Sunday, September 01, 2013

Second viewing thoughts and grade report: Villanova

Watching the game live was more tense than I would like to admit. After they scored on the fake punt, I started to worry. Perhaps that left my live assessment a little too critical. When I watched the game back, the team did not look as bad as my initial impression. Things were still a little sloppy but there were some encouraging signs for the season ahead.

Offense: B-

Rettig played very well. His decision making was pretty good. He moved well on the rollouts and bootlegs. He stepped up in the pocket. A few of the passes were forced but nothing was picked. The only thing we didn't see was a true run. If we keep using the option, he will have to tuck and run eventually. He also seemed to have a good feel for the offense.

Andre Williams ran hard and he ran through people. It wasn't the prettiest showing but he did result in one explosive play -- the TD. I still think he's got to get a better feel for the holes and when to cut. As the announcers pointed out, he would run laterally for to long...essentially allowing the defenders to cut him off. It is clear he is going to get a lot of carries and it is clear that he is tough. Now we just need him to make a few more explosive plays and avoid traffic. Wolford was the real surprise of the day. Lots of guys can catch open passes, but he also was able to run after the pass. Dudeck was fine. Rouse had limited carries, but seemed to have a good feel for the spacing.

Amidon did a great job getting open and with his run after the catches. He also did a good job catching anything thrown towards him. The only real blemish was the fumble. Spiffy had drop and a catch. Crimmins was fine. The Tight Ends were asked to do a lot of blocking but it was tough for me to judge how effective they were on the rewatch (via ESPN3 on my laptop).

As a unit the Offensive Line played well. They provided enough protection when Rettig needed it. They didn't dominate like you might expect, but that was in part because of how Villanova loaded the box. There was a lot of pulling and movement and the timing was much better than it was last year. There was also a good deal of downfield blocking. Williams had a great one on the Amidon TD that was called back. Patchan was solid -- although he allowed a sack. Vardaro had two stupid penalties. As I mentioned earlier, Williams was good. White was good. Gallik was fine.

As I said in my first recap, I didn't love the offensive play calling. It was so run heavy even when we weren't getting big plays on the ground. It felt like we were forcing something that wasn't there. Nova was also prepared for it. The good news was that we adjusted. Later in the game we used play action to set up effective passing -- both short and downfield.

Defense: B

Edebali was the best of the front four. He looked fast and was able to cover a lot of ground on stunts. I liked what I saw from Mihalik and Wujciak. I had hoped to see more activity from the other DLs but Appaih, Ramsey, Rudolph and Abdesmad were relatively quiet.

KPL looked really good. He was active and made big plays. Keyes also looked good (in limited snaps). Daniels and Divitto had more issues. Daniels got swallowed up too often on blocks, and had real problems in coverage. Divitto also had issues in coverage. I don't know how much was due to communication breakdowns or confusion, but we need to fix it soon.

Asprilla was great. He made good tackles -- like the old days. He also did well in coverage. Sylvia played well too. Rositano was good near the line but allowed big plays at other times. I don't know if we got caught gambling or if he was just slow to recover.

What I liked about the defense: good tackling (better than the final Spaz years). We also got to the QB for the first time in years. We attacked from various points. And the guys forced turnovers. All were great signs for the future. My concerns were about positioning, big plays and assignments. I don't know yet if these were player mistakes or Villanova exploiting issues. I did like the strategy of crashing the QB exchange in the second half. It really disrupted their offense.

Special Teams: C

Starting the season by allowing a TD off of a fake punt is not a good omen. Give Villanova credit. The design was beautiful and left us totally flustered. My hope is that we are ready -- and scout -- any other fakes this year.

Spiffy wasn't particularly aggressive on the punt returns. In fact, we allowed a few potential returns to roll too far and cost us field position. Dudeck joined Spiffy on kick returns and looked fine.

Freese's kickoffs were nice. The punting was ok. We didn't shank any but were unable to pin them in the redzone.

Overall: B-

Addazio said we would play to our strengths, but it didn't feel that way in our first game. He wants to run the ball, so we ran the ball. Even after it was clear that Villanova was prepared for that. If we remain that stubborn, I think our offense will have some of the same scoring issues we had under Spaz.

Overall though it was a win. We didn't always seem prepared and we didn't look pretty, but we stayed composed and made adjustments. It wasn't a clinic, but was a nice building block.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

First half they were caught off guard with Villanova's trickery plays and just scored seven points at half. In the second half they look amazing defense and offense. Defense held Villanova to a goal of 100 yards in the second half and Boston college looks good running the ball

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Veteranscribe said...

