Sunday Morning Coaches - Couch Burning edition

[RxCowboy]

Defense: A+
For the second week in a row we've held an opponent to under 14 points. That's defense that I've been longing for for years. Twenty points on the season is the magic number, and right now we're well below that. 6 of 17 on third down this week after 0 for 11 last week; holding opponents to less than 50% on third down will win a lot of football games. That's a whole bunch of getting the defense off the field. 1.6 yards rushing per attempt will win a lot of football games. This week the defense added the forced fumble for a score. The only thing that disappointed me was no interceptions, I kept expecting us to get one in the 4th quarter, that momentum play that would seal it. Still, the defense got after Doggy pretty hard in the 4th quarter. Two sacks on that final drive, rushing only 3 or 4... again, that's the kind of defense I dream of.

Offense: B-
Okay, so there were times when Illingworth looked like a back-up QB. He made mistakes, the interception leading directly to points for them. Still, he played well enough to win; completion 68.2%, QBR 112.2, not bad numbers all things considered. No TD passes. When is the last time we won a game with no TD passes? Hard to figure what's going on with Hubbard. Right now Brown is the better back. This team is going to go as far as the o-line takes it, and the o-line play was more consistent this week, in particular the zone-blocking schemes looked more coherent. The one sack we gave up was our Freshman QB holding the ball too long, otherwise he was given time to throw. I'd like to see our offense use the clock more efficiently in the 4th quarter. We were snapping the ball way too early in the play-clock.

Special teams: A-
This would be an A if not for the muffed kick-off return. Our young place-kicker continues to be serviceable. Hutton has been consistent punting the ball. Stoner is a solid punt returner who can occasionally electrify. Coverage units, no break downs.

Coaching: A-
WVU made mental mistakes, a lot of them. They shot themselves in the foot on multiple occasions. @Nolaeer declared Brown to be "Gundy's equal" last week. You certainly couldn't tell it from that game. It was obvious that one team was better coached than the other.

Helmet stickers:
Trace Ford, LD Brown, Amen Ogbongbemiga, Alex Hale

 

[OSUCowboy787]

I agree for the most part but the coaching should be a B- at best. Mainly for the offensive play calling as we are back to our 3rd and forever draw plays or WR screens etc. I get we had a backup QB at the helm but i'd like to see a little more variety in our play calling than we did. Why not give our guys a chance to get the first down instead of a likely punt? Very poor effort by the coaching staff on that aspect IMO.

 

[CocoCincinnati]

Offense B-
I'm grading a bit on a curve here. With a true freshman QB and a patchwork OL, we have to accept that the offense is not exactly going to be where we expected pre-season. In the end they scored 20 points and had 2 backs go over 100. Play calling was pretty vanilla but again what do you expect. A few things that stood out though that could have pulled this grade lower. Two fumbles by Chuba could have lost the game if not recovered by the O. With Brown emerging as a legitimate back, I have no problem sitting Chuba until he gets that under control...last year we wouldn't have had that option. Also, how about we take the TE screen out of the playbook. The TE should be blocking on a screen. I too want to see Woods get more involved in the action, but he's best over the middle with a full head of steam built up.

Defense A-
Another game, another offsides penalty by Bundage...I guess we are just accepting that at this point? Except this time he had a roughing the passer penalty at a crucial time (on a 3rd down stop IIRC)...have to teach that young man some discipline. We saw the return of poor tackling at times, need to nip that in the bud right now, but overall was still pretty good. That same with coverage, it was still pretty good but Doege did miss some wide open receivers as well..could have been a couple more long TD passes. That Brown kid gashed us pretty good early but we seemed to adjust and played better against him in the 2nd half. Our starting LB's continue to impress just like last season. Defensive scores are always nice and 5 sacks are awesome to see.

Special Teams B
Kicking was good, coverage teams were good. With our offense being a bit down, we may have to rely on that kicker to keep splitting the uprights...looks like he's up to the task.
Almost had a disastrous play on KO return in the 2nd half. I guess we'll just have to accept that Gundy is never going to name a special teams coordinator, and that the best we can hope for is that special teams won't cost us a game.....that almost happened yesterday....but it didn't.

Coaching Incomplete
I'm not sure we are going to be able to get a good read on Dunn at OC during this wacky season. I do like our defensive staff right now....but we've seen regressions on D during the course of a season before....let's see if they can maintain their good play through this year.

