Troy
So even the players are saying the first two games of the year were practice, but I will do a bit of writeup for this one. Tennessee may not prove to be the challenging game I need to really access the team anyway. They just lost at home to UCLA and their quarterback looked terrible. The local press is already circling.
I also want to mention my brand spanking new fantasy blog: http://twitter.com/FantasyBucks
Twitter is perfect for this as it prevents you from going on forever. I may even actually keep doing this for the whole season.
QB: The Savior (15) needs to keep working on his pocket presence - it wasn't just all that rain that caused his fumble. H e is running less, which I like (more on that later). Other than that there is not much to say. He beat up on an overmatched team.
Also, I forgot to stick this in this in last week, but John Brantley (12) while not as strong, shift, or natural is a faster straight ahead runner than Tebow. I don't know what that gets us, as I don't expect him to be running that much next year, but he is faster.
GRADE: A. I guess.
RB: Demps (2) is clearly the starter. He is better than last year, and is faster than Rainey (3). He is also stronger than last year. So is Rainey. He broke plenty of tackles, but against a tired defense - I am not sure he is that much stronger than Demps. He stills looks to be more of a natural runner to me - more shifty - but Demps is getting better. Rainey is also still the better receiver. But Demps is the starter, reportedly because Rainey has both blocking and memorizing the playbook issues, which trump everything else and are two very good reasons to go with Demps. We also have this guy Emmanuel Moody (21), which is all I really want to say about him. We could use a power back, but he doesn't have the look.
Whomever we used, we ran quite a bit. Part of that was the rain, but it does seems Meyer trusts the runningbacks more so that may spare Tebow some wear and tear.
I am surprised to report we do have a fullback. T.J. Pridemore (45). I don't have more to say because he did not play enough for any assessment of his talents.
GRADE: A. This is stupid, we crushed them there are going to be a ton of A's.
WR: Okay, I was correct. We are basically three deep at receiver. When Deonte Thompson (6) pulled his hamstring they did not put in any of the youngsters to get experience working with Tebow. Instead they put in Brandon James (25) in. He may be slowly migrating positions. Riley Cooper (11) is the lead guy until Thompson works out his dropsies. He ran the wrong route on his TD - two WRs should never end up that close (Meyer later said he was the one in the wrong spot). Of the youngsters the one with the most hype has looked the best - Omarius Hines (82). But none of them have played with starters, so who knows.
GRADE: A- Not really dominant, and Nelson's only play was a fumble.
TE: Aaron Hernandez (81) is established but did not do anything special Saturday. We need to use him very judiciously because we literally have no other TEs.
GRADE: C (C is average).
OL: I think I like the OT Carl Johnson (57) - OG James Wilson (66) left side of the line rather than OT Matt Patchan (71) - OG Carl Johnson (and I think Meyer is leaning that way too) On one play, I watched Patchan get beat and then just wander away and watch the DE get the sack rather than chase after him. Mo Hurt (74) played some at guard, but did not stand out. The line was pumped again.
GRADE: B+ They pushed around an inferior line, but the Trojans got some pressure.
DL: We played a three man line (with 5 DBs) for most of the game. Neither of our DTs started. Lawerence Marsh (90), our best lineman, is hurt but should be back for the Volunteers. Terron Sanders (92) did not play that I saw (he was blocking when we punted last week). Otherwise our starters played a fair amount (which still includes Justin Trattou (94)) and a bunch of depth guys: William Green (96), Brandon Antwine (47) , Jaye Howard (6), and Omar Hunter (99) so I will say that is our rotation.
GRADE: A- Got some pressure and handled the run pretty well.
LB: AJ Jones (16) appears to have cemented the starting OLB spot. Last year Brandon Hicks (40) and Dustin Doe (32) took some snaps from him (and Ryan Stamper (41) - the other clear OLB this year). I like Jones, he is small so gets lost in the wash on running plays at times, but small equals fast and he is good in coverage. I'd be okay with them starting Hicks too (not Doe). We are deep at linebacker. Hicks is a junior, so will start next year. The hype of the future, Jon Bostic (52), played some, lining up at DE on passing downs. He made a few plays, but not a ton. Spikes (51) was better as a freshman.
