you guys need to give up on being a vertical passing team. thats not who we are. we are a running team with a ton of skilled athletes who can make things happen in space. we barely have any wrs. Its a myth that you have to throw deep to spread things out for the run. Finley has great arm strength and can zip the ball out to the sideline. that is enough to spread the defense out to open up the run. Dayes and samuels are two of the best players in the conference and should get 75% of the plays together.

If we beat good teams, it won't be because we become a deep ball team, it will be because we are super efficient and control the ball for long drives, running the ball and passing to athletes out in space. if they overcommit to the run, cherry, hines, samuels could make a catch on the outside, break one tackle and score.

9/2/2016 12:42:58 PM

Quote :

" mean we got an entire coaching staff fighting for their job they are gonna go the safe route rather than the development route. "

This, in a nut shell, is why I think we go with Finley for the time being. He was much more poised and looked in control. Can't really get a read on his arm strength, but you don't need a cannon to be a good QB. Just gotta know where to go with the ball.

The defense stuffed W&M's all-conference RB all night. Their WR burned us on some one-on-one routes, but that was really all they had going for them. Biggest concern for me is still the team speed on defense, but we look stout in the trenches.

9/2/2016 12:46:43 PM

We are more an east/west team than north/south for sure. The offense is gimmicky but if we get guys playing in it long enough and get some athletes it can work.

Honestly it's probably the right direction. We aren't gonna be able to line up pro style and compete with Clemson and fsu under their current iteration of their respective programs

9/2/2016 1:07:12 PM

I think people are forgetting that Jalan had to learn a completely new offense in the off season. It's not surprising that Finley is ahead of him. Jalan is BY FAR the more talented of the two (physically) but until he can demonstrate that he knows the plays, he won't see the field unless there is an injury or Finley has a meltdown. There were at least 4 plays where Jalan looked like he forgot what he was supposed to do and 1 where he channeled his inner Brett Favre/Cam Newton and made a poor decision throwing across his body while running. Jalan will get his chances, he just needs to learn the offense more.


Defense is definitely going to be a major issue. D-Line looked good. We're still weak as shit in the secondary and teams are going to expose that quickly. Hux is probably done if he can't do better this year.

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 2:33 PM. Reason : .]

9/2/2016 2:32:37 PM

comments section of backing the pack dot com provided this...

Quote :

"Finley threw downfield (9+ yards) more than I thought, but still only 3 times All of Finley’s pass plays of more than 9 yards: 22 yards to Samuels. Caught behind the line of scrimmage. 14-yards to Dayes/Hayes. Caught behind the line of scrimmage. 16-yard TD to Cherry. Caught behind the line of scrimmage. 14-yard TD to Samuels. Caught behind the line of scrimmage. 11-yards to Samuels. Caught over-the-middle 4 yards downfield. 17-yards to Samuels. Caught over-the-middle 15 yards downfield. 21-yards to Hines. Caught on the right side 21 yards downfield (beautiful play). 16-yards to Cherry. Caught on the right side 16 yards downfield. That’s 131 of his 174 passing yards on plays of 10-or-more yards with 75 of those yards coming after-the-catch. He got 43 yards on his other 9 completions. This is not a condemnation of Finley. It confirms what we thought of him coming out of Boise State. We won’t know what we really have in him until we face a team with the talent to make him throw downfield. by PackMentality on Sep 2, 2016 | 11:15 AM"

9/2/2016 3:03:41 PM

Quote :

"but you don't need a cannon to be a good QB. Just gotta know where to go with the ball."

that's great and all until the defense forces you to go down the field.

9/2/2016 3:20:51 PM

Quote :

"and to be fair, 1st drive that WR just made a couple of big catches "

No, the defense is just that bad.

The secondary mainly. We were giving 10 yard buffers before every play.

9/2/2016 3:31:01 PM

the secondary did not shut them down, that's fair. Dedmond schooled us a couple times. the DL is good. W&M was in 2 TE sets a lot of the game to protect the QB...the were going all out to protect their QB and we still got pressure...even when we didn't blitz. we still stopped their 1400 yard rusher from doing anything on the ground. W&M had 2 good drives. let's quit acting like we escaped by the skin of our teeth. it was a completely dominating effort against an inferior opponent. i think we'll know a lot more next week.

they had 3 pass plays all game that went for more than 10 yards. 2 of those on the first drive.