Uniforms A+
Seriously

 

[sc5mu93]

Coaches should get a ding for not figuring out a way to get Wallace more involved. I recognize that Illingworth is young, but Wallace was pretty much a non factor most of the game on offense.

 

[OSU1994]

6 straight and now two on Neal Brown, who I have read will win 30 big12 championships in a row before retiring. Defense. Running game. Easing in a true freshman. Have to adjust, cannot get whipped on 6+ quick slants and do nothing.

Grade A


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[CocoCincinnati]

Coaches should get a ding for not figuring out a way to get Wallace more involved. I recognize that Illingworth is young, but Wallace was pretty much a non factor most of the game on offense.

Agreed. Need to throw more long balls to him. Might be hard with a true freshman having so little reps with him and needing to learn each other's timing. Hopefully we'll see that emerge if Sanders is out for a significant time.

 

[Well]

Petty much agree with everyone, but wanted to comment on the play calling, which deserves an F. I know Illy is a frosh, but the young man is in college, higher learning and all that. There is no reason that the offensive coaches couldn't have taken him, wallace, and the offensive team, and draw up on the spot, a play or two to get Wallace the ball, or draw up a decent play. I like Illingworth's gumption, on the radio RA overheard Illingworth coming off the field after a third and out, jogs up to Rattay and says "seriously". He wanted to go for it. This young man is going to be special, but he's being held back too much IMO.

 

[CowboyHoopsPride]

Coaches should get a ding for not figuring out a way to get Wallace more involved. I recognize that Illingworth is young, but Wallace was pretty much a non factor most of the game on offense.

Wallace is our best player. There isn’t a team in the conference that can match up with him 1 on 1. In fact, the only guys with a chance to do that play for us. He should get 12+ targets a game minimum and not just on deep prayers. You know like maybe a slant........

It will create opportunities for everyone else.

 

[cableok]

Double helmet sticker: Bundage. Our DL was a difference maker the entire game.

 

[OKPokeU]

Defense: A-
They got us off the field and didn't give up many points and that's the ultimate goal. But they need to tackle better, especially in the first half when Brown ran through tacklers. And the slants killed us for a few series without adjustments on our part.

Offense B-
That was a grind it out offensive performance. There was nothing dynamic about it. We're not going to win bigger games without being more dynamic. LD Brown is the best RB right now. He's looks quicker and running harder. Hubbard just isn't running hard -- but I suspect he will get back to his old self because LD will push him to get better or stand on the sidelines. Wallace needs more targets because he's THAT good and makes catches that shouldn't be caught. J.Woods needs to get a few targets over the middle, perhaps on a slant.

 

[Jostate]

Our 3rd down defense has been outstanding. The only thing that hurt was extended a couple of drives with penalties on 3rd down.

As Rx said, we have to get Wallace involved. Good things happen when you throw to him, even if it's an interference penalty. It's strange that by injury or alien abduction we have gotten so little production from the triplets we were counting on, and still are 2-0.

I'd say the kicking game has been more than serviceable. 6 punts for a 45 yard average, one to the 11, and 0 return yards on all six of those. 2 of 2 on field goals, one from 44 that looked like it would have connected from 64.

What's a kicker got to do to get some love?

 

[Burton Cummings]

"@Nolaeer declared Brown to be "Gundy's equal" last week."

I'm not sure if this is a blessing, a curse or one of those Berry Tramel backhanded compliments.

 

[teachum]

Was one of our DE's hurt?? I was really surprised to see C. Waltersheid in so much this game. Isn't he just a RS freshman still??

Also, I want to see Pressley returning kickoffs.

 

[Cody51]

Wallace is our best player. There isn’t a team in the conference that can match up with him 1 on 1. In fact, the only guys with a chance to do that play for us. He should get 12+ targets a game minimum and not just on deep prayers. You know like maybe a slant........

It will create opportunities for everyone else.

He is making opportunities for people just by being on the field, he was absolutely a factor, but the game plan right now is protect the only healthy QB we have and keep him from throwing interceptions. Truth is we ran it the whole day because we should have run it all day, WV put all their faith in their DL and were bracketing wallace every play. Its the right scheme against us because despite playing much better this week our OLine has yet to even make it to average IMO. Also we are afraid of long developing Pass plays (where wallace excells) because we don't want the only passable QB on the roster hurt or throwing interceptions.

 

[sportsfan89]

WVU was 6 for 17 on 3rd conversion. 4 of the conversions were 3rd and long(7+ yards). Two of them came by our penalties. Not bad but the slot receivers slant route is a concern for me. Hopefully we get that fix.

