Adidas410s
11-19-2005, 12:25 AM
And for my 1500th post…my thoughts on Gainesville…Decatur…and what I think it will take for somebody to beat Gainesville
First off...what Gainesville does well:
1. Obviously they have plenty of speed on the field. They don’t look to be as fast as during their state title run in 2003, and I say this mainly because of the QB position, but they are still faster than 98% of all other teams in 3A.
2. Execution. As far as where the play is going, they execute very well. They do not disguise their offense much…what you see is what you get…come and stop it.
3. They tackle well. Gainesville did a good job of keeping the game in front of them (not that it was very hard tonight…I will get to that in a minute) and flowing well to the ball and not missing tackles.
4. Turnovers. They held on to the ball (paramount in ANY game…especially in the 1st half of a playoff game) and took advantage of EVERY Decatur turnover and mistake.
Thoughts on Decatur…
1. I thought Decatur was a team that THREW the ball and mixed in the run. I can think of either 1 or 2 passes that Decatur threw in the 3 quarters that I watched that actually went past 10 yards. Check that…there were 3 of them and they completed 1 of them. The majority of their passes were various screens to receivers no more than 2 yards beyond the LOS (often behind the line) and were completely ineffective against Gainesville. Did the coaches forget to watch tape on Gainesville’s defense and notice that they will bring a lot of pressure up front and give a cushion on your receivers? Decatur must have missed this because they were throwing sideways and hoping that the other wide outs could block well enough to allow the receiver to break a big play. It didn’t happen…not once! Hmm… Also, if you are going to try and use the zone read offense to run the ball…tell your RB that he needs to run hard whether he is getting the ball or not. Then again, Maxon (sp) would take the handoff and spend the entire night looking for a hole to break a big play. So instead of taking the 4-5 yards he could have got most of the time…he kept trying to bounce it outside for 20 yards but was never able to.
2. Decatur was completely dominated up front on both sides of the ball. Gainesville broke A LOT of big runs on dive and draw plays right up the middle. Decatur stuck to their base 4-3 defense despite the fact that it was apparent that Gainesville wasn’t going to throw the ball unless necessary.
3. TACKLE PLEASE!!! Decatur would NOT wrap up guys on defense. They spent the entire game trying to arm tackle and strip the ball…which wasn’t happening. This resulted in Gainesville turning a 15 yard pass into a 40 yard TD…a 10 yard punt return into a TD…a 5-10 yd gain on a run into 40-50 yard TD on more than one occasion…I could keep giving examples but you get the point. Gainesville was not some amazing offense that couldn’t be stopped…Decatur just spent the entire game looking for the big play to try and generate some momentum as opposed to controlling the game and putting together a methodical drive or two and get some points on the board.
4. HOLD ONTO THE BALL!!! This just in…Decatur has fumbled AGAIN. I think the count is somewhere around 37...j/k but they coughed it up at least 4 or 5 times before I left and then I got word that they returned the ball inside the Gainesville 20 only to fumble it again on the first play. It doesn’t take any great analysis from me to explain how to hold onto the ball.
Finally…what will it take for Wylie/Canyon to beat Gainesville.
1. First off…though this statement will sound like I’m being a homer…based on the type of system that Wylie and Canyon run…I would say Wylie is 3-4X more likely to beat Gainesville that Canyon would be. I will not explore those reasons because that game has yet to be played and it’s not fair to either team to start looking ahead. K so I guess #1 really isn’t a point…let me try again with #2
2. Ball control – Controlling the clock against Gainesville is important. This isn’t because the Leopards have a high-powered offense that can score quickly but simply because the more plays you can run on offense…you can wear down their defense which is VERY aggressive in their front 7 and it will allow you to begin to exploit weaknesses later in the game. Having a balanced mix of mid-level passing with a power run game. I don’t see the option being too effective because Gainesville has LB’s that pursue the ball well and often it will take all 5 OL guys to contain the front 4…thus leaving the LB’s either unblocked or being blocked by WR’s…not your ideal situation.
