Elon post game

Just got back from the game. What is there to say that hasnā€™t been said already?

I will add this:

They should have let Matt do Option Read all night. I know they want him to be a pocket passer but heā€™s not. They had Phillips bottled up and Matt was rattled all night. The one time we moved the ball effectively was when they had to worry about Matt taking off as well.

Matt Johnson is a terrible decision maker, and just isnā€™t a good quarterback. He is what we thought he was.

Iā€™m more annoyed by our defensive coordinator calling such an absolute s*** scheme. If our defensive strategy continues to consist of having our DBs 10 yards off the receiver while they throw curls and slants literally 43 times for 331 yards, Iā€™m going to lose interest fast. Thatā€™s super boring and just terrible football. Iā€™d be okay if they torched us, but our scheme literally let them do it and we made no adjustments. Our DC looked like a damn fool.

You can say it was a bend but donā€™t break strategy, but we werenā€™t playing a high flying offenseā€¦ and if they didnā€™t miss 3 field goals, the score would not have been nearly as close. Elon hadnā€™t scored more than 13 points in either of their previous games.

The less Johnson throws, the better. Iā€™m pretty sure he was an option QB in high school. He seems more confident doing that. Converting him to a throwing QB so quickly may not be the best idea. I would expect him to be the backup after this season, if the coaching staff is committed to passing so much.
The level of competition is going to take a giant step up next year. Wish we had a couple of FBS games to help us get an idea for it, instead of games against Wesley and Johnson C Smith. Playing poorly against Elon shows how far away we are.

[quote="-Charlotte49ers-, post:12, topic:29033"]By the wayā€¦ I almost turned this game off. Iā€™ve watched a lot of football in my life but Iā€™ve never been so frustrated. Probably because I knew what was coming each snap when we were on defense but we didnā€™t even try to stop them. No changes were made.

Watching the opponent string together 15 play drives 5 yards at a time is incredibly difficult to watch.[/quote]

I did turn it off. That was bad.

I am amazed how critical this board continues to be. I do agree, there were issues and I felt adjustments could have been made in our play calling. But we had our two top linebackers and our undisputed upperclass leadership in sweats on the sidelines replaced by freshmen playing their 4th games respectivelyā€¦and Crouser had an INT.

What did disappoint me was Mattā€™s decision making, but even more the o-line allowing so much penetration, so quickly. Control the line and it would have been a different game. I also wonder if one of the late game misses was on Matt or a young receiver being out of place (wrong route), it appears from what i saw an end some pass was spot on but the receiver cut wrong. Not having Bostic in the 4th quarter took away yet another weapon, and proven leadershipā€¦ but Bolus made two exceptional catches, and Nesmithā€™s potential game winning catch was masterful, on a great pass from Mattā€¦ (again the line breakdown really hurt).

3-1, year two.

Johnson is. 53% passer this year with more picks than TDs. Thatā€™s a problem.

The real problem is scheme on both sides of the ball. Granted we had two LBs out (the replacements were two of the better players on that side of the ball yesterday). The pillow soft approach in the secondary just makes it too damn easy to move the ball. Elon picked us apart, Iā€™m afraid what JMU,CCU, or even ChuckSo can do. After watching the second half of the season last year where we couldnā€™t stop a runny nose I was hoping for improvements. But after yesterday, Iā€™m thinking the 4th quarter at Central probably wasnā€™t a fluke.

Offensively we seem hell bent on making an athlete into a pocket passer. Johnson doesnā€™t have the arm or the acumen to be that passer. Let the kid run more, heā€™s better when he moving. Our scheme yesterday was puzzling. Our OLine had a huge size advantage, but got owned all game. The penalties. The poor throws, the drops. All too much.

Special Teams gets props for Brewer. Otherwise they are a mess. Our return game is poor. Punting has been suspect, covering kickoffs makes me hold my breath, Iā€™m just waiting for the long Td return.

Yes itā€™s out second year, yes we are a bit younger than our opponents, but if you put it in the schedule you want to win it. And when you play like crap you are going to hear about it. There are no free passes. We start playing the big boys next year so we need to grow up faster them the next guy

Fixed

The next 5 games are going to be brutal if we donā€™t step it up. I just hope we leave that stretch with one win.

Also, I am sure our staff knows McNeil a lot better than we do, but at this point it really canā€™t hurt to get him some reps with the first team during the game. I remember Lambert saying before the season started that Lee had been nearly as good as Matt in practice. Probably just coach speak, and I know he had that bad pick in the NCCU game, but could he really be that much worse?

I like Matt. He seems like a very high character guy and competitor, but he has probably plateaued. There is enough tape on him now that he has been figured out, and I donā€™t see it getting any better.



[quote=ā€œs9er, post:26, topic:29033ā€]Johnson is. 53% passer this year with more picks than TDs. Thatā€™s a problem.

The real problem is scheme on both sides of the ball. Granted we had two LBs out (the replacements were two of the better players on that side of the ball yesterday). The pillow soft approach in the secondary just makes it too damn easy to move the ball. Elon picked us apart, Iā€™m afraid what JMU,CCU, or even ChuckSo can do. After watching the second half of the season last year where we couldnā€™t stop a runny nose I was hoping for improvements. But after yesterday, Iā€™m thinking the 4th quarter at Central probably wasnā€™t a fluke.

Offensively we seem hell bent on making an athlete into a pocket passer. Johnson doesnā€™t have the arm or the acumen to be that passer. Let the kid run more, heā€™s better when he moving. Our scheme yesterday was puzzling. Our OLine had a huge size advantage, but got owned all game. The penalties. The poor throws, the drops. All too much.

Special Teams gets props for Brewer. Otherwise they are a mess. Our return game is poor. Punting has been suspect, covering kickoffs makes me hold my breath, Iā€™m just waiting for the long Td return.