GRADE: B+ They did no do that much.
DB: Will Hill (10) started because we started 5 DBs - I think because Troy ran a type of spread. Hill usually lined up over the slot guy. I want to see him do that against a better team before I am ready to let him replace Markihe Anderson (14) as the nickel. Anderson looks heavy and slow, but despite appearances he is good in coverage and doesn't get beat regularly. I'd rather see Hill replace the hard-hitting (but poor in coverage) Major Wright (21) at starting SF. Joe Haden (5) still looks as though he is not as staying as close to receivers as he did last year. To me Janoris Jenkins (1, was 29) is our best CB. I'm not saying Haden is bad. And Lord help us if there are injuries. Even Troy figured out how easy it is to beat the Wondy Wonder (4).
GRADE: A+ Troy had 66 yards passing. And that was not just the rain. They only had 18 yards passing well into the 3rd quarter.
ST: James had a TD called back for penalty. It was the only one he did anything with. Troy rugby kicked every play to avoid a return or block. We are still using a bunch of starters on special teams - Jenkins, Haden, Rainey, Demps, Doe, etc.
GRADE: B+
Coaching: I don't know how to judge the coach of a team that basically had too much talent to lose to Troy. Troy was poorly coached - they should have tried to mix it up with trick plays. And what wussies to kick a field goal down 49-3.
GRADE: NA
Fans: Well we sucked up and stayed in the rain for a dog game, but I think we are getting a little listless from all the blowouts. Did you realize the last home game we did not win by at least 30 points was September 27, 2008 (Ole Miss)? Tennessee is not going to change that either.
GRADE: B+ (it was pretty unpleasant)
Football 101: When we talk about a quarterback's "pocket presence" that refers to many things. It is an internal clock so a QB knows when he needs to throw the ball away and avoid taking a sack. He knows when the pocket is breaking down and he should scramble for the most years he can. He knows when to move around in the pocket to dodge a blitzer while not jumping around and panicking, so he can keep his focus down the field and make a pass. It is knowing when the play is over and it is better to take a sack then screw around and end up fumbling.
I also want to mention my brand spanking new fantasy blog: http://twitter.com/FantasyBucks
Twitter is perfect for this as it prevents you from going on forever. I may even actually keep doing this for the whole season.
QB: The Savior (15) needs to keep working on his pocket presence - it wasn't just all that rain that caused his fumble. H e is running less, which I like (more on that later). Other than that there is not much to say. He beat up on an overmatched team.
Also, I forgot to stick this in this in last week, but John Brantley (12) while not as strong, shift, or natural is a faster straight ahead runner than Tebow. I don't know what that gets us, as I don't expect him to be running that much next year, but he is faster.
GRADE: A. I guess.
RB: Demps (2) is clearly the starter. He is better than last year, and is faster than Rainey (3). He is also stronger than last year. So is Rainey. He broke plenty of tackles, but against a tired defense - I am not sure he is that much stronger than Demps. He stills looks to be more of a natural runner to me - more shifty - but Demps is getting better. Rainey is also still the better receiver. But Demps is the starter, reportedly because Rainey has both blocking and memorizing the playbook issues, which trump everything else and are two very good reasons to go with Demps. We also have this guy Emmanuel Moody (21), which is all I really want to say about him. We could use a power back, but he doesn't have the look.
Whomever we used, we ran quite a bit. Part of that was the rain, but it does seems Meyer trusts the runningbacks more so that may spare Tebow some wear and tear.
I am surprised to report we do have a fullback. T.J. Pridemore (45). I don't have more to say because he did not play enough for any assessment of his talents.
GRADE: A. This is stupid, we crushed them there are going to be a ton of A's.
WR: Okay, I was correct. We are basically three deep at receiver. When Deonte Thompson (6) pulled his hamstring they did not put in any of the youngsters to get experience working with Tebow. Instead they put in Brandon James (25) in. He may be slowly migrating positions. Riley Cooper (11) is the lead guy until Thompson works out his dropsies. He ran the wrong route on his TD - two WRs should never end up that close (Meyer later said he was the one in the wrong spot). Of the youngsters the one with the most hype has looked the best - Omarius Hines (82). But none of them have played with starters, so who knows.
