Achilles Heel

[Aclone]

i have to start out by saying that I’m pleased not to see any major meltdowns going on in this forum today. Er, so far.

Well admittedly, there is that “Worst loss on program history?” thread, but I’m not going into that one. All that I’ll say in response is, “Puh-lease”,

As far as yesterday? Well, it’s not like we couldn’t have seen it coming. Like we hadn’t seen it coming, all the way from the preseason. We all did.

Yep, I’m talking about the offensive line.

Sure, there are other reasons that we lost. The team, especially the defense, didn’t quite seem to have the same intensity as it usually has in the past. We were missing Montgomery for a half.

I can’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that, had we had David for the whole game, we might have managed to grit out a win. And that defense? They still only gave up 24 points to a talented Longhorn team.

That’s winnable football. With a good offense.

I’ll be honest. I’m no Jeff Woody or Ben Bruins when it comes to analysis. But it seems to me like the pressure that Texas consistently brought had a lot to do with the offensive woes.

Feel free to call that understatement.

The offensive line? Despite the fact that they’ve come together reasonably well, we knew the group wasn’t going to be a strength. To paraphrase Bruns a week or so ago, “When you watch the tape of the running game, it ain’t pretty”.

Sigh.

The good news?

All five starters are set to return next season.

Do you know how huge that is? I can’t recall it ever happening since I’ve been watching the Cyclones. And compared to many of you, that’s a very long time.

Not only will those five be more cohesive from the get go, the puppy of the group, Colin Newell, will have another year of strength and development.

Trevor Downing and Joey Ramos are set to contribute—after successfully accomplishing a redshirt season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either play a lot, maybe even snake a starting spot.

Several guys that duo nudged past will have that additional work as well. I wouldn’t be surmised to find out in the Spring that some of those guys have been a bit dinged up. Alex Kleinow, Robert Hudson and Jeff Nogaj all have a chance to crack the two deep—and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Zach Ross grab the backup center spot, a year further removed from surgery.

Then, of course, there’s a very solid group of commits. And I wouldn’t mind if someone like Danielson Ike decided to join the party. No, I don’t expect any of them to grab a starting spot (any more than I expected Rose to), but the future looks solid in 2019–and bright in 2020, going forward.

Pour the Kool-Aid.

Go Cyclones!

 

[norcalcy]

O line was the weakest weakness and it sounds like Texas attacked and exploited it ruthlessly. This program can be a Big XII championship program when it can establish a running game. If David can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****, Kene and Johnny can't either. It's great to have everybody coming back on that line. Need to have bodies to maintain a two deep to make it through a long season. But come the start of next season, there needs to be a new name or two in the starting lineup for this O line.

 

[BoxsterCy]

i have to start out by saying that I’m pleased not to see any major meltdowns going on in this forum today. Er, so far.

Wait till Monday. Most of the posting on CF is done on company time M-F.

Plus this loss was more depression inducing than anger inducing after our horrible start and nice five game recovery.

 

[CloneGuy8]

For the first time, Purdy looked like a freshman. Granted, he didn't get much help around him so I'm not putting last night all on him. He was bound to have a game like that.

 

[Brandon]

We rattled off 5 in a row. The loss stung but it was likely to happen. Now let's get ksu!

 

[mcblogerson]

Both lines got pushed around, but the Oline looked like it did early in the year.
WR dropped some balls that could have changed things.
The D did enough to win but TX showed up and didnt make any big mistakes.
Sucks losing but Im not concerned about it. The season is going as expected. Now just need to close out K State, ruin their bowl hopes and stick it to Snyder in his hopefully last game.

 

[clonedude]

For the first time, Purdy looked like a freshman. Granted, he didn't get much help around him so I'm not putting last night all on him. He was bound to have a game like that.

Was he put in a position to succeed though? 99.9% of the time, I'm going to blame the coaching staff who gets paid big money to win games over young men trying to get a college education while also trying to do a full time job of playing football.

Purdy was not put in any position for success last night, period. In fact, just the opposite. What this coaching staff did to him last night probably should have put him in the hospital. So how are we blaming this at all on him just playing like a freshman for the first time? No.

Same goes for the OL. If it is not performing, then we either aren't coaching them up right, or the talent just isn't there. In both cases it falls entirely on the coaching staff. Why isn't the talent there? Why are promising young OL guys like Bolton, Mueller, and Forbes leaving the program?

Fact is, this coaching staff wasn't prepared at all for what Texas did to us and couldn't/didn't make any adjustments whatsoever. CMC says Texas was more physical than us on both sides of the trenches. Ok, very true. But why was that? Scheme had nothing to do with it?

 

[dualthreat]

Hopefully Downing and Ramos start next season. Need some upgrades

 

[tolfbfan]

Was he put in a position to succeed though? 99.9% of the time, I'm going to blame the coaching staff who gets paid big money to win games over young men trying to get a college education while also trying to do a full time job of playing football.

Purdy was not put in any position for success last night, period. In fact, just the opposite. What this coaching staff did to him last night probably should have put him in the hospital. So how are we blaming this at all on him just playing like a freshman for the first time? No.

Same goes for the OL. If it is not performing, then we either aren't coaching them up right, or the talent just isn't there. In both cases it falls entirely on the coaching staff. Why isn't the talent there? Why are promising young OL guys like Bolton, Mueller, and Forbes leaving the program?

