Marshal -- what happened to him? Not enough talent or not enough hard work?
I don't remember a lot of spring hype for him last year. He was highly touted and local, so more are familiar with him and that makes sense. But last year the spring reaction was muted, with a lot of "he's not quick twitch but he was OK". Originally the thought was he could add deperately needed edge pass rush that was lacking two years ago and back. The 2016 hope was some playing time to spell starters and build for a bigger role this year. That didn't really pan out, but this is a new season. As a poster says below, he seems like a tweener.
In his defense, good lord is Onwenu a large human being
Onwenu is the perfect road grader for Harbaugh's run game. He's a large man moving other large men against their will. It's a thing of beauty. (although in this case he outweighs Marshall by quite a bit)
He doesn't even really slow down when they make contact. I think you tend to bin 270+ lb guys all into the "large" category, but there's almost a hundred lbs difference betweent these two guys.
Big Man Alert! Objects are closer than they appear. pic.twitter.com/OiGi3BdEg5
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If I see video of him moving Mone or Hurst that easily, I would say the run game will be improving. I think Bredeson makes at least all big ten this year. Interested to see how much Ruiz plays this year. Any news on newsome, because if he can play and at the level of last year we are more than set on the o-line IMO.
I'm the furthest thing from a D-line expert, but I can't see anything Marshall did that was glaringly bad. He did attack a little high, but it's not like he stood up either, and he kept moving his feet but Onwenu mirrored him and stayed square. He tried to use his hands to disengage but Onwenu drove into him and latched on. He just got beat.
DEs tend to have a bad habit of trying to flank linemen to the point of abandoning their run responsibilities for the glory of a TFL or sack. That basically gives any sort of off tackle run a free lane; sometimes you need to concede defeat and become Boring so your teammates have a fighting chance.
Marshall was at a huge disadvantage by design, so I don't think he was expected to win the rep. The drill was more to condition him to mitigate the inevitable loss and at least constrain the space. In really bad reps I've seen guys get pancaked because they tried too hard to fight off the block instead of eating it and making the RB thread a needle.
In that sense he did OK. Onwenu wound up dominating him giving the RB a truck lane, but Marshall was still on his feet and trying to fight his way back when the ball got by him. If he eats bench again, this shouldn't be the rep that cost him playing time.
Yup. It's hard to beat a guy that's got nearly 100lbs. on you.
Embed because I hate the player used in the link
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is metellus #14? just curious as the roster says 13 but he appeared to be deep safety on that last clip
Not sure. None of the EE guys were given 14 either. Metellus switched to 14 or it could be a walk-on that isn't on the roster yet.
He wore 14 last year and is also 14 in this clip from the first spring practice. Someone else could ALSO be 14 but he hasn't changed as of last week.
cool thanks. thats what i thought and i distinctly recalled 14 from the bowl game but the roster on mgoblue threw me off with 13
between Gary and Robinson, who does a good job challenging Gary. Who is he? Walk-on? Seems to have good size.
The boys Working.
He's a tweener apparently.
Not athletic enough to play the edge and too small to play inside.
Then again getting pushed around by Big Mike is nothing to be embarrased about...
Onwenu is special. Let's hope he comes in around 340 which for him is lean and mean.
JBB looked liked he was holding his own against Gary there. Also looked like he was getting a lot of reps next to bredeson as the LT. Good to see hopefully he can utilize his talent finally
Should I be ecstatic that JBB seems to hold his own against Gary? Or should I be concerned that Gary is not laying waste to all who dare cross his path?
First world problems.
Eh, I'd be ok with unstoppable force vs. immovable object.
Gary use his length to keep JBB's hands from getting inside and then stack and shed without a problem. That's a +1 on Gary
Can't get enough. Can't get enough.
Rashan keeping his headphones on his head made me laugh
Onwenu will eat someone on the field this year. Book it.
That would ruin his nutrition regimen. He'll simply kill someone then walk away eating a fruitcup.
In the last wide shot of the video, looked like a glimpse at the 1's on defense.
WDE - Winovich
NT - Mone
3T - Hurst
SDE - Gary
LB - McCray
LB - Wroblewski
Viper - Hudson
S - Metellus
S - Kinnell
CB - Long
CB - Watson
Interesting. Obviously it's very early. I'd be surprised if Wrobo gets the starting nod over Bush Jr., but we'll see. Also interesting to see Watson in over Lavert Hill, who seemed to be ahead of Watson towards the end of last year.
I love seeing Hudson out there.
And I don't mean in garbage time, which sometimes was the 2nd quarter.
I think they prefer to roll 8 D-linemen but also at least 3 linebackers for the two ILB spots. Robo may not start but if he doesn't lose ground by the end of fall the 3rd ILB can still expect to play 30-40% of snaps.
I don't recall much rotating honestly. Bush played a little. Wroblewski and Furbush barely played I think.
This year we will definitely see more linebackers getting involved.
Hill > Watson all day. Watson got torched on a consistent basis last year.
Hill, not Long. Long is standing at the top of the defense watching with Furbush. They were rotating in with Watson and Robo, respectively.
Nah. Unless Long and Hill switched numbers for some reason...
Is that the same play? Nevertheless, the top 3 corners are Hill, Long, and Watson, and Furbush is the SAM when we go big.
Sending a message to Bush
I don't think Harbaugh plays that game with his players...the best player wins. I'm sure this will be an on going battle until September.
Or he could have been dinged up 10 minutes earlier, or his shoes could have been untied or this is a random snapshot in time. Holy extrapolation batman.
Yeah, there is no reason to believe that a random shot of the defense from the second week of spring ball should be taken to represent the starting defense in the fall. There are a lot of practices between then and now.
You guys must be new around here. And a lot of fun at parties.
I am the party.