The Washington win over USC certainly made me feel better about the fact that we got handled pretty well by Washington in week 1 but still came away with the W. We looked fairly uninspired against UL last night and many questions still remain going into the meat of the SEC schedule. 1. Is Jefferson ready to take us far? 2. Where is our identity in the running game? 3. Will the offensive line gel in time? 4. Will the defensive line get much better pressure on the QB? 5. Will any of these blitzes ever culminate in a sack of the QB? 6. Are we holding back the genius that is Gary Crowton? Jefferson had by far his worst game last night in which he should have been picked off at least 3 to 4 times. He still shows a lot of promise but the offense will not get clicking until the light totally turns on for him. Our running game appears to be in shambles right now. That's not good with an inperienced QB. Teams will continue to load 8 in the box and stop us. I know I would. This is my biggest convern going forward. Toliver has made great strides and looks like the #2 option behind Lafell that we envisioned. Our passing game should be great going forward, given other factors (more effective running game and offensive line play). Randle finally got into the mix and should help in the passing game as well as the season goes on. The defense is playing fairly well except for the lack of QB sacks. I have rarely seen any blitz end up with a sack of the QB so far. That has to change. We will get burned down the road if our scheme is ineffective. Chief has got to disguise it better or have his players time it better. It's just not working right now. And of course the defensive front four is doing a pretty poor job of QB pressure on their own. Special teams looks like they will hold their own. We need to get Trindon with the ball on kickoffs somehow. Helton's game 1 punting woes were just an anomaly by all appearances. Jasper kicked a 52 yarder pretty much down the middle, so it looks like the beat goes on at place kicker.
Dandy Don said it in his blog this morning in so many words and I agree. JJ is not ready for the big time yet. I'm sure he will improve but it's time to step up and I didn't see it last night. He throws late and is not accurate even on the short passes. 16 for 25 sounds good but it sure didn't look good watching it.
I'm more worried right now about the offensive and defensive lines. We didn't get to the QB, even when we blitzed. I've seen to many times that we've looked bad and turned around and stepped it up against a better opp. and I'm hoping it happens here..........
Well think about it. He missed the INT the 3 long ball he either overthrew or underthrew (penalty on one ) there were three drops (two by toliver 1 by Lafell) The screen he overthrew to lafell and the 2 others that he was lucky were not picked off. Everything else was screens and 12-15 yarders that were designed possession passes. Not much YAC other that the TD pass over the middle. Our only plays that gave the receivers a chance to run with it were the screens. The one slant we threw, or that i even saw a receiver run last night went for 6.
Lack of pressure on the quarterback with a four-man front is going to continue to hurt us. But when we can't even get pressure with a blitz on as well, we are going to get passed on. We are not disguising our blitzes very well and they are getting picked up. No monster DT has drawn the double and triple team blocking that Dorsey or Lavalais received, opening up blitzing corridors. Alem continues to improve his rush but the outside rush isn't going to work on every down. We need to take advantage of his speed with more line stunts and Alem needs to learn some moves to get free of those tall tackles that push him outside of the box. I continue to see blown pass coverages by linebackers and way too many missed tackles. It's definitely time to tighten up on that business. I thought the DB's did a fine job last night.
Okay, my thoughts on the season so far After seeing Washington beat USC, I am much happier now with the outcome of that game than I was before. I see first game jitters, travel distance, and an improved Washington team being the reasons that the game was close. Vandy may not be as good on defense as I thought, though they did hold State to 3 FG's and a late TD. I think they did play great defense that night and I think the weather had a lot to do with the offense being somewhat vanilla. Against ULL, I liked the fact that JJ did air it out some, however, he did have a couple of passes that could have been intercepted very easily. The one that was intercepted could have possibly been prevented, as Mitchell misjudged the flight and stepped back, rather than coming up and playing defense on it. I am not sure what else the defense can do...they have given up 10 points in the last 2 games combined and have gotten better each game. As far as the O-line is concerned, they need to play the entire game like they did the 4th quarter last night. Overall, I am happy to be 3-0, as every Tiger fan should be. The negativity is killing me! I would love to see the Tigers put up 40-50 a game and hold teams to 7-10 points a game, but you have to be realistic and take what you are given. I don't think we have seen the whole playbook yet, and may not until we see UGA. Step back off the ledge, take a drink of the purple kool-aid, and just relax...everything is going to be ok!!
I'm not sure that Toliver isn't, in fact, the #1 option. Or maybe Lafell is just drawing the double teams, so Toliver is more open. It's hard to tell sometimes on TV.
I don't think he SHOULD be the #1 option, but he does appear to be JJ's #1 option. And for whoever said he had 2 drops last night...it was 3. - I can't understand the lack of throws to Lafell so far this season. Both of them have gamebreaking abilities, but Lafell...who USED to drop 'em...is more sure handed and heady.
