As I expected, watching the tape of this game did not make me feel any better. If possible, I now feel worse. Going into the game, I did not think Wake was a very good team. On tape they don’t appear to be a very good team. Well coached, sure. Experienced, and do they play with good technique? I think so. They anticipate well and they understand how to play the game. But they aren’t very talented, they aren’t very big, and they just aren’t very good. A tough scrappy team, but a team that we need to be able to beat comfortably by the time the 4th quarter starts if we want to be any good.
They gave us trouble last year, but last year they were better. Most notably, they had a good QB last year. Skinner really allowed them to pass very effectively. This year, their passing attack was non existent. Meaning we allowed a one dimensional team, which does not have a good offensive line, to score 20 points on us.
It is true that last year they gave us trouble and we were a good team last year. But, in the game last year, we couldn’t get out of our own way in terms of execution, and that appeared to be the problem. This year, we did not execute very well, but it appeared that the main reason they gave us so much trouble (and arguably should have beaten us) is that we just weren’t much better than they were. Last year, we dropped a long third down pass at their 2 yard line, settling for a field goal. We missed a wide open Thomas for a would be 70 yard TD. We fumbled the snap on a fourth and one play and fell on it. We had a 60 yard reverse TD to Hill called back for holding. Plays like that caused us to be in a dogfight even though we seemingly gained 15 yards every time we ran the option.
This year, by contrast, good option plays were few and far between, and they were in our backfield stuffing us for losses regularly. They stopped a fourth and one again, but we didn’t have to fumble. They just stopped us. We didn’t help ourselves with 5 fumbles. We only lost two, but the others caused us to lose yards and turned possible good plays into negatives. So execution hurt us, but even when we didn’t have any obvious execution problems, we didn’t seem to be moving the ball very well.
So what happened? Offense was the main problem. First, we got very poor blocking. As I see it, there are two possible reasons for this. One, we just aren’t very good. That is becoming increasingly likely. Or two, we are pretty talented, but young enough that we are still trying to learn how to play together, and how to do so at game speed. N.C. St was a very fast defense, and Wake Forest had good speed as well. Additionally, Wake Forest seemed to be actively trying to guess each play and aggressively jump the gaps in our line to get penetration into the backfield. That strategy can work well when you are playing an inexperienced offensive line, because inexperienced players tend to be hesitant. I did see a lot of plays where our linemen seemed to be surprised by how their defenders were moving. (conversely, we looked pretty good against UNC, who is a good defensive front but probably not as fast as Wake and State, especially on the D line).
Adding to the problems was the fact that they seemed to play with better technique. Their defenders consistently got underneath our blockers, winning the battle for leverage and allowing them to move relatively freely to clog up gaps. They also seemed to have better balance, which allowed them to move a little better. Finally, they looked more experienced. By that I mean they looked more sure of themselves, making decisive movements. Our guys sort of tip toed around, not appearing exactly sure of where to go or who to block.
Aside from the blocking, we played ok, but we did miss enough reads and drop enough passes that we failed to take advantage of many of the plays where we actually had openings. And of course the fumbles didn’t help. I do think we need to get back to pitching more, because the pitches in my opinion give our blocking the biggest margin for error. This is because the pitch plays attack the areas with the most space, so even if miss a block or two our runner has a reasonable chance to make one or two guys miss. If we pitch early and often, that usually causes the defense to spread out to stop it, and that allows the dive play to get going. More on that in the drive by drive analysis below.
Defensively we actually played pretty well. We did give up 20 points to a poor offense but we were put in some bad situations. They took over after a bad punt at our 35 and got no points, and we forced numerous three and outs. We also held them to two field goals when they were inside our ten. One of their touchdowns came after a fumble gave them the ball at our 20. We only gave up two real bad drives of the game. One was the first TD, where we had several chances to stop them and missed them all, allowing a 60 yard drive. The other was the final drive, where we let them go 55 yards for the go ahead field goal in crunch time.
On the whole the defense played well. I know Wake is not very good on offense, but our defense needs to build some confidence right now, so I’ll take what we can get.
Let’s take a look at the stats.
