Went back and watched the entire 2014 Football Season. Interesting exercise as I came away with materially different impressions than I had before re-watching the games.
The big positive is that there is a lot more room for improvement, especially on offense where I assumed our upside was limited. Some concerns about our overall talent level, game day coaching decisions and the general feel that the team didn’t believe very much in itself.
Jared Goff had a far better season than I remembered. Super impressed with his poise, his footwork and the number of big plays he made basically on his own. Some occasional ill advised decision making but overall he had a tremendous year.
Daniel Lasco was a breath of fresh air. Really solid vision and acceleration, Lasco combined the ability to break tackles as well as make defenders miss. A bit inconsistent with his pass catching and I felt like he was a bit dinged up late in the year. Not as excited about the rest of our backs. Watson looked small, not nearly decisive enough and he doesn’t flash exceptional quickness, speed or cutting ability. He’s agile and strong laterally but he’s going to need to improve markedly to ever be a feature back at this level. Muhammed is Muhammed. Built low to the ground with some strength and above average acceleration (but not special) he runs tough but doesn’t break tackles or make anyone miss. Enwere flashed the most potential of the backups but he ran too high and needs to show more initial burst. He looked better this Spring IMO.
We’re really going to miss Chris Harper. He was the teams best pass catcher. Creates separation, can accelerate away from defenders, plays the ball in the air really well with plus hands and body control. He can also make defenders miss for YAC. I thought our 2nd best receiver (all around) was Stephen Anderson. Exceptional blocker, really tough to press and to tackle, the guy plays fearlessly. His blocking alone made him invaluable but as the season progressed he became the go to guy for Goff on 3rd down and produced a ton of big plays. Treggs and Davis can play and I suspect they will take a big step up this year. They will need to make up for the lost big plays from Harper. Harris and Lawler are both very good players. Lawler was our TD maker, truly exceptional in the red zone. He needs to be more of a factor going over the middle and blocking. I have a lot of hope that we will see Hudson, Brown, Austin, Hansen and others step up. The one area where this group struggled and it’s a big one in this offense is blocking. I thought Harper was our 2nd best blocker behind Anderson. Need to get a lot better here.
The biggest insight from watching our offense again was our OL play. I remembered it being solid, would have given it a B+ based on my memory and the stats. Truth was they were far more of a B-. Pass protection was not good in the vast majority of our games, making Goff’s performance that much more exceptional. We struggled to keep the pocket clean against the better DLs and forced Goff to show his footwork wizardry in the pocket or rolling out and throwing out of it. Huge opportunity for improvement here as Crossthwaite was clearly the weakest link. The reason we had so few sacks was our system which gets the ball out quickly as well as Goff’s ballet like footwork. Our run blocking was substantially better. We mauled the weaker DLs and held our own against the better ones. Again Crossthwaite struggled the most here but he was still solid. Borrayo is the star of the group. By the Arizona game, he had found his rhythm and was destroying kids, getting to the 2nd level and mauling people. Rigsbee is also an exceptional run blocker. Adcock will be missed as you barely notice him, few mistakes, etc. Moore had some rough moments but was actually the better tackle by the end of the year than the out of position Rigsbee. Moore looks like he can add some strength and size as well.
I walk away from this film review of the offense feeling like we can get meaningfully better simply on the backs of stronger pass protection and continued improving run blocking. I do think we’ll need some WRs to step up as well as a back up RB and QB.
Defensively, I expected things to be uglier than they were. Biggest takeaways were that what pass rush that we had earlier all but disappeared after Scarlett got hurt. Secondly, we wore down in most games by the 4th quarter. There were more mental mistakes than I expected and while tackling was better than in 2013 it was still poor.
What was better than my memory was that for many segments of quite a few games, we were competitive (albeit with huge mental gaffes resulting in scores after playing well). The BYU game aside (where we looked tired, beat up and struggling to find our confidence), we played with energy, physicality and seem to be well prepared for our opponents offense.
Michael Lowe was the MVP of the defense. And it was not even close. He made tackles and he made plays with fewer mental errors than anyone in our back 7. Our front 7 was relatively solid against the run but they wore down. Jalil was by far our best DL and it wasn’t really close. Stats be damned, he was a force against the run and often required double teams, his big plays led to others getting tackles for loss, sacks or big hits.
I left the season feeling relatively sanguine about our LBs and how they performed last year. They were not as effective as I remembered. We looked small and struggled to get off blocks. Barton and Nickerson struggled at times with plays right at them. Barton was effective running sideline to sideline and he improved as the season wore on but lots of mental mistakes. Nickerson had two good games to finish the season. Good first step instincts but he still looks a step slow and 10lbs too light. Jefferson has the size and was very effective in coverage but too many missed assignments (especially against the run) and some less than physical play at times (was he fighting injuries?). Downs looked like a freshman out there. Flashed potential but over ran or missed far too many tackles. I thought Tongileva played really well against BYU and he looks huge. My sense is that this group has a nice blend of experience and depth going into 2015 but we need more consistent playmakers to emerge.