Quote :

"they averaged 2.2 yards per carry. they averaged 3.7 yards per play. "

relax with the doom and gloom shit. can't we at least wait until we have something legitimate to complain about.

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 3:47 PM. Reason : f]

9/2/2016 3:43:44 PM

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/offense-steals-the-buzz-but-pack-defense-just-as-impressive-in-opener/15981925/

9/2/2016 3:48:18 PM

The D-Line was very good against a not so good team. However, it took two TDs for us to adjust the pass rush in order to make that QB make mistakes. Dedmon or whatever his name is, couldn't be covered in the first half. They had 1 guy, lol.

I am not ready to doom and gloom yet, the secondary just needs work.

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 4:37 PM. Reason : .]

9/2/2016 4:29:09 PM

they won't be able to force us to throw down field without opening up running lanes for dayes. how else can a team possibly keep Samuel's or Hines from catching passes behind the Los? surely Finley can toss it downfield to Hines if there is 0 coverage. I could do that so no team will be able to somehow cover guys in the backfield , AND load the box. I'm fine with running all game if they want to take away the screen pass. free 4ypc with our backs if you commit lbs to sHutson screenpasses

9/2/2016 5:09:27 PM

they don't have to commit LBs. they have corners play the flats and have safeties on receivers, or vice versa. half the teams in our division are more than talented enough to defend our run game with 7 guys in the box. they will dare us to throw down the field.

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 5:59 PM. Reason : also, going no huddle while not going uptempo is the dumbest shit in the world.]

9/2/2016 5:58:20 PM

Quote :

"I think people are forgetting that Jalan had to learn a completely new offense in the off season. "

He didn't though

9/2/2016 7:31:37 PM

Quote :

"talented enough to defend our run game with 7 guys in the box. they will dare us to throw down the field."

sounds like dayes makes one guy miss and theres no 2nd level. i'll take that. dayes will make guys miss and we will make teams look stupid if they overcommit to our short passing game.

Thats the point of no huddle low tempo. It makes the defense commit to a package and prevents them from subbing but still allows us to control the clock, and call plays the way we are used to calling plays.
1. lineup
2. see how the defense is lined up
3. if they are packed, audible to a quick outside throw to samuels/hines/cherry
4. if they are spread out, run with dayes

9/2/2016 7:39:02 PM

Eh we will see. I don't know anything about our offensive line this year specifically but it hasn't been good enough to run the ball for most of the 15 years I've watched us play.

Dayes isn't A dominant back like TA McClendon or Andre Brown . He's good but we aren't gonna run all over decent teams.

He racked up all his yardage agains the wake, troyou, eastern Kentucky, ODU, and South Alabama... let's see us run vs real opponents first

[Edited on September 2, 2016 at 8:18 PM. Reason : A]

9/2/2016 8:14:52 PM

Dayes had 9 rushes for 72 yards in the first half against clemson...

9/2/2016 8:27:03 PM

Yeah 2 carries for 62 yards and 7 carries for 9 yards.

Not exactly lining up and gashing them all game

9/2/2016 8:52:44 PM

"Gash" is such a funny word to me. Isn't just such a weird word? It makes me chuckle every time i see it.

9/2/2016 9:51:57 PM

Our OL was p solid last year and should be good this year too

9/3/2016 10:15:09 AM

I believe that is the point of the Drinkwitz system, Heavy on the WR and RB Screens out of the backfield.

That's the point of such because you have one on one with a safety that's a fair distance out.

Wont work naerly as well against good corner/LB led teams though.

It's always good for some small yardage. Mike Leach ran some good variants in the Air Raid System. Works well with the guys we have in place now like Dayes, Samuels, Hines etc.

9/3/2016 11:19:32 AM

^much like our O last year

9/3/2016 3:38:51 PM

I like it. Petition to call it the "Drink and Drunk" offense

It's like Dink and Dunk but with alcohol. And his name is Dreidel Drinkowitcz so it makes sense


It's a big hat, it's funny



[Edited on September 3, 2016 at 7:08 PM. Reason : Hey we're all circumcised right]

9/3/2016 7:05:55 PM