GT | WF | |
Rush Yards | 209 | 161 |
Yards Per Carry | 4.4 | 3.7 |
Pass Yards | 130 | 107 |
Yards Per Attempt | 6.2 | 4.7 |
Total Yards | 339 | 268 |
Yards Per Play | 4.9 | 4.1 |
Points | 24 | 20 |
Turnovers | 2 | 0 |
You can see there that we looked like the better team. We lost the turnover battle, which probably kept the game closer than it should have been. However, I wonder how different the stats looked until our last two drives of the game. We looked significantly more urgent to me on those last two, or even the last three counting the FG drive before the last two TD’s. My guess is that for the first 50 minutes of the game, we were losing the battle statistically.
Here is how I grade the units –
QB – Nesbitt played great, and he gets a 9. Could have made a couple better throws, and a few more reads, but he played well the whole game and made several great runs and throws.
O line – 2 out of 10. Looked outclassed for most of the game, and I don’t think Wake’s front is very good. A lot of confusion and hesitation.
Running Backs – 5 out of 10. They didn’t block very well either, but they did make several nice catches. I would say the running was average.
Receivers – 3 out of 10. They made a few plays on the last couple of drives, but Melton also dropped a 50 yard great pass on the last drive, and they had several drops the rest of the game. Hill had a few noticeable ones once again. The guy is really going to be a good player for us, I am convinced. But how long do we have to wait?
D line – 7 out of 10. They could have overwhelmed Wake’s O line, because its not very good, and they didn’t, but they did win the battle. And they pressured QB’s, made tackles and broke up a few passes. Overall good game.
Linebackers – 8 out of 10. Very good game.
Secondary – 6 out of 10. Tarrant played a terrific game, and Johnson tackled well, but there were some breakdowns in pass defense, and Wake Forest is not very good passing the ball. Particularly with their third and fourth string QB’s playing. Come on guys.
Here is the drive by drive analysis:
WF first drive
Good defense for us. They helped us out to start with a false start penalty. Aside from that the first drive was pretty similar to the rest of the game, and is what our defense would look like if we were good enough up front to beat the blocks of good teams. We aren’t very good up front, but we were good enough that Wake Forest (bad blocking team) could not block us.
They ran twice for 2 yards, and on third and 13 almost completed a tough pass over the middle, but we made a decent play to knock it out of his hands at the last minute.
Three plays, negative 3 yards, punt.
GT first drive
We actually appeared able to get a pretty good push on Wake’s defensive front. At least at first. On several plays their nose tackle made tackles or affected the play even after he was pushed back a yard or two, because he was lower than our guy. After the initial push, he was underneath and had leverage on our lineman. That allowed him to shrug him to the side and get back into the play, jamming up Allen and letting the linebackers move wide a little earlier (good example of the better technique I mentioned earlier). We picked up a first down with a good run by Cone on a receiver screen, but then they stopped us when their nose tackle stuffed Allen and then Nesbitt was run down from behind on a counter option. That forced third and long and we threw a poor pass, which Hill made a poor attempt to catch.
Six plays, 10 yards, field goal. Good kick by Blair. (note that we only gained ten yards but got a field goal. We started on their half of the field. Wasted chance to get off to a good start.
WF second drive
Another three and out. Only really played well on one play of three though. First down great blitz, two guys come in unimpeded to the QB, but both clumsily take the same angle and whiff, letting him run for 7 yards. We stuff a run for a loss of 2 and then blitz on third down, don’t get there, but they miss a makeable pass into the flat. QB threw it over his head. Coverage was ok, but we really didn’t force that. Might have been a half yard short for the first anyway though.
Three plays, 5 yards, punt.
GT second drive
We were moving the ball down the field pretty well with good blocking. Only complaint I have is that on one play Nesbitt gave to Allen when the middle was pretty clogged and there was only one guy to the outside. We had a counter triple option, with the A back who would eventually be the pitch many coming in motion from a wide receiver spot. At the snap, he turned around and ran back to the side where he started. They were fooled, thinking we would option the way he motioned, and only had one man over there. I think if Nesbitt keeps we might hit a big play there, maybe even a TD, as we were at Wake’s 40 already. As it was, Allen gained 4.
But the drive was rolling along until a terrible play, a called run right for Nesbitt where both A backs lead block for him. Two linemen badly missed blocks, and they pursued well, hitting us for a loss of 5 or so. On top of that Phil Smith got a personal foul. That set up third and 23. And really, somewhat amazingly, with a good pass/catch we should have converted. Cone was open. But we missed it. The pass was worse than the catch, but it could have been caught.
Six plays, thirty yards, but backed up 15 by a penalty, punt.