We blitzed A LOT more than I remember, especially the last third of the season, we unfortunately were simply not effective with it and even when we got some pressure, our secondary was a sieve. Our corner play was as bad as I remembered. Poor tacklers, bad mental mistakes especially when playing zone defenses, etc. Allensworth, Coleman and White were the most effective of the group but that’s damning by faint praise. Physically, Allensworth was in position a lot but failed to make plays and tackles. Coleman made some plays but needs some work on his tackling. McClure was effective but his lack of speed and limited coverage ability hurt us at times.
Projecting improvement in this group is not hard. The increased depth and experience on the DL will be the biggest catalyst for better performance. A step up from LB play will help as well. I believe our secondary will still be subpar and I worry a lot about our lack of experience at safety if McClure and Piatt are not ready to go in September. BTW, our safety play got meaningfully worse against the pass when Piatt came out. He was often replaced in zone defenses with Walker, Dozier and a walk on. Ugly.
Special teams were not as good as I had remembered. Coverage teams looked very average. Kicking was inconsistent including Leininger. KO returns were a relative strength and our FG kicking was okay but certainly not special.
I saw a lot of coaching decisions that didn’t go well. From our play calling with the lead at Arizona to clock management (we used a TO in the AZ game early in the 3rd quarter while on defense and thus had NONE before the last play of the game). In general I thought Franklin’s offensive play calling was very good. That said, I felt like the coaches coached without a lot of confidence in the team (perhaps a well deserved view) and the team looked not quite ready for prime time in terms of their confidence and swagger. Watching the games against similar teams - BYU, Arizona, UW - that we lost you could visually see a difference in the confidence level of the two teams. I expect the staff and the players to be more prepared to win this year.
Although we only beat average or bad teams. I thought we played best against better teams: Arizona, Oregon, UCLA were really good efforts. Frankly we played better in those three losses than in our wins against Colorado and Oregon State.
You can see the talent gap in regard to having bigger, stronger and faster players on the DL and in the secondary. Let's hope that gap is less obvious this season
Net, net is that our offense can and will get better. The OL will be the key. If it plays at a B+/A- level, this will be a special offense. Defensively, I see room for improvement especially if stay healthy and play well early (confidence!). I’m not sure where our big time defensive playmakers come from and that likely caps this teams potential. There's a missing mentality from our defense that I fear is still a year or two away from emerging.
The big positive is that there is a lot more room for improvement, especially on offense where I assumed our upside was limited. Some concerns about our overall talent level, game day coaching decisions and the general feel that the team didn’t believe very much in itself.
Jared Goff had a far better season than I remembered. Super impressed with his poise, his footwork and the number of big plays he made basically on his own. Some occasional ill advised decision making but overall he had a tremendous year.
Daniel Lasco was a breath of fresh air. Really solid vision and acceleration, Lasco combined the ability to break tackles as well as make defenders miss. A bit inconsistent with his pass catching and I felt like he was a bit dinged up late in the year. Not as excited about the rest of our backs. Watson looked small, not nearly decisive enough and he doesn’t flash exceptional quickness, speed or cutting ability. He’s agile and strong laterally but he’s going to need to improve markedly to ever be a feature back at this level. Muhammed is Muhammed. Built low to the ground with some strength and above average acceleration (but not special) he runs tough but doesn’t break tackles or make anyone miss. Enwere flashed the most potential of the backups but he ran too high and needs to show more initial burst. He looked better this Spring IMO.
We’re really going to miss Chris Harper. He was the teams best pass catcher. Creates separation, can accelerate away from defenders, plays the ball in the air really well with plus hands and body control. He can also make defenders miss for YAC. I thought our 2nd best receiver (all around) was Stephen Anderson. Exceptional blocker, really tough to press and to tackle, the guy plays fearlessly. His blocking alone made him invaluable but as the season progressed he became the go to guy for Goff on 3rd down and produced a ton of big plays. Treggs and Davis can play and I suspect they will take a big step up this year. They will need to make up for the lost big plays from Harper. Harris and Lawler are both very good players. Lawler was our TD maker, truly exceptional in the red zone. He needs to be more of a factor going over the middle and blocking. I have a lot of hope that we will see Hudson, Brown, Austin, Hansen and others step up. The one area where this group struggled and it’s a big one in this offense is blocking. I thought Harper was our 2nd best blocker behind Anderson. Need to get a lot better here.
