Tomorrow...and all the days after

I’d say they’ve been completely mediocre, which was my high hope for them. They’ve given our QB time to throw the ball deep before, but those receivers aren’t getting separation. I think our OL has been about as good as we could expect for as much youth and inexperience we have there.

That seems painfully obvious, doesn’t it? In an ideal world, we’d have an OL and backs who can effectively pick up a blitz and give our QB time to find where the defense has left a gaping hole to exploit.

But, let’s be real: our stable of backs are all pretty young. Except for Moline, we really don’t have anyone in the backfield who has shown they can effectively pick up a blitzing linebacker.

The key is that our OL, instead of panicking when they see more men coming than they have available blockers, they need to stick to their assignments and block. If they bring 7 or 8 men, only 2 or 3 should get through our OL, period. There is five boys in blue. They need to each pick up a man.

What say you about those 2 or 3 blitzers? That’s when it all comes down to QB play and this is why the blitz has been so effective against us the last couple of seasons. We need a QB that can do the following, absolutely crucial things: (1) read the blitz once it’s coming and find the appropriate hot read, and/or (2) read the blitz once it’s coming and be able to step up in the pocket/roll out to space to buy time to either throw it away (and not lose yards) or find a TE, RB, or WR coming back to the play to pick up a few yards.

Our biggest problems has been our OL has not picked up their assignments when the opposing defense brings the blitz. I don’t know if that’s a psychological problem or what, but for whatever reason, when our guys realize there are more rushers than available blockers, the guys who are left to block don’t even pick up their man. That has to stop. It’s a lot easier to elude 2 defenders (especially if they’re both coming from the edge (i.e. step up in the pocket) or if they’re coming from one side (i.e. roll out of the pocket away from pressure)) than it is to elude 5 or 6 and the whole damn pocket is collapsing. Maybe the answer is that we need bigger, more athletic offensive lineman. And that wouldn’t shock me, given how thin we have been on OL since KD destroyed the program.

The other major problem is that we don’t have a QB who has proven he can read the blitz and make the right read. I know a lot of people have been on NC, but he’s freakin’ NC. Even junior high coaches know that any pass play needs to have a “hot read” (i.e. a safe pass for the QB to dump the ball to), like a RB in the flat, a WR on a short slant, a TE drag, etc. I’m pretty confident NC is drawing up plays that give our QB options if there’s a blitz. Especially given that it comes at us all the damn time. The problem isn’t that guys aren’t open on those hot reads: our QB isn’t seeing them, be it because of inexperience or lack of skill.

To me that’s where this whole QB debate boils down: Prince has much more pocket presence than Brehaut does. He seems to know when the blitz is coming and he’s done a better (albeit marginally) job of doing something to mitigate the damage. Brehaut is still not at a game speed and doesn’t seem to know when the heat is on. Maybe more snaps will help him, but if we’re going to win now, then Prince is the go to guy, at least for now.

The blitz, not conservative play-calling, is the number one thing cutting our offense down. The key on offense, as simplistic as it sounds, is to avoid negative yards. Rolling out of the pocket and chucking the ball into the 10th row isn’t a bad option sometimes. You live and get another play out of it.

If we can eliminate the blitz from opposing teams’ playbook, by rendering it ineffective by mitigating the damage it could do, then we stand a better chance of being able to develop to the deep routes down the field.

They clearly don’t have the experience part down, and that includes individual experience as well as the experience of working together as a unit. When you look at it that way, it’s actually pretty remarkable that this line does approach average. I think it’s going to be difficult to show that kind or improvement midseason though, so our defense is probably still going to have to win games for us.