WF third drive
On the first play they ran a very good play, running straight ahead with one guy but having a receiver coming around to fake a handoff a split second later on a fake reverse. Our outside linebacker and corner bit on that, and their offensive line did a good job sealing our defensive line. On top of that, our safety on that side let himself get inside a blocker, so the running back was able to get about 50 yards before Tarrant ran him down, saving a TD. Really good game for Tarrant by the way. He seemed like he was everywhere, but especially wreaking havoc behind the line of scrimmage.
After that, their offensive line started to have some success, as they ran two plays down to our ten yard line pretty easily. But then Tarrant stuffed a running play for a loss of three on a great blitz. They gained about 6 back on a bootleg, and then from third and goal from the 6 we forced a dump off pass into the flat and tackled him at the 4.
OK drive after the big play. Very poor execution there though. And it appears that we are starting to get to that point (that seems to come pretty early every game?!) where the other team begins to do noticeably better blocking us. Tired? Well before that play we had only been on the field for 6 plays. Sigh.
70 yards, 6 plays, held to a field goal.
GT third drive
Another play started this drive where I thought we had a good pitch working, and Nesbitt gave it to Allen for 4 yards. On the next play we did pitch to Orwin, and even though they had played the pitch much better this time, Orwin made a couple guys miss to get 5. After a penalty, setting up third and 6 instead of third and 1, we converted with a good throw. Then we hit Bostic on a pitch for about 20.
We finally got going on this drive where we pitched twice. I couldn’t help but think, why haven’t we been pitching more? I have always thought that our offense, since its based on speed, is actually backwards from the old power options in that the pitch sets up everything else. Nebraska in its old triple option used to try to establish the dive man, and then get to the pitch. I always thought that our offense really works better when we play as fast as we can, and get a few pitches. By “playing fast”, I mean Nesbitt taking off as fast as he can for the corner and the A back being right with him, so that the pitch actually goes a little bit forward. That is when the triple option pitch hits so fast that its very hard to defend. We seem to be largely ignoring the pitch, and especially those type of hyper fast pitches, so far this year. I wonder why that is? I am sure Paul knows what is going on better than I do and he is working on it, but I do wonder about that.
Anyway, after that play to Bostic, we ran three plays without much blocking. On second down their nose tackle got off his block way too easily and darted in to turn Nesbitt back. We optioned left, and maybe had an ok play working, but the nose tackle was in so fast that it caught Nesbitt off guard, and forced him back inside where he had nowhere to go. Then on third down, we didn’t block anybody but Nesbitt broke about 3 tackles to gain 4 yards and almost a first down. We go for it on fourth from there 20, but they lined up several guys on the line and blitzed right by the center. One guy came in unblocked and hit Nesbitt before he could do anything. Not really sure how to counter that. Although Nesbitt did have Orwin on the pitch. The play was just starting so Orwin was nowhere near turning the corner, and they had plenty of guys there to pursue him, but he would have had a better chance than Nesbitt did. But Nesbitt hardly had any time to think, so oh well, good guess by them to jump the middle of our line with a big blitz.
50 yards on 8 plays, turnover on downs.
WF fourth drive
Shaky start, getting fooled badly on second and long on a screen pass for twenty yards. But then we played well, blitzing and stuffing a reverse for a loss of 6, then doing better on a screen, and then blitzing very well to force a throw away.
5 plays, 20 yards, punt.
GT fourth drive
Awful execution here. First we block nobody again. Actually, we block everyone but only for a second. Again we get a good push up front, but they seem to have better technique. They get underneath us and shed us quickly, and then pursue the play. Because of this, we option and it goes nowhere. Then we fumble the snap, and fall on it. On third and long we try to pass, block nobody again, and get sacked.
3 plays, loss of 7 yards, punt.
WF fifth drive
They run three straight option plays on us. We defend them all well, but a poor tackle on second down allows the runner to get a couple extra yards, bringing up third and two. Where the QB falls down for us. We might have stopped him anyway, but that made it easier.
3 plays, 8 yards, punt.
GT fifth drive
First play we option and pitch to Bostic on the right for 15 yards. Great block by Allen to help spring him, completely taking his guy out of the play. That was necessary because there wasn’t much space over there.
Then we option the other way, pitch to Bostic again, and there appears to be a seam. Can’t tell how far he would have gotten downfield, but its safe to say at least 5 yards and maybe much more. But he dropped it. And Wake got it. And we had been at WF’s 40, so that was another promising drive wasted.
