Breakdown from each series

[Ghost of the HEB]

I had time to kill, so I went back and tried to break down the Wazzu game film. I think it’s a good way to see who the true game changers were and where the problems lie. This might be too long, but here are some notable things I saw from each series:
– D series 1: D-Line came out playing hard. Nice Fillinger sack. 3rd and short stop on Borghi was instigated by penetration from Reid and cleaned up by Lloyd. 4th down stop was courtesy of Pututau and Reid.
– O series 1: O-Line struggling in run blocking right away, especially the TEs. Just don’t seem too sure about who they’re supposed to be blocking, and sometimes that means they block nobody. Did convert a 3rd and 2 run which was nice to see. First fumble of the game on first down handoff exchange puts us behind the chains. Rising damn near throws pick6 on 3rd down, kinda rushed the throw due to pressure.
– D series 2: QB gets some time and beats us on some zone coverage. Mika goes for speed rush and loses contain on RB and WR gets away with a hold which gets RB around the edge. Back to back nice tackles by Reid. Vimahi nice play. Great penetration by whole D on third and short. Really miss Broughton on that 4th and short slant they converted. Clutch redzone pick by Reid. Read the QBs eyes and fell back to the right spot.
– O series 2: Bernard shows his value as a pass catcher and runner. Decent blocking. Kuithe has two drops that weren’t perfect passes but you’d expect him to haul in.
– D series 3: Mika lost RB contain again. QB makes good read and makes corner blitz pay. Tafuna with a beastly sack beating his blocker 1 on 1. Reid with a nice open field tackle on Borghi and gets called for BS phantom face mask, Borghi leaves with injury. Corners struggling with open field tackling, miss JT. Nice D Line stunt leads to huge Mika sack. D holds WSU to FG.
– O Series 3: Curry steals KOR from Covey. Gets talking to from coaches. Safety reads Covey bubble screen perfectly and blows it up. 3rd down, 4 man rush, Bills and Kump get beat on twist that leads to sack.
– D series 4: Forced punt after 1 first down. Nice plays by Reid Carlton and Mataele.
– O series 4: Tavion gets one carry and has ball fly out. He was clearly down, but he’s yanked off the field again. Rising shows great speed on read option keeper. Completely outruns athletic D end. Nice blocking on Bernard and covey runs. Line got tons of push on JQJ wildcats runs. Nice TD. Fumbled after he scored tho, foreshadowed things to come.
– D series 5: Decent 4 man rush pressure. Good play by Tafuna stopping QB run for short gain. Got beat again on a corner blitz. They knew how to handle that. 4th and 1 QB sneak is converted. FG WSU to end half.
– O series 5: Bernard gets drilled in backfield and loses fumble first play of second half. Nobody laid a hand on left DE. Should’ve been either Daniels or Kincaid. Daniels and Ford are 10 yards down field blocking safeties while the the entire defensive front is in the backfield. Doubt that’s how it was drawn up.
– D series 6: Defense put in bad spot. Zone coverage 4 man rush fails to get pressure and Bishop gets caught out of place on TD pass.
– O series 6: Better blocking. Bam looked good. Nice quick passes to Fotheringham. Pledger runs really hard. Rising misses Kuithe on the sideline. Got lucky they called Fotheringham down on the field, probably was a fumble. Miscommunication on route to Kincaid. Howard missed in back of end zone, not much a window tho. FG good
-D series 7: More Reid tackles. 4 man rush sack for Vimahi/Pututau. Lloyd with another athletic interception.
– O series 7: JQJ wildcat looks good again, but it comes to an abrupt halt when he fumbles inside the 10. Just trying to do too much.
– D series 8: RB gashes. McKinney gets hurt. Fillinger with a beastly 3rd down sack on a stunt where he blows through the RB
– O series 8: Rising shows off the wheels again. Kincaid with a great grab getting two feet in. Bam gets beat by speed rush causing Rising to get hit as he threw, missing wide open Enis in endzone. Rising fumbles snap and loses yards. Bam gets beat again and rising hit as he throws, ball goes through Kuithes outstretched fingertips. Redding misses FG badly, Gets a not so warm welcome from Whit back to the sideline.
– D series 9: Reid and Lloyd were hammers on multiple plays. Marks gets beat on 3rd down comeback route. Mataele clutch third down hit/pass breakup
– O series 9: Kuithe gets involved again. Good blocking gets Pledger loose and into the redzone. Good blocking on 3rd and 3 as Curry gets to the half yard line. Decent blocking on next play, but Ford doesn’t get to second level in time and Curry gets hammered at LOS losing the ball into the endzone. Horrific turnover.
– D series 10: Really good play by Bishop and Reid staying home on second down that kept a QB keep from going for 1st down. Blitz and tipped ball saved us on 3rd, WR was open.
– O series 10: That Covey PR fumble was damn near the nail in the coffin. It barely touched the white line before punter grabbed it. Pledger runs hard. Rising out ran skinny D end to the edge again. OLB blitzed and didn’t fall for play action and almost sacked/forced pick. Good hard count on 3rd and 1 gets the first. HOLY HELL VELE CAUGHT A PASS IN A GAME. Covey motion and Cam running threat made the TD run happen. Two defenders came free off edge. One went for Cam and one followed covey for a split second which gave pledger the opening.
– D series 11: QB makes bizarre decision to tuck and run right into Reid. Reid sacks him the next play, too. CP3 makes 3rd down tackle and puts up finger to shush WSU sideline. He then makes pick six very next play. Looks like WSU receiver was probably supposed to stop on comeback route. CP3 read the QB. Reid also could’ve had a sack on this play but kinda stopped, likely worried about breaking contain.
– D series 12: Nice batted ball by Tafuna. Lloyd and Mataele wreck the QB on a sack. Fillinger and Pututau combine on sack, nice beating of the double team by Fillinger. Latu wrecked the QB next play to force incomplete. 4th and 25 overthrow.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Overall impressions:

– Very lucky to win — shouldn’t win when you fumble that many times.
– Reid is going to be a stud
– Devin Lloyd is really good at football
– Young DL showed up in a big way. Excited about what we saw from Fillinger, Tafuna, Vimahi
– We missed and will continue to miss Broughton
– Need safeties healthy. Bye will help
– Offense missed tons of opportunities. Could’ve been blowout.
– Rising played better than I initially thought. A good amount of his incompletions were either dropped or he was being hit as he threw. His running ability is an asset. I think we’ll try and move him out of the pocket more often like we did with Huntley.
– TEs need to be better in run game blocking. They are very good in the passing game. Once Rising builds chemistry with them they’ll be hard to stop. Brant will come back angry vs USC.
– Need to get WRs involved more. Not sure why that’s so hard for us here.
– O-Line still has good moments and some really bad ones. Bam just might not be fast enough to play on the outside.

[DrahtUte]

Am I the only one thinking brant dropped some passes he should have caught? The announcers blamed cam’s accuracy, and they weren’t great throws, but brant got his hands on them and should have been able to haul them in. 

[SantaVaca]

Yes. I think he should have caught both of the passes back to back in the first half.

If he wants to play in the NFL, he needs to make both of catches. Neither were thrown perfectly but both were catchable.

[Ghost of the HEB]

The third down drag route pass was pretty low and behind him, so even if he would’ve went down and behind for it he couldn’t run for the first down.

The other two he’s gotta come down with tho — especially the third down one in the endzone. They weren’t perfectly placed, but he got both hands on each of them. Gotta help your QB out and make those tough grabs, especially in his first official start.

[younglurch]

Thanks for the write-up, I don’t mind these long form posts when they are easy to follow. 

From what I remember watching the game and reading this, I really think we have the talent needed to compete. Rising was mostly accurate, and I’m a believer he can be at least good enough to make us competitive. O line issues appear to be mostly mental problems with not understanding assignments that should hopefully be worked out over time. 

The fumbles were frustrating and odd as many have already said, and I’m really hoping they were just an aberration. 

Overall this team has potential to be great this season, but in my opinion can be a perrennial top 15 team over the next several years given our abundance of young talent. 

[idahoute]

Thank you!  Read every word.  

Prediction…our season will go as the maturity and effectiveness of those Freshmen DL/DE’s.

They play well then we have a chance every game

[Yergensen]

O series 4, after the Tavion run on first down, loved the playcalling.

Second play of the series we run RPO with Rising keeping.  Then was it a jet sweep left with Covey (right?) before 2 wildcat runs by Ja’Quinden to score.  We moved the ball ~70 yards on a mix of 4 run plays.

We need more of this (variety/mix) in the offense playcalling.  Also, I think we need to move the pocket/more designed rollouts to help Rising and OL.