 

[Cody51]

Defense: A+
For the second week in a row we've held an opponent to under 14 points. That's defense that I've been longing for for years. Twenty points on the season is the magic number, and right now we're well below that. 6 of 17 on third down this week after 0 for 11 last week; holding opponents to less than 50% on third down will win a lot of football games. That's a whole bunch of getting the defense off the field. 1.6 yards rushing per attempt will win a lot of football games. This week the defense added the forced fumble for a score. The only thing that disappointed me was no interceptions, I kept expecting us to get one in the 4th quarter, that momentum play that would seal it. Still, the defense got after Doggy pretty hard in the 4th quarter. Two sacks on that final drive, rushing only 3 or 4... again, that's the kind of defense I dream of.

Offense: B-
Okay, so there were times when Illingworth looked like a back-up QB. He made mistakes, the interception leading directly to points for them. Still, he played well enough to win; completion 68.2%, QBR 112.2, not bad numbers all things considered. No TD passes. When is the last time we won a game with no TD passes? Hard to figure what's going on with Hubbard. Right now Brown is the better back. This team is going to go as far as the o-line takes it, and the o-line play was more consistent this week, in particular the zone-blocking schemes looked more coherent. The one sack we gave up was our Freshman QB holding the ball too long, otherwise he was given time to throw. I'd like to see our offense use the clock more efficiently in the 4th quarter. We were snapping the ball way too early in the play-clock.

Special teams: A-
This would be an A if not for the muffed kick-off return. Our young place-kicker continues to be serviceable. Hutton has been consistent punting the ball. Stoner is a solid punt returner who can occasionally electrify. Coverage units, no break downs.

Coaching: A-
WVU made mental mistakes, a lot of them. They shot themselves in the foot on multiple occasions. @Nolaeer declared Brown to be "Gundy's equal" last week. You certainly couldn't tell it from that game. It was obvious that one team was better coached than the other.

Helmet stickers:
Trace Ford, LD Brown, Amen Ogbongbemiga, Alex Hale

I held off last week because i still think tulsa is garbage, and I didn’t want to be burned again, but this defense is for real. Doege is probably going to be in the training tub until Wednesday after all the hits he took, it was so bad WV could not call anything that wasn't a 3 step and get rid of it. I know it is probably hyperbole, but it looked like what alabama does to teams where all they can do is throw slants and screens. What we missed were tackling slot receivers after the catch, if we play like this we will have a lot of practice

 

[CowboyHoopsPride]

He is making opportunities for people just by being on the field, he was absolutely a factor, but the game plan right now is protect the only healthy QB we have and keep him from throwing interceptions. Truth is we ran it the whole day because we should have run it all day, WV put all their faith in their DL and were bracketing wallace every play. Its the right scheme against us because despite playing much better this week our OLine has yet to even make it to average IMO. Also we are afraid of long developing Pass plays (where wallace excells) because we don't want the only passable QB on the roster hurt or throwing interceptions.

I get that. I’d still force it to him but that’s why I’m posting on a coaches thread online and not getting paid to coach.

As much crap as our o line takes, they produced two 100 yard rushers and only gave up one sack against the best d line tandem we’ll face all year.

 

[Burton Cummings]

There are few more pleasing moments than waking up on Sunday morning after an OSU Cowboy football victory. And what makes the first cup of coffee even more satisfyingly sweet is warm, organic, cream & crimson tears fresh sqeezed from the eyes of Berry Tramel's newest Sooner loss meltdown.

Actually, the first thing I do every morning when getting out of bed is immediately fall down. But, while I'm down there, I go ahead and say a morning prayer asking the Lord to, 1) help me get off the floor and 2) thank him for an OSU Cowboy football win on his awesome gift of college football in the Fall and 3) thank him for humbling Berry Tramel one more time.

Amen.

 

[PokeJ]

So summing up this thread Defense A, Offense B and Special Teams A yet the coaches are complete failures?


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[CocoCincinnati]

Was one of our DE's hurt?? I was really surprised to see C. Waltersheid in so much this game. Isn't he just a RS freshman still??

Also, I want to see Pressley returning kickoffs.

Take this for what it's worth, but according to the radio broadcast, Gundy was saying the team still isn't in great shape due to the weird nature of this season so far...and because of that, in addition to the fairly warm temps yesterday, they were planning on rotating a lot of personnel in on defense.