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Post by hoidOfYolen on Sept 19, 2021 20:48:15 GMT -5
I'm reasonably pleased with our overall performance today. If you forget about the 4th quarter, our defense played an exceptional game against a team that I expect to be ranked in the FBS top 25 at some point this season. The O Line, which I thought would be exploited by the App defense, did their job today. If I have any disappointment, it's with Cheek & the offensive skill players. Cheek looked like he didn't trust his pass accuracy, even though he had lot's of time to throw, took sacks or threw the ball away too many times. We also need a big bruiser running back to play at this level. But enough of the negative. At the beginning of the season I expected us to be in the bottom 3 of the conference. Today we showed we can be in the top half. If our offense gets it together, we could be in the top 3. The OLine did have a good day pass blocking against a strong FBS DLine, because being able to give Cheek time on a few big downs was impressive enough, but a good day doesn't mean they played amazing. Cheek was taking sacks and throwing the ball away because the DLine and Linebackers were able to get to him periodically, and they weren't rushing more than 4 on almost any downs. It was great experience for our OLine to go up against App State. But I'm not sure where the feeling that Cheek "didn't trust his pass accuracy" comes from to be honest. I thought he had a great day overall, along with a couple mistakes that 9 times out of 10 he executes on.
I think where our OLine struggles is with run blocking. We ran for 2.4 ypc and even that was padded by a couple long runs and some strong efforts by our RBs. It wasn't often that the RBs had solid holes to run through. Now, that's kind of to be expected against FBS App State, but we have had the same problem against our two FCS opponents too, with very few rushing yards per carry. It'll be interesting to see if we can improve our run game against William & Mary.
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Post by comeonelon on Sept 20, 2021 7:51:01 GMT -5
The biggest problem I see with the offense right now is the coaching staff’s complete inability to recognize true talent in player’s ability. The offensive line in my opinion has played well so far this year. The quarterback is obviously good for the most part. Receivers as well. The running backs have under performed big time. Jalen is good but not an every play back. Witherspoon is ok but not a big play guy. The two freshmen are terrible and are completely overwhelmed at this point. They need to give Christman the opportunity. He looked really good in mop up duty Saturday and from watching him play in high school can be a special kind of player. More heart than anyone on the team but to this coaching staff heart doesn’t seem to matter and that is what is missing. He should be given a chance. What could it hurt?
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Post by elonparent on Sept 20, 2021 8:13:15 GMT -5
To run the ball against bigger teams like App. you need bigger RB's! Like 220lbs. bruisers! We don't have that. We need to get the tight end involved more. He's big and is a play maker.
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Post by epx on Sept 20, 2021 10:04:06 GMT -5
The biggest problem I see with the offense right now is the coaching staff’s complete inability to recognize true talent in player’s ability. The offensive line in my opinion has played well so far this year. The quarterback is obviously good for the most part. Receivers as well. The running backs have under performed big time. Jalen is good but not an every play back. Witherspoon is ok but not a big play guy. The two freshmen are terrible and are completely overwhelmed at this point. They need to give Christman the opportunity. He looked really good in mop up duty Saturday and from watching him play in high school can be a special kind of player. More heart than anyone on the team but to this coaching staff heart doesn’t seem to matter and that is what is missing. He should be given a chance. What could it hurt? I agree with you on Christman. He's as tough as they come. He is small though. I'd like to see him anywhere, but a few sweeps at slot and RB would be interesting to see. Give him a chance! |
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Post by comeonelon on Sept 20, 2021 11:06:16 GMT -5
The biggest problem I see with the offense right now is the coaching staff’s complete inability to recognize true talent in player’s ability. The offensive line in my opinion has played well so far this year. The quarterback is obviously good for the most part. Receivers as well. The running backs have under performed big time. Jalen is good but not an every play back. Witherspoon is ok but not a big play guy. The two freshmen are terrible and are completely overwhelmed at this point. They need to give Christman the opportunity. He looked really good in mop up duty Saturday and from watching him play in high school can be a special kind of player. More heart than anyone on the team but to this coaching staff heart doesn’t seem to matter and that is what is missing. He should be given a chance. What could it hurt? I agree with you on Christman. He's as tough as they come. He is small though. I'd like to see him anywhere, but a few sweeps at slot and RB would be interesting to see. Give him a chance! |
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Post by comeonelon on Sept 20, 2021 11:08:05 GMT -5
I appreciate you agreeing with me but compared to the other running backs he is no smaller and in fact he is bigger than those two undersized freshman who run great sideline to sideline but never gain a yard running north to south.
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Post by epx on Sept 20, 2021 12:23:12 GMT -5
I appreciate you agreeing with me but compared to the other running backs he is no smaller and in fact he is bigger than those two undersized freshman who run great sideline to sideline but never gain a yard running north to south. To clarify, when I said small, I should have said thin, because he's 2" taller than Witherspoon & Thomas. However, I noticed he's listed at 197 lb. on the roster, (at which I just looked). He must have put on some muscle over the last year. I saw him a little over a year ago & he couldn't have weighed more than 185. Even more of a reason to give him a shot! |
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Post by elonparent on Sept 20, 2021 15:39:44 GMT -5
We have a lot of younger player makers on this roster. When we're down by 24 and the coaching staff has pretty much "thrown in the towel" like the second have of the App. game we should be playing these players. Elon hasn’t had a winning season in three years now. Most if not all the scholarship players on this team come from winning high school programs. It’s frustrating for them to lose all the time. The transfer portal is going to kill us if we can't produce a winning team ASAP. Like it or not all these players want to win, and we are going to have a hard time keeping and recruiting players if we have another losing season with out making any changes to the program.
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Post by comeonelon on Sept 20, 2021 17:56:41 GMT -5
Unfortunately, I don’t think things will change for Elon football without a coaching change. I don’t mean to come on here and bash coaches when I have no clue what goes on day to day. I am sure they work hard day in and day out to be prepared and typically they are. I don’t see the effort on Saturdays to make the team better by playing kids that have heart and a passion to win. Everyone wants to win. I understand that. But wanting to win and refusing to loose are two different things. Play the kids that give you that effort every play! Like a Christman kid for example and I’m sure several others as well. There in game game management and clock management can be very suspect as well. I for one will still support them. Just my two cents which really means nothing but why keep doing the same things over and over that aren’t successful.
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Post by everygivensaturday on Sept 23, 2021 23:04:50 GMT -5
The biggest problem I see with the offense right now is the coaching staff’s complete inability to recognize true talent in player’s ability. The offensive line in my opinion has played well so far this year. The quarterback is obviously good for the most part. Receivers as well. The running backs have under performed big time. Jalen is good but not an every play back. Witherspoon is ok but not a big play guy. The two freshmen are terrible and are completely overwhelmed at this point. They need to give Christman the opportunity. He looked really good in mop up duty Saturday and from watching him play in high school can be a special kind of player. More heart than anyone on the team but to this coaching staff heart doesn’t seem to matter and that is what is missing. He should be given a chance. What could it hurt? |
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Post by bigcat on Sept 24, 2021 7:17:19 GMT -5
Time will tell all.
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Post by comeonelon on Sept 24, 2021 7:29:58 GMT -5
Time will tell all only if they are willing to try it. I can’t imagine much will change with this staff. We will see tomorrow but I doubt you will see any opportunities given in the run game.
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