Rewatched the game again tonite play by play (and frame by frame in some cases) because of comments made about the O-line, Bowers, Mabin, etc... being so bad. I didn't see it that way, so I double checked to see if I was right.
O-Line- I do not know what some of you are talking about when it came to pass blocking by the O-line. They were very good. Nobody came close to touching CJ in the 1st half except on the play he took a big shot and fumbled and that was not because an O-Lineman got 'beat'. The D-line shifted left and CJ changed the play at the line. Boettger thinks he has the 3 tech who has just widened and points and tells Welsh to take the LB who is showing blitz, so he obviously thinks Kittle is staying to block the DE or at least is chipping him since it is a 'quick' out, but Kittle doesn't even touch the DE and he does a quick out. CJ takes a 2 step drop and stares down Pekar running a quick out but they have him bracketed. My guess would be Kittle missed the 'audible' CJ called out pre-snap. The line was rock solid the 1st half and I still believe CJ was told not to run, because there was 2 third downs in the 1st half where he had ALL day and could've took off to his left and 'made a play', but chose to just check down with 3 yd. throws that didn't pick up 1st downs.
In the second half, CJ took 2 'hits'. One was Wadley whiffing on a blitz (not the lines fault) and the other was not a lineman getting beat, but Boettger slow to pass off the DE stunting inside. Let me elaborate. The left DE stunted to the B gap and Miami blitzed 2 off the left edge. The RB picked up the outside blitzer but Boettger was slow in passing off the DE to Welsh, so by the time he whirled for the inside blitzer, the blitzer was by him causing CJ to make a poor throw to McCarron in the end zone. So in summary, I don't know what some of you are talking about when you say how bad our lines pass blocking was since CJ never got touched outside those 3 plays, and no O-linemen got 'beat'.
People were attacking Bowers and when I watched the game live, I only remembered 1 play where he was out of position and looked 'bad'. Some of you respect this 'Iowagamefilm' guy, but after somebody posted a tweet of his from the 3rd quarter that said 'Bowers looked bad and was not having a good game so far', I'm not sure I respect his 'insight', because he was WRONG. Bowers played as well as anyone on defense, like I thought. He was good in coverage, solid in tackling, and was NEVER out of position except one play in the second half (resulting in a 9 yd. gain) where they either sent him on an A gap blitz or he made a really bad read. At the end of the play he turns to someone off frame and shrugs his arms at him, like someone 'blew' something. He broke almost at the snap of the ball, so it looked like a blitz. He played well, but Hockaday and our DT's, not so much. Hockaday was much 'slower' on his reads and stepping up than Jewell. He will get better and he needs to put on another 10 lbs. I thought our DT's were as about as slow getting off blocks as I have ever seen them. We didn't give up 'big' runs, but they were getting too many 3-5 yd. runs.
You guys need to lighten up on Mabin. He didn't play 'great', but he wasn't as bad as some of you think. Their QB (when he had too much time to throw), threw the ball REALLY well and 'strong' and made everyone look bad. Yeah, he only threw to King's side of the field 3 times, but he completed all 3 of them ( 2 hitches, and an IN route for a big 1st down). The big throw on the 1st TD drive was really impressive. Bowers read it and got in the passing lane so he had to throw high (Bowers almost tipped it) but it was a bullet and the receiver went high and made a great catch with Snyder hanging all over him. On the 1st TD pass, after re-watching it, I could see they were in cover 2 which means Mabin has the flat and Snyder has the deep half. They ran a well executed 'smash route' and Snyder was late getting to the 'corner route'. It was Snyder's man, but the camera stayed on Mabin after the play, so I'm sure everyone thought he got 'burnt'. I'll forgive Snyder as it was his 1st game starting and he made some 'freshman' mistakes, but he'll learn from them and I still think he will be really good. On the second TD pass, the QB stared to his left for 4 seconds, then turned all the way to his right and hit the receiver coming back to the goal line and the receiver used his body to shield the throw really well. You can't give the QB that much time to throw and expect a corner to cover that long in man. And the QB threw a few REALLY good back shoulder throws with Mabin hanging all over the receiver. Can't do much about those. Oh, and on the first long completion early in the game, Mabin was supposed to have help over the top and inside from Taylor, but Taylor 'melded' to the curl route (that was bracketed by 2 LB's) and didn't get any depth. Mabin will be fine.
