Takeaways from reviewing the film

[Ghost of the HEB]

I just spent the past few hours watching/rewatching each play of the Weber game. I slowed down the playback speed to get a better look. I’ll share some thoughts from my layman’s perspective. Shout out to utahman3431 for providing the game footage.
– Charlie Brewer is very good. Our offense will be tough to stop with him at the helm due to his accuracy and the way he spreads the ball around. When pressure comes (and it came waaay too much vs weber), he knows where all of his routes are and makes good decisions. His scrambling ability is underrated — he was moving fast on those 3rd downs he converted with his legs. INT wasn’t his fault; nobody tried to make a play on the ball except Weber guys (I think Brewer was throwing at Vele, but Vele just stood behind the Weber guys like he was waiting for a rebound). It was easy to feel uneasy about the offense on Thursday, but having watched the film, Brewer gives me a lot of confidence going forward.
– RB room has talent. Bernard is underrated. Tavion got a lot of buzz (rightfully so) thanks to the two TDs, but Bernard kept drives alive with his versatility out of the backfield and blitz pickup. His ability to snag the ball and immediately get up field is very useful — especially when Charlie is under pressure. Also hits holes hard. Pledger did show good vision on his two attempts, would like to see him with more chances, but he can’t be dropping TD passes.
– Those two TD drops were painful. Made the game feel closer than it really was. Pledger couldn’t have been more open + throw was on target hit him right in stride. Fotheringham’s drop was such a pretty throw from Charlie. Blitzer came free, Charlie hung in there and placed it right over the defenders outstretched hand. Just a blatant drop.
– O-Line got better as game went on, but struggled more than they should have. Charlie was hit a lot. Paul Maile got ran over by the D tackle on the very first play, and he was pushed back into Charlie a lot throughout the game. Bam did okay in pass blocking, but needs to be more aggressive in run blocking. Ford played okay. Missed some blocks on first half running plays in the red zone that got the runners stuffed. Had some poor snaps that threw off some pass plays— including the sack that pushed us out of FG range at the end of the half. He played better in the second half. Daniels and Moala seemed solid.
– WR/TE group was good, drops kept them from being great. I think Howard will end up being the alpha — him and Charlie just need more chemistry. Enis looked good. Covey will be more involved going forward. Brewer has a lot of trust in Kincaid — was throwing to him before he really gained separation in his routes, and Dalton showed why. Kuithe is fast — look for more designed plays to him going forward, as well as Covey.
– Defense played well overall, Weber’s QB didn’t look like an FCS guy. But my hell we left a lot of sacks out there. Not sure if the field being wet was an issue, but seemed like every pass play we’d have a rusher come free and the QB would just take a step sideways and our defender looked out of control and would either fall down or just run by him. This allowed Weber to extend drives so many times — keeping our offense off the field and keeping the score lower. Our starting LBs are very good. Lloyd is a beast. Sewell made huge plays on the goal line stops. Not too impressed with Furey in the 3 LB packages. He was rarely around the ball when he was in. DBs were solid. JT made some TD saving plays in coverage. McKinney looked good in run D. CP3 is great in run D — saved a TD before the goal line stand. Davis didn’t get tested much. Mataele struggled a bit in nickel packages. Not sure who I prefer at DE yet out of Fillinger and Carlton. Fillinger is more stout in run defense, Carlton seems to move better but missed a lot of plays in the backfield.
– Offense getting stuffed on 4th and goal at the half yard line was embarrassing. Interior blocking looked fine. Fotheringham whiffed his block on the right side, and on the left side Bam let his slip underneath him. Curry didn’t have a chance.
– Kick coverage team looked soft. Tons of our guys got laid out on that TD return. Hopefully was a wake up call.
– Cam’s two passes looked really good. He slings the ball a little differently than Charlie. The way he zipped it to Brant on that slant in stride was pretty.
– That targeting penalty the Weber guy did to Charlie was dirty. Full on head butt
– A lot to be excited about going forward. I wouldn’t expect BYU-P’s defense to be much better than Weber (they have similarly-rated recruits) and Weber blitzed a lot more than they will. Get the line squared away and Charlie is set to carve them up. At least one RB will feast. Their QB doesn’t scare me.

[MDUte]

Appreciate the in-depth analysis, thanks! Question. It seemed like our secondary was shaky and got beat a bunch of times. You mentioned that CP3 and JT were solid but Matele struggled at times in Nickel coverage. Was it mainly Matele when we were running nickel? And also, were we running man most of the game or did we go into zone a lot?

Thanks!

[Ghost of the HEB]

Looked like we ran two base defenses — a nickel package with 5 DBs 2 LBs, and a 3LB 4 DB package. Looked like more man coverage in the nickel package, and more zone with the LB package. The 12 men in D penalty was a result of havung both the packages on the field at once. Mataele was getting beat in the sideline/out routes. Furey was out of position on a couple completed passing plays in the 3 LB packages. The starting 4 DBs were pretty good in coverage, the QB just made us pay by escaping the pocket and the WRs were good at recognizing the play breaking down and running back towards the QB. They were well-coached in that way. I didn’t see anything from Broughton, McKinney, Davis or Phillips that concerned me. I would like to see guys like Marks get a shot at the nickel, and guys like Calvert, Reynolds or Reid get a shot at the 3 LB spot.

[MDUte]

Great to hear, thanks Ghost!

[Charlie]

I agree with seeing more of Marks and the new LBs. The OL had some issues for sure, however a lot of the pressure on Brewer was coming from LBs, often with our RB out of the backfield, especially early in the game. If you assign LB pressure elsewhere (blitz pickup or hot release) the OL was ok with things to clean up. Weber’s scheme bunching the rush to one side giving a LB an open gap was very good and I expect came from Gary Anderson. As for our RBs, I expect there is much more to see, they are all just getting started. The defense needs to get better setting the edge with particular care for the QB on broken pass plays. The upperclassmen on the team need to set the tone to be focused and hardnosed on Saturday.