The biggest insight from watching our offense again was our OL play. I remembered it being solid, would have given it a B+ based on my memory and the stats. Truth was they were far more of a B-. Pass protection was not good in the vast majority of our games, making Goff’s performance that much more exceptional. We struggled to keep the pocket clean against the better DLs and forced Goff to show his footwork wizardry in the pocket or rolling out and throwing out of it. Huge opportunity for improvement here as Crossthwaite was clearly the weakest link. The reason we had so few sacks was our system which gets the ball out quickly as well as Goff’s ballet like footwork. Our run blocking was substantially better. We mauled the weaker DLs and held our own against the better ones. Again Crossthwaite struggled the most here but he was still solid. Borrayo is the star of the group. By the Arizona game, he had found his rhythm and was destroying kids, getting to the 2nd level and mauling people. Rigsbee is also an exceptional run blocker. Adcock will be missed as you barely notice him, few mistakes, etc. Moore had some rough moments but was actually the better tackle by the end of the year than the out of position Rigsbee. Moore looks like he can add some strength and size as well.
I walk away from this film review of the offense feeling like we can get meaningfully better simply on the backs of stronger pass protection and continued improving run blocking. I do think we’ll need some WRs to step up as well as a back up RB and QB.
Defensively, I expected things to be uglier than they were. Biggest takeaways were that what pass rush that we had earlier all but disappeared after Scarlett got hurt. Secondly, we wore down in most games by the 4th quarter. There were more mental mistakes than I expected and while tackling was better than in 2013 it was still poor.
What was better than my memory was that for many segments of quite a few games, we were competitive (albeit with huge mental gaffes resulting in scores after playing well). The BYU game aside (where we looked tired, beat up and struggling to find our confidence), we played with energy, physicality and seem to be well prepared for our opponents offense.
Michael Lowe was the MVP of the defense. And it was not even close. He made tackles and he made plays with fewer mental errors than anyone in our back 7. Our front 7 was relatively solid against the run but they wore down. Jalil was by far our best DL and it wasn’t really close. Stats be damned, he was a force against the run and often required double teams, his big plays led to others getting tackles for loss, sacks or big hits.
I left the season feeling relatively sanguine about our LBs and how they performed last year. They were not as effective as I remembered. We looked small and struggled to get off blocks. Barton and Nickerson struggled at times with plays right at them. Barton was effective running sideline to sideline and he improved as the season wore on but lots of mental mistakes. Nickerson had two good games to finish the season. Good first step instincts but he still looks a step slow and 10lbs too light. Jefferson has the size and was very effective in coverage but too many missed assignments (especially against the run) and some less than physical play at times (was he fighting injuries?). Downs looked like a freshman out there. Flashed potential but over ran or missed far too many tackles. I thought Tongileva played really well against BYU and he looks huge. My sense is that this group has a nice blend of experience and depth going into 2015 but we need more consistent playmakers to emerge.
We blitzed A LOT more than I remember, especially the last third of the season, we unfortunately were simply not effective with it and even when we got some pressure, our secondary was a sieve. Our corner play was as bad as I remembered. Poor tacklers, bad mental mistakes especially when playing zone defenses, etc. Allensworth, Coleman and White were the most effective of the group but that’s damning by faint praise. Physically, Allensworth was in position a lot but failed to make plays and tackles. Coleman made some plays but needs some work on his tackling. McClure was effective but his lack of speed and limited coverage ability hurt us at times.
Projecting improvement in this group is not hard. The increased depth and experience on the DL will be the biggest catalyst for better performance. A step up from LB play will help as well. I believe our secondary will still be subpar and I worry a lot about our lack of experience at safety if McClure and Piatt are not ready to go in September. BTW, our safety play got meaningfully worse against the pass when Piatt came out. He was often replaced in zone defenses with Walker, Dozier and a walk on. Ugly.
Special teams were not as good as I had remembered. Coverage teams looked very average. Kicking was inconsistent including Leininger. KO returns were a relative strength and our FG kicking was okay but certainly not special.
I saw a lot of coaching decisions that didn’t go well. From our play calling with the lead at Arizona to clock management (we used a TO in the AZ game early in the 3rd quarter while on defense and thus had NONE before the last play of the game). In general I thought Franklin’s offensive play calling was very good. That said, I felt like the coaches coached without a lot of confidence in the team (perhaps a well deserved view) and the team looked not quite ready for prime time in terms of their confidence and swagger. Watching the games against similar teams - BYU, Arizona, UW - that we lost you could visually see a difference in the confidence level of the two teams. I expect the staff and the players to be more prepared to win this year.
Although we only beat average or bad teams. I thought we played best against better teams: Arizona, Oregon, UCLA were really good efforts. Frankly we played better in those three losses than in our wins against Colorado and Oregon State.
You can see the talent gap in regard to having bigger, stronger and faster players on the DL and in the secondary. Let's hope that gap is less obvious this season
Net, net is that our offense can and will get better. The OL will be the key. If it plays at a B+/A- level, this will be a special offense. Defensively, I see room for improvement especially if stay healthy and play well early (confidence!). I’m not sure where our big time defensive playmakers come from and that likely caps this teams potential. There's a missing mentality from our defense that I fear is still a year or two away from emerging.
