OL Grades, other notes

ch13ba · Sep 10, 2017

Mason Cole - 86.6 (83.8 run, 89.6 pass)

Good clean game for Cole. Gave up leverage a little bit in pass protection but had really good grades in both phases.

Ben Bredeson - 86.6 (90.3 run, 82.8 pass)

Very strong in the run game. He and Cole execute well together. Had trouble with a couple stunts in the second half. Developing into a really fundamentally sound run blocker. Very good trapping, very good at the second level.

Patrick Kugler - 88.3 (83.8 run, 93.1 pass)

Struggled to get off a combo block in the first half, lost leverage on the nose in the second half for a negative grade. That's pretty much it. The guy isn't a transcendent type of C that gets out and makes blocks at the second level, but man he's just been solid overall. Adept at stepping and sealing.

Mike Onwenu - 65.0 (54.8 run, 79.3 pass)

Man, I think it could've been worse. Big Mike's got to keep his feet moving. He stops his feet too frequently and when that happens he reaches. Got away with a couple holds in the first half; trapped a guy that was 4 yards deep on one play (guy ran himself out of the play, let him go!), missed another trap in the second half and he actually stopped and turned around to look back, whiffed on a LB on a Chris Evans run that would've popped, missed on a couple stunts in pass pro. That's a lot of negative, but then you'll also see him keep a wide base, slide, and effortlessly pick up a stunt. The athleticism and ability is there, it just looks like he's either not in good enough shape or it's still too fast for him. He was better in pass protection this week, you could see the improvement, but he took a step back in pretty much all facets of the run game.

Nolan Ulizio - 83.8 (81.6 run, 79.3 pass)

A nice bounce back game from #70. Wasn't perfect, gave up his inside gap on a stretch play to the left, gave up leverage inside and out in pass protection a few times and gave up a few pressures. We seemed to run left a lot more often and that made Ulizio's job admittedly a lot easier but he did his job and he handled stunts and blitzes. Noticeable improvement.

A few other things:

Anything between the T's was collapsed by UC's aggressive pursuit, which opened up cutback lanes. Isaac figured it out as the game went along, but Evans...man...he's in his own head now. He's in such a damn hurry that he's taking himself out of rush lanes. I think he's trying too hard.
McKeon was really good yesterday. A lot of big blocks on the edge and sprung those toss sweeps. A better job overall by the TE group compared to last week.
Remember that run on 3rd & 2 at the UC 4 yard line with about 10:00 minutes to go? Isaac was tackled for a 2 yard loss, so what happened? Well, both guards trapped in opposite directions, like two ships passing in the night. Hard to tell who was supposed to stay home too, but I think it was Big Mike. You don't see that very often.
On Speight, you can see that pressure really bothers him, as it does most QB's. I remember watching Jamies Winston at FSU and I was always amazed by how that guy was never phased by pressure in the pocket. He'd stand in and take it, like he was just a lone dude on the field just playing catch. That's not Speight. When he misses it's almost always high and that's usually because there's pressure coming and he's not following all the way through on his throw. When you don't transfer your weight back to your front foot your ball will sail. That's usually the problem. He doesn't want to step through because he's about to get a face mask into his sternum, or at least that's what he thinks is about to happen.
No to pile on Wilton, but I think a portion of our 'playcalling issues' may fall at his feet as well. On a 3rd & 10 on our second drive of the 3rd quarter we threw a little 1 yard pass to Black on a rollout to the wide side of the field. The optics were terrible because the throw had no chance of succeeding since Black was tackled immediately by a S. Watching what everybody else on the field was doing though...Speight should've checked out of that play. See, DPJ was split wide right and Perry was next to him in the slot. On the snap DPJ runs his man deep but Perry immediately latches on to the slot corner and blocks him to the sideline. McKeon is lined up tight to the right and very clearly gets downfield and hooks the OLB while Ulizio and Onwenu get downfield and create a ton of interference in the middle of the field. The announcer says Speight checked it down...no he didn't; this was a screen pass that was supposed to be run against man coverage. Black lined up to the left and presnap he motioned to the right, the point of that motion was probably to confirm the coverage: if the CB follows him Speight knows its man, if he drops off he knows it's zone coverage and he needs to get them out of the play. The CB bailed out and the S on the other side of the field slid forward; clear and obvious zone look and the play was DOA. If that play were run against man coverage that CB most definitely gets caught in the wash in the middle of the field, freeing Black to get the edge. With the other CB's in man and the S's playing two deep Black probably picks up the first down. Further confirming this is the fact that the pass was actually caught behind the line of scrimmage, making the downfield blocks legal. Gives you some additonal perspective on the totality of what Speight's dealing with; new receivers, new OL, new passing game coordinator.

As usual when you break it down, it's never as bad as it looked live. Not sure why we didn't run the ball more often. It might make sense to sit Onwenu down for a bit. His body language doesn't look great out there. He looks really frustrated; when that happens it's sometimes best put them on ice a minute so they can correct some flaws without the pressure. He did take some strides in pass pro though.

Without the careless turnovers, poor ball control and shanked punts, this game wouldn't (and shouldn't) have been close. Cincinatti did us a few favors though; they made us work deep into the second half when most of our guys probably weren't expecting too and they hit us over the head with tunnel screens and countless picks and rubs against man coverage. We're going to see tons more of that stuff against teams that can actually beat us, so we'd better get to work on it sooner rather than later.

Dave1975 · Sep 10, 2017