3. Use a mid-range passing game. Gainesville has two areas in their stock defense that can be exploited. From their 4-3 defense…they have one LB that will apply pressure to the strong side of the field and if he reads a pass drop back into coverage on whatever receiver/back comes his way. This leaves a hole between 5-8 yards on his side of the field that is uncovered by the other two LB’s as they tend to stay close together and spy the QB. Now the spy part is in large part because Decatur likes to roll their QB the side of the field where he will be throwing from to help offset inaccuracies in his throws. The other big area that is available to throw to is between 8-15 yards beyond the LOS. Gainesville typically gives 5-8 yards of cushion from their DB’s and their safeties will stay between 15-20 yards deep to keep everything in front of them. As a result…it leaves a gap between the LB’s and safeties that can be exploited through crossing routes. Of course…it requires having a receiver who is willing to go across the middle because their LB’s can certainly bring a big hit.
4. Make Gainesville’s QB beat you. If you can get enough pressure at the point of attack the QB will keep the ball in the zone read and he is not a great runner. He was not particularly fast nor did he have a lot of moves that were making defenders miss…even the Decatur guys could bring him down with their weak arm tackling. Also, his arm is not exceptionally strong and most of their passes will be thrown in 2nd and/or 3rd and long situations and he is capable of floating the ball. Gainesville has plenty of talent in the backfield between #’s 34, 3, and either 6 or 8 (can’t remember which) so the opposing defense get initial pressure that forces West to keep the ball and try to make plays on his own.
Well sorry for writing a small novel. I made RMAC drive and I just started typing and wait for everything to sort itself out in my head. To sum it up…Gainesville is VERY good but from my view tonight they are not as good as the team that I saw win state in 2003. They have plenty of speed in backs and good size on the lines…but they lack a QB with big-play ability if he is forced to take control of the play and while their D-line can put a lot of pressure on the QB…they do not have the same speed as they did in ’03 and they do give a good QB enough time go through a progression…consider a zone read/draw run play and to scramble out of the pocket whereas in 2003 nobody was getting outside of the pocket with the great speed they had on DL. I sure would love to see them play Wylie/Canyon next week. Maybe my work schedule will allow me to catch this game but seeing as it will be a day or two after Thanksgiving…I find it highly unlikely so I will have to resort to the radio and internet. It was nice to meet some more of you guys from the board tonight…I totally forgot to take a pic until I was back in the stands…sorry RM!!! Well…I’m gonna snooze for a few until we get back to Graham…welcome to the avatar club Adidas!!!
:D :D
First off...what Gainesville does well:
1. Obviously they have plenty of speed on the field. They don’t look to be as fast as during their state title run in 2003, and I say this mainly because of the QB position, but they are still faster than 98% of all other teams in 3A.
2. Execution. As far as where the play is going, they execute very well. They do not disguise their offense much…what you see is what you get…come and stop it.
3. They tackle well. Gainesville did a good job of keeping the game in front of them (not that it was very hard tonight…I will get to that in a minute) and flowing well to the ball and not missing tackles.
4. Turnovers. They held on to the ball (paramount in ANY game…especially in the 1st half of a playoff game) and took advantage of EVERY Decatur turnover and mistake.
Thoughts on Decatur…
1. I thought Decatur was a team that THREW the ball and mixed in the run. I can think of either 1 or 2 passes that Decatur threw in the 3 quarters that I watched that actually went past 10 yards. Check that…there were 3 of them and they completed 1 of them. The majority of their passes were various screens to receivers no more than 2 yards beyond the LOS (often behind the line) and were completely ineffective against Gainesville. Did the coaches forget to watch tape on Gainesville’s defense and notice that they will bring a lot of pressure up front and give a cushion on your receivers? Decatur must have missed this because they were throwing sideways and hoping that the other wide outs could block well enough to allow the receiver to break a big play. It didn’t happen…not once! Hmm… Also, if you are going to try and use the zone read offense to run the ball…tell your RB that he needs to run hard whether he is getting the ball or not. Then again, Maxon (sp) would take the handoff and spend the entire night looking for a hole to break a big play. So instead of taking the 4-5 yards he could have got most of the time…he kept trying to bounce it outside for 20 yards but was never able to.
2. Decatur was completely dominated up front on both sides of the ball. Gainesville broke A LOT of big runs on dive and draw plays right up the middle. Decatur stuck to their base 4-3 defense despite the fact that it was apparent that Gainesville wasn’t going to throw the ball unless necessary.