1 play, 15 yards, fumbled.
WF sixth drive
Poor execution here. We played pretty good defense most of the drive. Had two shots to get off the field. The first came right away on third and 13. We let him scramble for the first after a poor blitz, which was really terrible since they hadn’t been passing well at all, so you wonder why we weren’t guarding against a scramble a little more. You have to contain him. Then the next set of downs we forced third and three and they converted with a receiver screen for about ten yards. Then they finally draw up a good pass play, faking a run, bootlegging and dragging the tight end. Given how often they were running, I don’t mind us biting on that fake too much. That got them to our 2, and from there they actually needed 4 plays to score. We really were stronger up front. In fact, on 4th, we had a good shot to stop them. Our front line got good penetration. Would have liked to see our linebackers play with a little more desperation there. Instead they hesitated and the back barely got in. If we launch forward aggressively (somewhat like Wake was doing to us most of the game) then we probably stop him for a loss and a turnover on downs.
12 plays, 57 yards, TD.
GT sixth drive.
More poor executuion. We are down to only about a minute in the half, so all passes. First down it appears that Cone was interfered with deep but no call. Then Hill drops a pretty easy 15 yard pass. Nice. Lyons makes up for it with a good screen catch from Nesbitt, who made a good pass into traffic, and then Lyons ran for about 35 yards. After, Nesbitt scrambled for a few, we optioned and Roddy missed a block, and then Hill dropped a 20 yard pass at WF’s ten yard line. Come on Man!
So we settle for a FG and head into half. Catch the ball and we probably had a shot for a touchdown.
6 plays, 45 yards, FG.
Halftime.
GT seventh drive
Came out of halftime and got absolutely no push up front. Toughed out 6 yards on first and second behind no blocking. But then Wake read a screen pass perfectly. Clearly Grobe had them coached up pretty well. When Nesbitt rolled right, the LB’s figured out quickly that he was about to turn back and they all pursued, leaving Hill no space to catch and run.
Three and out, 6 yards, punt.
Wake Forest seventh drive
Good defense against the run for two plays, and then they dropped a screen pass that looked well set up. They had to go seven yards. We might have stopped them, but it looked questionable. Fortunately, an unforced error.
Three and out, 3 yards, punt.
GT eighth drive
Crazy silly drive here. We start off with a couple of bad runs. The most important was second down. We run the counter inside handoff to Peeples, have two linemen pulling and they have only two guys to block, so it could be a real good gain. But both linemen try to block the same guy. And both miss. That’s two on one, and still no block. Wow. Loss of a yard. We convert third and long with a good pass, but that’s called back for a penalty. Then they give us a first with pass interference. We run a couple of good runs finally, but on the second one we were called for holding which set up second and 15. Smith dropped a catchable but bad pass that would have been a first down. Then Smith caught one and made an ok run. I was surprised here to see Orwin not get a first down when he probably could have. He usually runs very angry, urgently and aggressively taking space. Here he seemed to be picking his way a little bit. That set up fourth down, which we went for at our own 35, which tells you a little bit about where Paul Johnson’s mind was at this point. We got it though with a toss that apparently they weren’t expecting. I think they were ready to jump anything in the middle again and this call fooled them. But we killed the next series with a poor pitch on second down that was fumbled backwards 10 yards or so. We recovered, but that killed the drive. Nesbitt was sacked on third down.
12 plays and in the end I think we technically only gained about 5 yards. Outrageous nonsense there.
Wake Forest eighth drive
More good defense. We covered well on first, stopped a run on second, then had one bad play, giving up third and ten easily over the middle on a pass. Then we stopped two more runs easily, one with a great tackle on second down, standing up a guy one on one when he had some serious momentum. I think it was Julian Burnett. Then on third down our D line finally recognized a screen and broke it up, which was good because we were about to give up a first down if he caught it, I think.
15 yards, 6 plays, punt.
WF ninth drive
BUT… then our guy ran into Tarrant on the punt and forced him to fumble the catch. Wake recovered at our 20, and they moved the ball a little too easily this time. Our defense had a chance to get a big stop and force a FG. They played well most of the day, but this was not very good. They gave up a 6 yard run easily up the gut. Then the D line broke up another screen, but on third and four, we let them option for 9 yards on a QB keeper. From there, they ran from the 6 to the 4, against what I would call ok defense. Then on second and goal they ran a shotgun sweep to the right, and the running back cut back to the middle, where we had nobody because we blitzed the other side and overpursued from the middle to the outside, where the run appeared to be headed. They blocked it pretty well as well.
