent has to shoulder some of the blame, I thought it was a cover 3 with the corners bailing and Harrison in the middle. That is why I blamed Harrison for not getting depth, but I can see it both ways.
I'm still a little frustrated by the lack of jamming the WR at the LOS. I was hoping for more of that in Schafers defense. I'm continually frustrated by the lack of contact by the db's early in the route..especially in college when you can beat em to hell before the ball is thrown. I used to love playing cb in a zone or with safety help knowing I could mug the guy and disrupt the timing of the routes. The faster the guy the closer I wanted to get... a little bump evens the speed up real fast. Any thoughts on that gsimm??
Ahh, the luckiest number in the universe! Tell me why you picked it in your handle. I need to know.