Fact is, this coaching staff wasn't prepared at all for what Texas did to us and couldn't/didn't make any adjustments whatsoever. CMC says Texas was more physical than us on both sides of the trenches. Ok, very true. But why was that? Scheme had nothing to do with it?

Never in 25 years of coaching have I heard another coach say if we would of schemed differently we would of been more physical than the opposition, so if that is what you are saying, huh? Blitzes can be addressed by scheme, but there is some guessing going on to when they will blitz. Anyway, as a coach, I'm done with a game in 24 hours. On to KSU.

 

[Rabbuk]

Never in 25 years of coaching have I heard another coach say if we would of schemed differently we would of been more physical than the opposition, so if that is what you are saying, huh? Blitzes can be addressed by scheme, but there is some guessing going on to when they will blitz. Anyway, as a coach, I'm done with a game in 24 hours. On to KSU.

They blitzed downs 1-3 almost every time

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

W

Never in 25 years of coaching have I heard another coach say if we would of schemed differently we would of been more physical than the opposition, so if that is what you are saying, huh? Blitzes can be addressed by scheme, but there is some guessing going on to when they will blitz. Anyway, as a coach, I'm done with a game in 24 hours. On to KSU.

We don't use hot routes well. That's my biggest complaint. Plus I think we run too much zone. If we can't win individual match ups on the line then then we need to use more power blocking, with better angles and double teams. Not to mention we have almost no misdirection to account for an over aggressive team. Makes no sense when our offense relys on ball fakes, RPO, play action et al. Scheme is far too vanilla.

 

[madguy30]

If the Oline were making real significant strides I'd be more excited for next season.

 

[besserheimerphat]

W
We don't use hot routes well. That's my biggest complaint. Plus I think we run too much zone. If we can't win individual match ups on the line then then we need to use more power blocking, with better angles and double teams. Not to mention we have almost no misdirection to account for an over aggressive team. Makes no sense when our offense relys on ball fakes, RPO, play action et al. Scheme is far too vanilla.

Good lord. The purpose of running zone is to get double teams and combo blocks at the point of attack. The RBs job is to be patient and let the holes develop. If the defense is too aggressive, then the holes are on the backside. If the defense is disciplined and maintains their gaps and run fits, then you just take what you can get straight ahead from those double teams.

But i do agree that we don't handle the blitz well. It seems like we count on the RBs to pick it up with no other adjustments. If the RB misses, then we're hosed without somebody else making an exceptional play. We desperately need a reliable blitz beater.

 

[derpyherky]

Was he put in a position to succeed though? 99.9% of the time, I'm going to blame the coaching staff who gets paid big money to win games over young men trying to get a college education while also trying to do a full time job of playing football.

Purdy was not put in any position for success last night, period. In fact, just the opposite. What this coaching staff did to him last night probably should have put him in the hospital. So how are we blaming this at all on him just playing like a freshman for the first time? No.

Same goes for the OL. If it is not performing, then we either aren't coaching them up right, or the talent just isn't there. In both cases it falls entirely on the coaching staff. Why isn't the talent there? Why are promising young OL guys like Bolton, Mueller, and Forbes leaving the program?

Fact is, this coaching staff wasn't prepared at all for what Texas did to us and couldn't/didn't make any adjustments whatsoever. CMC says Texas was more physical than us on both sides of the trenches. Ok, very true. But why was that? Scheme had nothing to do with it?

Clonedude for HC! Always seems to have the answers to all of the problems when our team has them!

 

[madguy30]

Good lord. The purpose of running zone is to get double teams and combo blocks at the point of attack. The RBs job is to be patient and let the holes develop. If the defense is too aggressive, then the holes are on the backside. If the defense is disciplined and maintains their gaps and run fits, then you just take what you can get straight ahead from those double teams.

But i do agree that we don't handle the blitz well. It seems like we count on the RBs to pick it up with no other adjustments. If the RB misses, then we're hosed without somebody else making an exceptional play. We desperately need a reliable blitz beater.

Imo ISU hasn't used the RBs out of the backfield as a check down very well at all.

 

[Clonefan93]

They blitzed downs 1-3 almost every time

Which is exactly what they did last year. We haven’t shown that we can make them pay when they blitz. If Campbell is paying attention to details, he’ll expect it out of Herman next year and burn Texas.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Good lord. The purpose of running zone is to get double teams and combo blocks at the point of attack. The RBs job is to be patient and let the holes develop. If the defense is too aggressive, then the holes are on the backside. If the defense is disciplined and maintains their gaps and run fits, then you just take what you can get straight ahead from those double teams.

But i do agree that we don't handle the blitz well. It seems like we count on the RBs to pick it up with no other adjustments. If the RB misses, then we're hosed without somebody else making an exceptional play. We desperately need a reliable blitz beater.

That is power blocking as far as I was ever taught. You attack gaps in power blocking, zone is designed to use the opposing players momentum against them. They can be hybrid of course, but saying they are designed to use combo doesn't make sense.

 

[Go2Guy]

Seems to me we missed a lot of tackles and had a hard time bringing them down on the first hit.

 

[Cyforce]

Sad reality is a 279# walk-on starts upfront. That's not meant as a knock on an obvious overachiever but the state of where we stand depth wise.

Really hoping CMC can pull in another Knipfel type Juco allowing Treiber and Hufford two years in the program prior to being counted on like Ramos and Downing may get as well.

 

[Beyerball]

How about not starting a post with an injury body part then talking 5 paragraphs about OL...wonders when the name is gonna show up etc..