5 plays, 20 yards, TD. And we didn’t even force a third down when they got inside our ten yard line.
GT ninth drive
Another quick three and out. Two poor triple option attempts, where their guys did a good job beating our blocks, or in a couple of cases, simply pushing aggressively forward and going around our blockers, who seemed surprised that the defense might run forward. We then tried to throw deep, but first Josh had to make a guy miss in the backfield since we can’t block. And it was incomplete.
3 plays, zero yards, and a snap over the punters head, resulting in a ten yard punt.
So wake takes over around our 35
Wake Forest tenth drive
Great defense here. We stopped two running plays pretty well, and aided by a false start it was third and 11. There we pressured them into a bad pass. Coverage was ok, a good pass would have gained about 10 but probably would have been short of the first as it was to the sideline and the runner was going out of bounds. But we made it difficult and they could not convert. Huge three and out there, when they took over deep in our territory, and ended up getting no points.
3 plays, zero yards, punt.
GT tenth drive
Well we had a great drive going. We start with a decent pass play that draws pass interference. Then we get some good blocking and a great run by Nesbitt, turning what should have been about a 7 or 8 yard gain into a 50 yard gain. We keep the good blocking going for the next two plays. On first we option right and it appeared that any of the three options would have gotten a pretty good gain. The one we picked was Allen, and he got 9 yards. Then we dialed up the option again, and this time Nesbitt kept and it appeared we had a good play working, but the refs blew it dead for a false start. That killed the drive. Up until now we appeared to be coming off the ball with a purpose. At this point, I cant tell if we lost a step or if Wake really started attacking again. Either way, they appeared to jump the triple option right this time (PJ called the same play that we half ran on the false start and I guess Wake thought he might do that), stuffing Nesbitt for a loss. Then we tried to run a QB draw, but blocked no one, so we settled for a field goal.
Five plays, 55 yards, field goal.
We really could have used a TD there.
WF eleventh drive
Another big stand at a very good time. We played two running plays well then our cornerback broke up a receiver screen. They started the drive at their ten after a penalty on the kickoff return, so they punted from deep in their own territory and we got the ball at the 50.
3 plays, 3 yards, punt.
GT eleventh drive
We must have gotten pushed back to our 40 by a penalty, but I cant figure it out from ESPN U’s fantastic telecast. Anyway, two good runs in a row by Allen netted about 37 yards. The second one is where Allen really got loose, running untouched for 30 yards. We did a much better job of putting a hat on a hat and controlling the guys we were blocking, and then Allen made a nice cut outside to avoid two linebackers and use the one free blocker he had to impede their progress enough so he could get around. That set us up with a first down at their 25. From there, we run a toss right, block it terribly, but Orwin finds 3 yards anyway. A triple option on second down gets 2 yards as Nesbitt keeps, but I think he probably should have given the ball to Allen. Anyway on third and five their D line break up the pass. We go for it on 4th and Nesbitt just makes a great play to roll right, buy time, and find Peeples at the goalline. And Peeples made a good play going up to get the ball in a little bit of traffic. We then convert the two pretty easily, to tie the game up, with the same QB draw that we used to convert the two point conversion to tie the game up against UGA in 2008.
6 plays, 62 yards, and a TD.
Wake Forest twelth drive
6:50 left in the game at this point. Would have been a great time for a big defensive stand. But… we start off by letting them bring the kick out to their 35. We had done a pretty good job in kick coverage so far, but that wasn’t good. We start the drive by stopping two running plays, but then let them convert third down with a quick out route that was a little too easy. Then we stop too more running plays, but let them convert third down with another out, but this time we also covered him so poorly that he turns it up and runs down to our 20. On the next play, a silly personal foul, pushing the QB down by his helmet after he threw the ball, gave them a first down at our ten. We defended a run well on first, and then made a deep cross difficult on second. The receiver dropped a good pass, but it was covered well so I give us a little credit for partially causing that. Huge third down coming up. Would have been nicer to stop them a long time ago, but a FG is much better than a TD with only 3 minutes left. Grobe lets us off the hook with a draw play. I guess he wanted to make the clock run so we either have less time or we have to burn a timeout. Good planning I suppose, but we were going to have over two minutes anyway, so I think if I were Grobe I would have gone for the TD.