Yes itā€™s out second year, yes we are a bit younger than our opponents, but if you put it in the schedule you want to win it. And when you play like crap you are going to hear about it. There are no free passes. We start playing the big boys next year so we need to grow up faster them the next guy[/quote]

Almost gave myself whiplash from nodding along so emphatically to this post.

Staff needs to really step up and reassess their approach.

Also, not trying to hurt the guyā€™s feelings, but Matt would be a fan favorite if he played H back. We have a Tebow jr problem here.

We knew we would take some lumps with a start-up football program. Consider this another one of those lumps.

First off, Elon has a really nice setup. Beautiful campus, really nice football stadium, and most importantlyā€¦ Lights!! It was a great atmosphere for college football last night.

Matt Johnson was not good. Several overthrows and poor decisions. This was his worst performance since Central last year. That being said, our coaching staff didnā€™t do him any favors with the play calling. It seemed like we were constantly in 3rd and longs after running on the 1st 2 downs for minimal gains.

It didnt seem like Phillips was 100% but give credit to Elon for taking him out of the game for the most part. He was icing his shoulder during the 1st half and was running away from contact it seemed. Not sure why we didnā€™t rotate more guys in at RB.

It was concerning to see our o-line get pushed around in the running game and in pass protection. Especially after the A&T RB ran all over them last week.

The D played Ok considering they were on the field the whole game. We only rushed 3 so we hardly got any pressure on the QB. Larry O was giving their center fits though.

It was clear that they wanted to challenge our ILBs. It seemed like every 3rd down conversion was a pass to the TE right in front of those guys. Otherwise we just let their senior QB sit back and pick us apart when he needed to. They didnā€™t go after big plays, just took what we gave them with short passes. 40+ completions!! Wow!

Overall coaching was not good. Play calling was bad and once they took our running game away, we didnā€™t make the right adjustments.

Has anyone heard why Maetron Thomas did not play one down last night?

I am almost certain he was the ball carrier on that late game holding call, but i dont remember him getting any other snaps.

Iā€™m concerned about QB play going into FBS football next year, but Iā€™m starting to get more concerned about our coaching. There are some pretty good coaches in CUSA. They adapt when things arenā€™t working. They attempt to counter what the other team is throwing at them. Will we be able to do that by next year?

Again I am a little shocked at the mood of the board. I get being angry just seems like some of you have some really high standards considering where we are in the timeline. We played an all around poor game. Matt played poorly, but man the DBS playing yards off was crazy. We did the same crap last year. Playing so far off and then not sending any pressure to rush the QB in decision making is just a really poor decision. O-Line did not hold up like I had hope.

All that said we played really poorly and still had a shot to tie/win at the very end of the game.

Matt just isnā€™t good when the O-line starts to break down. When the O-line keeps his feet clear and jersey clean he is a fine, but not outstanding QB. When the O-line breaks down he needs to just tuck and run and not try to make a play with his arm.

Overall - coaching needs to be better, offense needs to be better, defense needs to be better, better QB play, better special teams and we need lights.

I was wondering where the hell is Maelectron Thomas. A few sweeps to him could have counted for points. I can only guess he was in trouble or hurt? Bolus needs more touches. Matt showed this game he has the knack for hitting the open manā€¦I seriously thought he turned the corner on the TD pass to Duke. He looked off both middle line backers and rifled it between them. After that, he had some solid runs. I know read option is similar, but I would like to see them run more old style option runs, like the old days of Barry Switzer. I am sure Matt could kill a wishbone with Philips, Thomas and maybe bolus. I though Duke had his most consistent game. However, losing to Elon is a pathetic reality check. I felt the same way after Pembroke. The offensive line did not adjust for to the speed of their undersized line, but some better play calling and effort would have destroyed it. We are hurting at middle line backer, and with that, throwing 5 to 7 yard routes all day on a 3-4 will effectively kill that defense. Is it just me, or does Cooper shy away from contact? I had high expectations for him, and he just seems to be near the plays. I understand its his safey position, but it would be nice to get some aggressive hits from that position.

But life here is not as bad as being a Tarhole, after getting rolled again by ECU! That was awesome!

Last week we were ahead of schedule, this week weā€™re doomed. Itā€™s only one or the other.

Lol. The winds of change blow quick around here

Well, I was happy last week, because I think it showed we are better this year than last. I still think that after the Elon game. But, this game showed me that while we are better, we are probably still far away from being a competitive FBS team. Still, we were in it at the end and I hope we work hard in practice and show up vs Chuck South at home. We have been on the road alot so far.

I would have said that we were on schedule after the NCCU win but not ahead. We seemed to have righted last years wrong. After yesterdayā€™s debacle, Iā€™m thinking we are a 5-6 team again and not progressing from year 1 to year 2. IMO 7-4 would be on schedule and 8-3 ahead of schedule.

Yesterday was easily the worst coaching performance in Niner football history. We seemed to push the same game strategy on both offense and defense almost the entire game.

[font=verdana]As a young program itā€™s very important to have a story to sell to fans and recruits. That story needs to be one of growth and improvement each and every year. Attendance needs to be growing, stadium expanding, wins increasing, etc. [/font]

We still have a lot of football to play and one bad loss doesnā€™t make a season. These guys will practice hard this week and now have something to prove against Chuck South. If we win that game, we are back on track.

Iā€™m really hoping this was our What The Fuck loss. Anyone know when JBT will return, didnā€™t hear his name last night. I think we would have done munch better rotating RB through the game just didnā€™t seem like KP was 100%. Matt was 19-42 last night thatā€™s just plain bad, if he canā€™t find a guy he needs to step out of the pocket and do what he does best