I haven't been around much the last few days. Our oldest, best, most, truly damn good dog crossed the rainbow bridge Sunday a bit unexpectedly. Losing a dog is the worst, especially that guy for my family. My wife and girls were/are devastated. Just a shitty few days to say the least. While everyone was napping it off today I did rewatch the game.
Carson was actually sharp early, feet were settled, he was seeing it very well. He missed the throw to Dom after the throw to Sacovie down the sideline. I bring up that throw because it was a big time NFL type back shoulder throw Sacovie mistimed and tried to 1 hand. Easily fixable freshmen mistake but ironically it took more of a psych toll on Carson from what I saw. Then he misses Lovett, Then he has a good albeit dangerous throw a bit later to Bell for a first. The first pick he was trying to make the WOW throw, same with the 2nd. He is hunting for shots and big time throws and it's getting him in trouble. Still had 2-3 drops. Take some of that away and it was clean. I'm not dismissing 3 picks, that part is ATROCIOUS. But there were stretches early and most importantly late where he was really damn good too.
I don't know if he's in his head about his draft stock or what. But the offense is starting to find some rhythm and "balance" overall. Murray made a good point on his podcast. Shots will be there galore if he lets them come to him. He can't take the misses to Cash early or Sacovie mistiming or a jump or a bad miss to Dom flip a switch within him that feels like he has to make up for those. Because when he starts pressing annd doing that, he loses his mind.
I've been critical of the receivers but we have enough to scare the hell out of teams if 15 plays clean. The perimeter blocking and timing on the outside screens is night and day different from early in the year. Delp is back to not completely yipped to the point of not wanting the ball. Yurosek for all his warts early has come on. Humphrey has a chance to keep producing. Bell has to catch the ball but improved his route running somewhat. Arian hasn't been "featured" but if that guy is nothing else, he's as clutch as it gets when we need him.
Frazier just needs to keep playing, ETN is solid, Phillips is interesting to see if he integrates. The OL for all their warts combined with the better perimeter blocking has made us a pretty good outside run team. Personnel is built for that too. That needs to be built upon so the between the tackle runs and shots deep open up as well. 456 yards should have been in the 5's as did the 34 turning into 40+ It's damn close. Need 15 to stop worrying about the results and just trust the process. It's insanely cliche but it's that simple IMO.
Defense is going to be just fine next week vs Ole Miss. Hated the bust for the TD. I am not 1 to bitch about officiating or buy into any kind of conspiracies. But the 2nd TD their RT blocked Gabe Harris by trying to rip his helmet off by his facemask lol. There were a few INSANE missed holds to the edges. We also had a bit deeper rotation than money games. When it's 13, 93, 52, 97, 11 hovering around the front we are game over good upfront. Not to knock the backups because Gabe, Damon, Chaz, etc. can flat get after it. But we have a few rotations that are saved for have to have it moments that are truly special. Chris Cole is as freaky of a prospect at LB as we've had. He's a super charged version of Quay Walker tracking about like 4th year Quay did instincts wise year 1... He's an animal. Secondary with the main group is also a cheat code. Hopefully Smael comes back healthy to spell 3 some, he's our weak link right now on D but he's close to fixing that at the same time. LB is still fairly new and not natural to him because he's a guesser and not a feeler but when he guesses right, WHOA. If we could put his sheer mass on Raylen we'd have Roquan lol.
I'll get to more Ole Miss later in the week and break them down and how we matchup more. Early thoughts are their ultimate path to victory is counter intuitive to what Lane wants to do. You have a better chance of beating us never throwing the ball instead of doing it every play. Lane loves balance, he is a run to throw coordinator. But he gets greedy and when he can't be flashy he loathes being boring. He calls himself out of things when that happens. He has gets imposter syndrome vs CKS much like he did Saban and is scared of their old days or Kirby torched him in staff B ball or something. Any juice he will create with his guys this week will crap out with his body language as the game wears on. Barring an offensive implosion by us, we should cruise by 2 scores+
Carson was actually sharp early, feet were settled, he was seeing it very well. He missed the throw to Dom after the throw to Sacovie down the sideline. I bring up that throw because it was a big time NFL type back shoulder throw Sacovie mistimed and tried to 1 hand. Easily fixable freshmen mistake but ironically it took more of a psych toll on Carson from what I saw. Then he misses Lovett, Then he has a good albeit dangerous throw a bit later to Bell for a first. The first pick he was trying to make the WOW throw, same with the 2nd. He is hunting for shots and big time throws and it's getting him in trouble. Still had 2-3 drops. Take some of that away and it was clean. I'm not dismissing 3 picks, that part is ATROCIOUS. But there were stretches early and most importantly late where he was really damn good too.
I don't know if he's in his head about his draft stock or what. But the offense is starting to find some rhythm and "balance" overall. Murray made a good point on his podcast. Shots will be there galore if he lets them come to him. He can't take the misses to Cash early or Sacovie mistiming or a jump or a bad miss to Dom flip a switch within him that feels like he has to make up for those. Because when he starts pressing annd doing that, he loses his mind.
I've been critical of the receivers but we have enough to scare the hell out of teams if 15 plays clean. The perimeter blocking and timing on the outside screens is night and day different from early in the year. Delp is back to not completely yipped to the point of not wanting the ball. Yurosek for all his warts early has come on. Humphrey has a chance to keep producing. Bell has to catch the ball but improved his route running somewhat. Arian hasn't been "featured" but if that guy is nothing else, he's as clutch as it gets when we need him.
Frazier just needs to keep playing, ETN is solid, Phillips is interesting to see if he integrates. The OL for all their warts combined with the better perimeter blocking has made us a pretty good outside run team. Personnel is built for that too. That needs to be built upon so the between the tackle runs and shots deep open up as well. 456 yards should have been in the 5's as did the 34 turning into 40+ It's damn close. Need 15 to stop worrying about the results and just trust the process. It's insanely cliche but it's that simple IMO.
Defense is going to be just fine next week vs Ole Miss. Hated the bust for the TD. I am not 1 to bitch about officiating or buy into any kind of conspiracies. But the 2nd TD their RT blocked Gabe Harris by trying to rip his helmet off by his facemask lol. There were a few INSANE missed holds to the edges. We also had a bit deeper rotation than money games. When it's 13, 93, 52, 97, 11 hovering around the front we are game over good upfront. Not to knock the backups because Gabe, Damon, Chaz, etc. can flat get after it. But we have a few rotations that are saved for have to have it moments that are truly special. Chris Cole is as freaky of a prospect at LB as we've had. He's a super charged version of Quay Walker tracking about like 4th year Quay did instincts wise year 1... He's an animal. Secondary with the main group is also a cheat code. Hopefully Smael comes back healthy to spell 3 some, he's our weak link right now on D but he's close to fixing that at the same time. LB is still fairly new and not natural to him because he's a guesser and not a feeler but when he guesses right, WHOA. If we could put his sheer mass on Raylen we'd have Roquan lol.
I'll get to more Ole Miss later in the week and break them down and how we matchup more. Early thoughts are their ultimate path to victory is counter intuitive to what Lane wants to do. You have a better chance of beating us never throwing the ball instead of doing it every play. Lane loves balance, he is a run to throw coordinator. But he gets greedy and when he can't be flashy he loathes being boring. He calls himself out of things when that happens. He has gets imposter syndrome vs CKS much like he did Saban and is scared of their old days or Kirby torched him in staff B ball or something. Any juice he will create with his guys this week will crap out with his body language as the game wears on. Barring an offensive implosion by us, we should cruise by 2 scores+