Anyway, we stopped the running play. So they ran 10 plays, gained 55 yards, and kicked a FG. Defense played well all day, but here was a chance to really stand tall, and they didn’t really do it. Allowing a 55 yard drive when the game may be on the line is hardly a big success.
GT twelfth drive
Ok return out to our 30 by Bostic.
On first down, Nesbitt made a GREAT play to avoid a sack and then throw a 50 yard strike to Melton which is promptly dropped. It was over the shoulder so it would have been a tough catch, but still, great pass, we have to make that play. At that point I started to think we may have lost our chance. On second down Nesbitt tries Hill deep, but he was too well covered. That brings up third and ten, and we throw for 6 yards to Melton, presumably to make fourth down more manageable. We don’t like to do things the easy, relaxing way, do we?
On fourth Nesbitt makes a very calm, smart play, rolling out to pass but seeing he had the scramble, and running for 15 yards. He is really clutch. Then we get a quick snap and throw it for 9 yards immediately to Roddy because the defense wasn’t set yet. On second and short Nesbitt rolls left and hits Hill on a ten yard out, getting us inside Wake’s 30 and stopping the clock as Hill got out of bounds. 1:18 left now. Those two plays were so easy that many fans probably overlooked their importance during the game. I know I did. But 20 yards in about 20 seconds at that stage was really critical. Good execution and a good job quickly attacking a defense back on its heels.
We option short side now, presumably so that we can get out of bounds. Nesbitt is forced to pitch right away, which he does to Lyons, who makes a really good run to break a few tackles, gain 5 yards and get out of bounds. Nice play there. On second and five protection breaks down and Nesbitt falls forward to only lose a yard, bringing up third and six. There they (surprisingly) give us a pretty easy out to Orwin for the first down at their 16, and Orwin gets out of bounds stopping the clock with 49 seconds left. Big play there as well. Blair has been great all year, but I wouldn’t have really wanted to try a 42 or 43 yard field goal that would be a must make to tie the game.
On the ensuing first down, we option right and pitch to Embry, again the pitch was forced right away, and he gets about five but stays in bounds. We call a pass but Nesbitt ends up having to scramble forward for about two. I would have rather he thrown the ball out the back of the end zone, but oh well, he played a good game, so I can forgive that. We have to burn our last time out, which pretty much means, with 17 seconds left, that our third down play will have to be a pass to the end zone so its either a TD or the incompletion stops the clock. We run a ten yard slant into the end zone, and Nesbitt throws a strike to Corey Earls. Another clutch play. Nesbitt really deserves more credit. He did miss a few reads this game (I think) but you cant be perfect. He threw the ball really well, and would have had a really good stat line if we didn’t have so many drops. And he made several good plays on this drive (gasp – many were even pass plays… I thought this offense fell apart if we had to pass, according to the commentators anyway) to win the game.
Obviously that was the end of the game. We made it a little shaky at the end by kicking out of bounds, giving them the ball at their 40. But they essentially just threw three hail mary’s and we hung on, which is to be expected when they need a TD drive with only about 15 seconds left.
Here is how we fared in my goals for the game:
Offense
Gain at least 500 yards – 400 rushing 100 passing
Didn’t really get close to this. 130 passing, but only 209 rushing. Disappointing.
No more than 1 turnover
Two turnovers.
At least 42 points
Not even close. 24.
Defense
No more than 21 points (this is a little high, but I think our D needs a cushion)
Well, we got this one, but barely.
No more than 300 yards
Nice job here.
Force at least 2 turnovers.
Forced none. Yes, none.
Overall, I would call that a disappointing week, but we at least pulled it together in time to get the win. It could have been much, much worse. But we need to get better. Much, much better if we are going to make any noise in the Coastal race.
The good news is we can do it. Coach Johnson got us to do it in 2008. Remember how that team came together? The offensive line, albeit undersized and not with great talent, really started to figure things out as we beat FSU, Miami and UGA to end the year. We played a poor game in Chapel Hill in between FSU and Miami, but on the whole 2008 was a really good finish.
This offensive line is significantly more talented than that one. I do still believe that, even after watching the past few games. Hopefully, the offense starts to click for them like it did for the 2008 group. If everything comes together, and the defense keeps improving, we could be a pretty good team pretty soon. Or, I could be wrong about everything, and we could lose to anyone left on the schedule and finish about 6-6. But I don’t think I am wrong.
As always, Go Jackets!
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