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generally speaking… a well played game…
good night gents!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!The OL may be better…but smashmouth will never be our bag. Exhibit A, everyone!
I was at the game so I’m guessing you guys were talking about when we were stopped at the goal line.
We fans look at game situations in a very narrow view — usually what should the coach have done. These guys on the sideline will sometimes have another purpose in mind. Ledford is our run game coordinator and O-line coach. We have pretty much, as you guys noted, been having our way with them. He has something to work with coaching this coming week.
When we wanted to score before the lead got up there, we scored and it wasn’t with plays like we saw here.
Just sayin’
My synopsis – we cleared the threshold of what I needed to see. The OL is NOT a dumpster fire (perhaps it will be so much as average even against good opponents) and we found a QB who can at least make quick reads. Jury is still out on whether he can stretch the field, though.
Beyond that, I think there are still areas we can improve, and weak spots that will probably stay that way. We shall see how it all plays out. Nothing to change my initial 7-5 feel one way or the other.
Well according to what I’ve been reading they only showed 30% of their offense, it that’s the case then I’m impressed. As for stretching the field remember it was WET. I love the protection the o line gave and some of the blocking schemes broke open some pretty nice holes. Heck, even the receivers were blocking! Yeah, yeah it was Bill & mary BUT to me the pack looked a lot better than what I saw last year if only from the how the offense was run. Even the few times they got behind the chains they never panicked and managed to pick it up. Only one 3 and out early on. They also scored at will. And they could have been up even bigger. And I can hear everyone say it was an FCS team but the Tribe is a pretty darned good team, not the typical cupcake.
Smarter than the average bear
Technical – Kids got me the Apple TV thingy for Father’s Day since that is the most common way for me to watch the Pack. It was really smooth compared to the laptop or iPad.
Was watching the game in the semi-background since I had some out of town co-workers over to the house last night. I thought Finley looked better than JMac last night but I wasn’t sure I’d really seen enough of the game to make that call. Sounds like he really was that much better.
I’m curious as to how far Tennessee will move up in the polls after the win over App St. last night. I predict Top 5 since the guano fest in Nashville established them as the top team in the always powerful gauntlet that is the SEC East.
Huge for App St to take UT that far anyway. UT with its #4 & 5 recruiting classes having a hard time with App St – bet those Vols fans are livid.
Saw where South Carolina came back to beat Vandy 13-10. Didn’t take Muschamp long to suck the air right out of that offense. Why any highly touted offensive player would want to play for that guy is baffling.
I get we are not going to see everything. Also want to see them try some things that will be needed later.
“Not showing too much” strategy. I can’t stand it either but it is what it is.
JasonP why should the team show more when winning in such a manner?
Of course as the season progresses more will have to be shown.JasonP why should the team show more when winning in such a manner?
Of course as the season progresses more will have to be shown.I just don’t like the term “show more” or the general idea that there’s such a thing as showing your hand in football – at least when that gets taken too far (and I’m not saying we took it too far last night, I’m more speaking in terms of general tactics). I think it’s too conservative and betrays a bit of fear or lack of confidence; but I also understand gamesmanship is part of the game. One can always change/alter/modify formations but run some plays that may come in useful down the stretch so that players have experience running them at game speed. I understand the consensus is against this mentality, so be thankful I’m not the coach. Please don’t take my comment as some giant negative against what State did last night. I think we played pretty great, and were perhaps limited by weather along with breaking in some new players and trying to build confidence. I know coaches will come away with some negatives they will work on for next week, but that’s why they get paid the dollars. To me, it was all gravy.
Btw; I love the “life is suffering” tag on this thread!
I’m glad that it’s finally football season! My ESPN3 stream was just fine.
I thought we looked a bit ahead of my expectations for game one. We did some things well and had some things we needed to improve on.
Quick thoughts:
– QB situation seems settled to me: I figured it was Finley, but they were giving JM a chance (or the fans a chance to see that JM wasn’t ready). Finley impressed me with game management, accuracy and the ability to throw a catch-able ball.
– OL looked pretty good to me. Granted it was against the weakest front we’ll see all year, but we opened holes for the run game and protected the QBs pretty well.
– Don’t think Finley is a run/read option QB. If we try that stuff with him, I suspect he gets hurt.
– The RBs and Samuels looked great. This is the best stable of backs we’ve had in my lifetime.
– The freshman WRs made some good catches. It appears we’re just going to rotate a lot of WR out there and hope someone makes some plays.
– Defense looked good outside of two drives. Drive #1 was seemingly scripted by the opponent and well practiced. That was still concerning. The drive right after the half seemed to be mentally letting down a bit. Some loose coverage in the passing game concerned me a bit, but maybe it was the scheme. For me that’s a bit tough to judge on TV because of how the camera only follows the ball.
– Special teams was by far the weakest link. If that doesn’t improve, we’ll lose a game or two because of special teams. It wasn’t just the kicking, but the kick off coverage as well. We also didn’t really break any returns (at least that I remember) against what was clearly a smaller, weaker and slower team.
– S&C looked good.
– Liked the up tempo. It wasn’t full on fast break in a way that I think sometimes confuses the offensive team as well, but it did put pressure on the defense.
– My take away is that we’re going to score some points and be a fun team to watch. That’s half of it for NC State.Other thoughts on games from last night:
– Tennessee has talent, size and speed. They looked physically like men against boys against App. You could see the delta between the kids Tennessee has and us. You could also see the difference in facilities, fan support and the commitment to winning.
– App snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the end. When it went to OT, it was pretty clear Tennessee would win.
– Vandy’s QB didn’t look good to me. They’ll go winless in the SEC with that offense.
