The kid is gonna be really good. Plus DR’s game management skills as a true freshman. He just does the little things well that don’t seem noticeable when your QB is good and capable. Stepping up in the pocket, eyes down field going through his progression, throwing catchable short and intermediate passes, adjusting his arm angle, throwing the ball away when there’s nothing else etc etc…His 2-min drill to close out the half was a thing of beauty.This^ and the O-line opened up huge holes all day, not sure we have a “great” RB on the roster, but that O-line was doing work. Also… Carter Nelson!
This is for me, non specific player speaking.
Yes, and I will add that they had the QB under center on several other plays with 12 or 13 personnel. They ran one or two bootlegs off play action. Play action just looks so much better from under center and the bootleg just works so much smoother because the QB is already on the move. As you said, it was a beautiful thing!
Running Fidone toward the sideline on those flair routes at the line of scrimmage really isn't an effective play. Bigger guys take a longer time to catch and change direction. Second level defenders were all over him right away.
Yes, we know that Fidone can catch the ball downfield and make some plays. But the biggest issues, as you note, is that our tight ends cannot block worth a crap. It looks to me like Fidone in particular lacks the ability and/or the strength to get proper leverage on the guy he is supposed to block.
Strangely, as well as our defense played, I agree with this. I thought we would get more sacks and more pressure on the QB in general. My hunch is that White called a fairly vanilla game and is saving some of his blitz packages for CU.
At this point, those short passes to Fidone are a wasted down.
I agree. I know that the media as well as apparently other programs (transfer offers) think highly of Fidone, but I think he's still a work in progress. I don't want this to seem like I'm bashing a kid who has battled back from injuries time after time. But he's missed a ton of practice time and he's still pretty raw as far as blocking is concerned. And he's not the only one-- it was noted last year by someone that studies game film that unblocked defenders were the product of missed TE blocks more than any over position. By a margin.
I agree. If you are going to throw a quick pass to the flat hoping to get an easy five to ten yards why not toss it quickly to one of our speedy receivers or even to Rahmir flaring out of the back field? Throwing it to Fidone, who is no speedster and is not that agile, makes no sense to me.
How soon I wonder before that transfer kid from LSU can get out and contribute? What I have read is that he is a very good blocker.
UTEP was getting rid of the ball quickly and yes, White kept things pretty basic. That Colorado QB will hold onto the ball-- the key will be to get some actual sacks with a four man rush and if you cannot do that, at least push the pocket back into his face.
I agree with all of this. The key is definitely on not giving them any cheap turnovers like we did last year. Make them earn everything. And then create enough negative plays to put them behind the sticks. I have zero doubt that they will hit some big plays. They are too skilled not to. We will not shut them out or even hold them under 10 points in my view. I can see them scoring at least 17 points and probably closer to 24. So our offense has to score more than we did last year. I see this as a nail biter. Real close. Toss up. If we win I think it will be like 27-24 or 21-20 kind of thing.
Looking at last year's CU results-- how did UCLA play them? What did they do defensively? UCLA gave up 16 points and outyarded CU two to one. Oddly though, UCLA lost the turnover battle 4-0.
I think they want to get him involved, but they approached it all wrong.
They have big strike ability. If we greatly limit their big plays, we win by two touchdowns. Colorado cannot sustain drives with their soft ass running game. They had 49 yards and 2 yards per carry against Dakota. I think Rhule will be satisfied to keep throwing his backs at the soft underbelly of their defense again and again and again. Another 250 yards rushing and 250 yards passing would be just fine by me, especially if we don’t turn it over. That’s the recipe for a comfortable win IMO.
For me, although it didn't come as a surprise, it was still amazing just how effectively Rhule was able to address the weaknesses of last year's team and take the required steps in the off season to fix things. Despite some great individual performances that stand out, that's really the most important change.
One thing I've noticed-- Shedeur Sanders and CU rarely turns the ball over. And since he's so accurate, they are going to move the ball. We're just going to have to tackle after the catch. Hopefully force some punts and make them score TD's in the red zone where our defense isn't going to worry about defensing anything vertically. And we've got enough depth on defense this year that our guys shouldn't get worn down if they do get a few 10+ play FG drives (which are called the Scott Frost special in some locales).
The only value I can see on a play like that is having a couple counters off of it.
