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Running game woes

sackman

sackman

Hates the Counting Crows.
Club Member
I was at the game in person, so I didn't get the benefit of any on-air analysis. But I'm thinking that some of the reason for our running game difficulties might have come from the fact that CSU didn't respect our passing game. And why should they? We've had a crappy passing game for years, and we're starting a new QB in a new system. If I was the CSU DC, I probably would have made CU beat me through the air as well. I didn't pay close enough attention to it to see, but was CSU often in an 8-man front? It's hard to run against that. At least we made them pay.
 
Running game and pass rush worry me. PAC-12 schools will still shred us if we can't get a rush from the front
 
Unleash Hell said:
Running game and pass rush worry me. PAC-12 schools will still shred us if we can't get a rush from the front
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The pass rush doesn't concern me right now. We played CSU straight up with four down linemen. No blitzes to speak of. As the game wore on, CU's DL really started to put some pressure on the QB. I guess he's a mobile QB, so they didn't want to commit too many players to rushing him, which would give up big plays (remember Hawaii?). I thought they played a very solid game on DL. Very solid.
 
sackman said:
I was at the game in person, so I didn't get the benefit of any on-air analysis. But I'm thinking that some of the reason for our running game difficulties might have come from the fact that CSU didn't respect our passing game. And why should they? We've had a crappy passing game for years, and we're starting a new QB in a new system. If I was the CSU DC, I probably would have made CU beat me through the air as well. I didn't pay close enough attention to it to see, but was CSU often in an 8-man front? It's hard to run against that. At least we made them pay.
Click to expand...

Yeafh, they loaded the box to stop the run and hoped their relatively fast LBs could disrupt the passing game as well. They couldn't do both. They did a decent job on the deep balls but had no answer for the short and mid-range throws.

Best pass-catch of the day was DD's TD. That was the best pass thrown by a Buff QB, since Cody beat OU hitting Dusty Sprague.

DD also showed some saavy, drawing that PI penalty on a ball he was unlikely to catch. I'll have to watch it again to see if was catchable.
 
Buffenuf said:
Yeafh, they loaded the box to stop the run and hoped their relatively fast LBs could disrupt the passing game as well. They couldn't do both. They did a decent job on the deep balls but had no answer for the short and mid-range throws.

Best pass-catch of the day was DD's TD. That was the best pass thrown by a Buff QB, since Cody beat OU hitting Dusty Sprague.

DD also showed some saavy, drawing that PI penalty on a ball he was unlikely to catch. I'll have to watch it again to see if was catchable.
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Reminded me of pesavento tossing the ball over to Grahm in the 62-36 game. Not sure why....just a great touch pass there at the right time. As far as the running game, we need more playmakers there, but all in all, my biggest fear was the OL being porous, and not blocking CSU at all. All in all, not many stops behind the line, some QB pressure, but not enough to rattle Wood, and I have ot say I was pleasantly surprised. Now to find a way to get backups some experience and start to build depth.
 
Running game was effective in the 1st half. CSU realized that we couldn't threaten the seam in the passing game and jammed the run with their ILBs. Kasa would have run wild yesterday. We needed to get to their defensive edge in order to run and Powell wasn't the guy to do that. Jones doesn't seem to be able to make anyone miss, so unless he can get a head of steam untouched he's not all that effective. We need someone to step up and be our speed back. After watching the replay late last night, I did come away impressed with the job that both Powell and Jones did in pass protection. And Jones also catches the ball well.
 
Jones does not have any vision. Consistently misses holes and does not have the explosiveness to make people miss.
 
PIAT
- Running game (in general): not sure what to think. Maybe it was the perfect compliment for what the coaches wanted for this particular game...get a few short yardage first downs. Maybe its what this staff wants from our running game in general. Maybe it's strategic, knowing that other teams will watch film of us displaying absolute air supremacy which will cause them to back out of the box....and BOOM! PowPow/Abron/Crowder/fill in the blank. And maybe it's just not that good
 
I am not positive that Powell is 100 percent. This is just spitballing.

Maybe we saw so much Tony Jones because the CU coaches are playing the long game and trying to limit Powell's touches against CSU in order to save him for future games when his services are more necessary?
 
Skidmark said:
I am not positive that Powell is 100 percent. This is just spitballing.

Maybe we saw so much Tony Jones because the CU coaches are playing the long game and trying to limit Powell's touches against CSU in order to save him for future games when his services are more necessary?
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sorta, but if you lose to CSU, that kinda sets a pretty negative trajectory for the season. Even Abron's few rushes were better than Jones (effort and effectiveness-wise)
 
RalphMalph said:
Anyone with an informed opinion have one about Oline play?
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It was good and about what was suspected from those who had some confidence in this group. Harris played great. Nembot was inconsistent. Munyer and Crabb shook off some cobwebs and performed effectively. Handler read the defense and communicated well, but couldn't do much at the point of attack. No depth played.
 
As mentioned earlier CSU didn't respect our passing attack focusing on stopping the run and daring us to beat them in the air. Not knowing what they would be facing in M2 coming in it made some sense but it also cost them.

CSU also is somewhat set up to stop the run. They know that they aren't going to recruit big, agile DTs that can play both the run and rush the passer, just aren't many of those guys around. Instead they seem to be trying to recruit stoppers for the middle who can stalemate the OL and protect against the run leaving the pass rush to come from their outside guys like Barrett.

To my eye the CU OL did a pretty good but not great job in the passing game. As mentioned before the CSU DTs aren't much of a threat but they handled the ends pretty well and did a decent job picking up blitzes, expecially considering they are in a new system. Wood made them look better as well. He wasn't holding the ball for long counts and used his mobility very efficiently to help out his linemen. Last year we didn't have an answer for Barrett, this year he was a non-factor for most of the game.

In the running game we have a lot of work to do. We had some plays with nice holes for the RBs and others where Salaam would have had trouble gaining yardage. Some of the plays looked worse that they were because our backs, especially Jones were either slow getting to the hole or didn't read and just ran into the linemen instead of making the cut to open space. We had one series where we just lined up and tried to blow them off the ball and we failed miserably at it. Our tackles can run block but we need to improve a lot in the middle of the OL.

Like Flatirons I'd like to hear from Wyo or FlaBuff.
 
Going to need better push up front as the season progresses. Will be interested to see if the OL can conrol AND dictateimpose will against C Ark next week.
 
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