– S.Carolina’s offense looked better in the second half, but I just don’t know why you’d hire Muschampf. I wonder how long S. Carolina is going to give him, particularly given that Clemson is rolling.JasonP, re your UT comment: I live in Knoxville, and I can tell you the mood is very different today than it was yesterday!
@PackFan I see they play VPI next week. Think Jones’ seat will get warmer if they lose that one?
Did you see Vols winning TD, QB fumble before goal line, #1 recovers, stands up and takes his helmet off then runs off the field.
Was also at the game. Not quite a full stadium. Probably 95% or slightly less. North End Zone sections were vacant. Sparse in the upper deck on the East side.
Crowd was loud, but not totally deafening. Good spirit though. W&M’s first march was a little disconcerting. Maybe it was Tony Haynes’ “Set Up” that was on my mind….actually my DW pointed it out. Tony said that this year, the DEFENSE will Jell quickly and have to carry the Offense until the QB issue settles down. OK….other than that, he was spot on. I respect Tony and he is knowledgeable…..but the Defense decided to make him a pundit…..rather than a color analyst.
Defense DID make some adjustments….but the Fire The DC chant started on the second score.
Sort of ironic that Mr. Finley read the team in the Old “Carter” stadium. He certainly showed poise.
Obviously William did not show up or had been out running around on Mary all week. Trivia….
Jimmye Laycock is a 1970 W&M Grad. He played for Lou and bounced around for 10 years and was named W&M’s HC in the spring of 1980. He has been there EVER SINCE. His FIRST game was at Carter (don’t think it was Finley?). He LOST that game 42-0. The Lone Ranger (Monte Kiffin) was the coach. No info as to whether he rode his horse to that game….he is STILL sitting in the booth for the Jag’s.
ESPN3 sound fading away on your big screen? Try this on your TV- Menu–>Audio Settings–>then set SRS TruVolume to off for the game. Of course make sure you reset the SRS TruVolume after the game. Hope this helps.
I think it’s too conservative and betrays a bit of fear or lack of confidence;
Another case of ‘why didn’t the coach do what I would have done’ instead of trying to reason out what the coach was thinking.
If DD had any emotion it likely was one of respect for an opponent. Why keep poring it on and embarrassing an opponent from a lesser division. That’s the kind of crap one might expect from Fraudora.
Obviously William did not show up or had been out running around on Mary all week.
I saw it the other way around. Mary didn’t make the trip and We handled William pretty good. 😉
Was also at the game. Not quite a full stadium. Probably 95% or slightly less. North End Zone sections were vacant. Sparse in the upper deck on the East side.
The “fair weather” fans stayed home. 😉 The forecast, which didn’t deter me, was for thunder and lightening and possible game delays with all the crap that goes with that. For many it makes sense to stay home and watch it on TV. (I’m trying to be generous here.)
Adventuroo – I agree with your post. Like grey – I think the weather forecast played a major role in both the attendance and mellowness of the crowd.
Like others, I was disappointed in how easily w&m drove for a td on their first drive. However, the d equipped themselves well thereafter.
Finley looked solid and steady. It’s worth noting that he hasn’t faced adversity yet (at least in red and white).
McClendon rode the pine after an ill-advised pass. He looked much better his second drive. He clearly has attributes that Finley does not, but he simply can’t make the mistakes he made last night.
We have some nice young talent. Moss and Harmon looked good, Frazier looked very good as well.
On D, our dl as expected, was dominant. Looking forward to watching McCloud…(21) ; he has the size and appears to be a playmaker. I won’t be surprised if he cracks the lineup.
Fun night. Solid performance, glad the weather held out.
– Defense looked good outside of two drives. Drive #1 was seemingly scripted by the opponent and well practiced. That was still concerning. The drive right after the half seemed to be mentally letting down a bit. Some loose coverage in the passing game concerned me a bit, but maybe it was the scheme. For me that’s a bit tough to judge on TV because of how the camera only follows the ball.
We were concerned about giving up big plays coming in. How did we do? We allowed 1 run of about 30 yards. No passes over 20 yds. we were successful in not giving up big plays.
We were concerned about defenders being in correct position. Shawn Boone did a great job of managing that from his safety position. I don’t recall one incident where we were out of position. We accomplished what we set out to do.
We allowed 10 first downs, 62 yards rushing and 106 yards passing. Not a bad effort against a veteran offensive team with good skill players. I was there and what I say was some very tight coverage and some excellent completions against us. W&M completed 10 for 19 with 2 INTs.
W&M was suppose to be a good test for our defense. If it was, we passed that test.
I like that this group of coaches are developing something with a plan in place. We didn’t blitz once that I recall. I expect that will be put in in due time. If it’s not in the plan, don’t bother looking for it.
Like others, I found the crowd to be pretty quiet for an opening game. I also think 90% full is a tad generous.
Not a lot of mistakes, and a lot of good things to take away from the game. Finley’s poise, the play of the offensive line, so many good running backs, a couple of potential future stars in Harmon and Moss, Frasier scoring a TD, lots of WRs catching passes, the physicality of our receivers, our defense stuffing a potent offense. The best part is the coaching staff has two extra days to prepare for those goobers down the road. I plan to be there in person to see the Pirates walk the plank.
Go Pack!
I give the crowd a pass. I think we were all waiting for the storm that never came. We can’t say we haven’t been snakebit by the weather before.
Like others, I was disappointed in how easily w&m drove for a td on their first drive.
Include me in with those who were disappointed in W&M’s first drive. Then I began to play it back in my mind. On second view I’m not so sure now that it was “easily.” They made some 3rd down conversions with good passes to keep the drive alive so they didn’t run rough-shod over us. I still would have liked to have stopped them but they came in here ranked about 10th in the FCS and were an experienced and well coached team. And as you said, “However, the d equipped themselves well thereafter.” (“equipped themselves” Don’t you hate those damn spell checkers that can’t think?)
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