GRADE: A- Not really dominant, and Nelson's only play was a fumble.
TE: Aaron Hernandez (81) is established but did not do anything special Saturday. We need to use him very judiciously because we literally have no other TEs.
GRADE: C (C is average).
OL: I think I like the OT Carl Johnson (57) - OG James Wilson (66) left side of the line rather than OT Matt Patchan (71) - OG Carl Johnson (and I think Meyer is leaning that way too) On one play, I watched Patchan get beat and then just wander away and watch the DE get the sack rather than chase after him. Mo Hurt (74) played some at guard, but did not stand out. The line was pumped again.
GRADE: B+ They pushed around an inferior line, but the Trojans got some pressure.
DL: We played a three man line (with 5 DBs) for most of the game. Neither of our DTs started. Lawerence Marsh (90), our best lineman, is hurt but should be back for the Volunteers. Terron Sanders (92) did not play that I saw (he was blocking when we punted last week). Otherwise our starters played a fair amount (which still includes Justin Trattou (94)) and a bunch of depth guys: William Green (96), Brandon Antwine (47) , Jaye Howard (6), and Omar Hunter (99) so I will say that is our rotation.
GRADE: A- Got some pressure and handled the run pretty well.
LB: AJ Jones (16) appears to have cemented the starting OLB spot. Last year Brandon Hicks (40) and Dustin Doe (32) took some snaps from him (and Ryan Stamper (41) - the other clear OLB this year). I like Jones, he is small so gets lost in the wash on running plays at times, but small equals fast and he is good in coverage. I'd be okay with them starting Hicks too (not Doe). We are deep at linebacker. Hicks is a junior, so will start next year. The hype of the future, Jon Bostic (52), played some, lining up at DE on passing downs. He made a few plays, but not a ton. Spikes (51) was better as a freshman.
GRADE: B+ They did no do that much.
DB: Will Hill (10) started because we started 5 DBs - I think because Troy ran a type of spread. Hill usually lined up over the slot guy. I want to see him do that against a better team before I am ready to let him replace Markihe Anderson (14) as the nickel. Anderson looks heavy and slow, but despite appearances he is good in coverage and doesn't get beat regularly. I'd rather see Hill replace the hard-hitting (but poor in coverage) Major Wright (21) at starting SF. Joe Haden (5) still looks as though he is not as staying as close to receivers as he did last year. To me Janoris Jenkins (1, was 29) is our best CB. I'm not saying Haden is bad. And Lord help us if there are injuries. Even Troy figured out how easy it is to beat the Wondy Wonder (4).
GRADE: A+ Troy had 66 yards passing. And that was not just the rain. They only had 18 yards passing well into the 3rd quarter.
ST: James had a TD called back for penalty. It was the only one he did anything with. Troy rugby kicked every play to avoid a return or block. We are still using a bunch of starters on special teams - Jenkins, Haden, Rainey, Demps, Doe, etc.
GRADE: B+
Coaching: I don't know how to judge the coach of a team that basically had too much talent to lose to Troy. Troy was poorly coached - they should have tried to mix it up with trick plays. And what wussies to kick a field goal down 49-3.
GRADE: NA
Fans: Well we sucked up and stayed in the rain for a dog game, but I think we are getting a little listless from all the blowouts. Did you realize the last home game we did not win by at least 30 points was September 27, 2008 (Ole Miss)? Tennessee is not going to change that either.
GRADE: B+ (it was pretty unpleasant)
Football 101: When we talk about a quarterback's "pocket presence" that refers to many things. It is an internal clock so a QB knows when he needs to throw the ball away and avoid taking a sack. He knows when the pocket is breaking down and he should scramble for the most years he can. He knows when to move around in the pocket to dodge a blitzer while not jumping around and panicking, so he can keep his focus down the field and make a pass. It is knowing when the play is over and it is better to take a sack then screw around and end up fumbling.
posted by El Breto @ 9:20 PM
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