3. TACKLE PLEASE!!! Decatur would NOT wrap up guys on defense. They spent the entire game trying to arm tackle and strip the ball…which wasn’t happening. This resulted in Gainesville turning a 15 yard pass into a 40 yard TD…a 10 yard punt return into a TD…a 5-10 yd gain on a run into 40-50 yard TD on more than one occasion…I could keep giving examples but you get the point. Gainesville was not some amazing offense that couldn’t be stopped…Decatur just spent the entire game looking for the big play to try and generate some momentum as opposed to controlling the game and putting together a methodical drive or two and get some points on the board.
4. HOLD ONTO THE BALL!!! This just in…Decatur has fumbled AGAIN. I think the count is somewhere around 37...j/k but they coughed it up at least 4 or 5 times before I left and then I got word that they returned the ball inside the Gainesville 20 only to fumble it again on the first play. It doesn’t take any great analysis from me to explain how to hold onto the ball.
Finally…what will it take for Wylie/Canyon to beat Gainesville.
1. First off…though this statement will sound like I’m being a homer…based on the type of system that Wylie and Canyon run…I would say Wylie is 3-4X more likely to beat Gainesville that Canyon would be. I will not explore those reasons because that game has yet to be played and it’s not fair to either team to start looking ahead. K so I guess #1 really isn’t a point…let me try again with #2
2. Ball control – Controlling the clock against Gainesville is important. This isn’t because the Leopards have a high-powered offense that can score quickly but simply because the more plays you can run on offense…you can wear down their defense which is VERY aggressive in their front 7 and it will allow you to begin to exploit weaknesses later in the game. Having a balanced mix of mid-level passing with a power run game. I don’t see the option being too effective because Gainesville has LB’s that pursue the ball well and often it will take all 5 OL guys to contain the front 4…thus leaving the LB’s either unblocked or being blocked by WR’s…not your ideal situation.
3. Use a mid-range passing game. Gainesville has two areas in their stock defense that can be exploited. From their 4-3 defense…they have one LB that will apply pressure to the strong side of the field and if he reads a pass drop back into coverage on whatever receiver/back comes his way. This leaves a hole between 5-8 yards on his side of the field that is uncovered by the other two LB’s as they tend to stay close together and spy the QB. Now the spy part is in large part because Decatur likes to roll their QB the side of the field where he will be throwing from to help offset inaccuracies in his throws. The other big area that is available to throw to is between 8-15 yards beyond the LOS. Gainesville typically gives 5-8 yards of cushion from their DB’s and their safeties will stay between 15-20 yards deep to keep everything in front of them. As a result…it leaves a gap between the LB’s and safeties that can be exploited through crossing routes. Of course…it requires having a receiver who is willing to go across the middle because their LB’s can certainly bring a big hit.
4. Make Gainesville’s QB beat you. If you can get enough pressure at the point of attack the QB will keep the ball in the zone read and he is not a great runner. He was not particularly fast nor did he have a lot of moves that were making defenders miss…even the Decatur guys could bring him down with their weak arm tackling. Also, his arm is not exceptionally strong and most of their passes will be thrown in 2nd and/or 3rd and long situations and he is capable of floating the ball. Gainesville has plenty of talent in the backfield between #’s 34, 3, and either 6 or 8 (can’t remember which) so the opposing defense get initial pressure that forces West to keep the ball and try to make plays on his own.
Well sorry for writing a small novel. I made RMAC drive and I just started typing and wait for everything to sort itself out in my head. To sum it up…Gainesville is VERY good but from my view tonight they are not as good as the team that I saw win state in 2003. They have plenty of speed in backs and good size on the lines…but they lack a QB with big-play ability if he is forced to take control of the play and while their D-line can put a lot of pressure on the QB…they do not have the same speed as they did in ’03 and they do give a good QB enough time go through a progression…consider a zone read/draw run play and to scramble out of the pocket whereas in 2003 nobody was getting outside of the pocket with the great speed they had on DL. I sure would love to see them play Wylie/Canyon next week. Maybe my work schedule will allow me to catch this game but seeing as it will be a day or two after Thanksgiving…I find it highly unlikely so I will have to resort to the radio and internet. It was nice to meet some more of you guys from the board tonight…I totally forgot to take a pic until I was back in the stands…sorry RM!!! Well…I’m gonna snooze for a few until we get back to Graham…welcome to the avatar club Adidas!!!
:D :D