O-Line- I do not know what some of you are talking about when it came to pass blocking by the O-line. They were very good. Nobody came close to touching CJ in the 1st half except on the play he took a big shot and fumbled and that was not because an O-Lineman got 'beat'. The D-line shifted left and CJ changed the play at the line. Boettger thinks he has the 3 tech who has just widened and points and tells Welsh to take the LB who is showing blitz, so he obviously thinks Kittle is staying to block the DE or at least is chipping him since it is a 'quick' out, but Kittle doesn't even touch the DE and he does a quick out. CJ takes a 2 step drop and stares down Pekar running a quick out but they have him bracketed. My guess would be Kittle missed the 'audible' CJ called out pre-snap. The line was rock solid the 1st half and I still believe CJ was told not to run, because there was 2 third downs in the 1st half where he had ALL day and could've took off to his left and 'made a play', but chose to just check down with 3 yd. throws that didn't pick up 1st downs.
In the second half, CJ took 2 'hits'. One was Wadley whiffing on a blitz (not the lines fault) and the other was not a lineman getting beat, but Boettger slow to pass off the DE stunting inside. Let me elaborate. The left DE stunted to the B gap and Miami blitzed 2 off the left edge. The RB picked up the outside blitzer but Boettger was slow in passing off the DE to Welsh, so by the time he whirled for the inside blitzer, the blitzer was by him causing CJ to make a poor throw to McCarron in the end zone. So in summary, I don't know what some of you are talking about when you say how bad our lines pass blocking was since CJ never got touched outside those 3 plays, and no O-linemen got 'beat'.
People were attacking Bowers and when I watched the game live, I only remembered 1 play where he was out of position and looked 'bad'. Some of you respect this 'Iowagamefilm' guy, but after somebody posted a tweet of his from the 3rd quarter that said 'Bowers looked bad and was not having a good game so far', I'm not sure I respect his 'insight', because he was WRONG. Bowers played as well as anyone on defense, like I thought. He was good in coverage, solid in tackling, and was NEVER out of position except one play in the second half (resulting in a 9 yd. gain) where they either sent him on an A gap blitz or he made a really bad read. At the end of the play he turns to someone off frame and shrugs his arms at him, like someone 'blew' something. He broke almost at the snap of the ball, so it looked like a blitz. He played well, but Hockaday and our DT's, not so much. Hockaday was much 'slower' on his reads and stepping up than Jewell. He will get better and he needs to put on another 10 lbs. I thought our DT's were as about as slow getting off blocks as I have ever seen them. We didn't give up 'big' runs, but they were getting too many 3-5 yd. runs.
You guys need to lighten up on Mabin. He didn't play 'great', but he wasn't as bad as some of you think. Their QB (when he had too much time to throw), threw the ball REALLY well and 'strong' and made everyone look bad. Yeah, he only threw to King's side of the field 3 times, but he completed all 3 of them ( 2 hitches, and an IN route for a big 1st down). The big throw on the 1st TD drive was really impressive. Bowers read it and got in the passing lane so he had to throw high (Bowers almost tipped it) but it was a bullet and the receiver went high and made a great catch with Snyder hanging all over him. On the 1st TD pass, after re-watching it, I could see they were in cover 2 which means Mabin has the flat and Snyder has the deep half. They ran a well executed 'smash route' and Snyder was late getting to the 'corner route'. It was Snyder's man, but the camera stayed on Mabin after the play, so I'm sure everyone thought he got 'burnt'. I'll forgive Snyder as it was his 1st game starting and he made some 'freshman' mistakes, but he'll learn from them and I still think he will be really good. On the second TD pass, the QB stared to his left for 4 seconds, then turned all the way to his right and hit the receiver coming back to the goal line and the receiver used his body to shield the throw really well. You can't give the QB that much time to throw and expect a corner to cover that long in man. And the QB threw a few REALLY good back shoulder throws with Mabin hanging all over the receiver. Can't do much about those. Oh, and on the first long completion early in the game, Mabin was supposed to have help over the top and inside from Taylor, but Taylor 'melded' to the curl route (that was bracketed by 2 LB's) and didn't get any depth. Mabin will be fine.