No need to deconstruct every jot and tittle about this game, like "New Critics" disemboweling some enjoyable literary work.

Let's just just enjoy the victory and especially the WAY it came about: with spirit, a winning attitude, contributions from many quarters - some expected, some surprises - and a defense obviously dedicated to life, liberty, and the happiness of pursuit.

mod34b said...

"Vardaro had two stupid penalties."

No. As for penalty #2, It was Ron Cherry being Ron Cherry. It was not a 'stupid' penalty at all. Bobby V was hustling 15 yards down field looking to make a block (good hustle!). That's great effort.

He hit the DB above waist, but seemed to slide (stumble) below because of backpedaling of DB. I don't think that is a penalty even under the revised cut block (below waist) rules.

But only Ron Cherry would call it. I am sure he loved calling back a TD! I hope BC complains to the ACC and maybe the ACC can get rid of Cherry (some day).

BCAlum2000 said...

Regarding Vardaro, even if it wasnt a block below the waist, it was stupid because it was 20 yards from where the ball carrier was. In fact, Amidon was literally about to step into the endzone when he made the block. It was stupid plain and simple. Whether it was a legal or illegal block, he gave the officials the opportunity to make the call. This isnt the first time Vardaro has done stupid things.

Unknown said...

BCAlum2000- Dd you used to post on the (old school) ESPN Message Boards back in the day? I remember somebody had that name although I wasn't sure if it was the same guy or a coincidence. I haven't been there in quite a while, and I Imagine it lost a lot of posters after they switched the boards to look like FaceBook. Either way ATLEagle is always a good spot for some BC talk.

Big Jack Krack said...

If a player continues to make stupid penalties as the season goes along, the coaches need to sit him down.

Otherwise, it was only the first game.

Go BC - beat WF.

This game tonight is interesting as the FSU Freshman QB is a legend already.

Big Jack Krack said...

I didn't see the game live, but was happy with the team's attitude and adjustments.

We know that we have holes and problem areas, etc.

I like our attitude and hope that in the long run our plusses will outnumber our deficiencies in our winnable games.

Friday night is winnable, although tough and not a guarantee.

I'll be there, and I hope we have a nice crowd. Let's root our team along to victory.

I'll be there early to assess the positive changes and atmosphere.

Let's unveil a few different plays and not be too predictable.

Erik said...

I rewatched some. Williams ran better on rewatch than I remember live. He spun out of a lot of tackles and got extra yards after contact. At the stadium I remember seeing that we'd move Patchan to right tackle every time we wanted to run right. Seemed like an easy key for a defense so I hope they did vary that more than how I was seeing it.

Asprilla was best player on D, IMO. Great to see his production.

Amidon was incredible, even if I would like to see more players making catches. With that called backTD, his Numbers would have been unreal.

Thomas said...

I don't know whose idea it was to schedule FSU for parents weekend, but we are going to get our asses kicked.

EL MIZ said...

Thomas - the upside is Winston may be the best player in college football. Getting to see him live will be pretty cool.

Erik - agree 100% on Asprilla, he is the best player on our Defense.

Daniels was terrible and the LB corps as a whole was a total letdown. I liked what I saw from Keyes in limited action.

Wolford was a pleasant development - he was one of Spaz's better recruits (like being the tallest midget). In all seriousness, he was a good player in FL in HS and I'm happy the staff found a way to put his talents to use. Can he play on D too? We need some speed on the LB unit.

Really hope we can amplify the strengths of KPL - him and Asprilla are the best athletes on the D side of the ball and probably the 2 best play makers.

Rettig looked pretty accurate. I like how we saved him - you know there's going to be a few designed QB runs, hopefully they call it in a big spot and we can get the needed yards.

I was hoping to see Willis. Rouse was OK, nothing impressive that late in the game.

2nd half was an A-, the 1st half was a C+.

Gotta love the enthusiasm from Addazio. how often was Spaz shown on the sidelines just totally out to lunch? what a complete and total loser he was.

BCAlum2000 said...

Mike Peter, ya that was me back in the day. I havent been on those boards in years. Work makes life a little too busy and the fact that like 4-5 years ago they switched their format and I thought it sucked. I do sometimes miss tormenting people on those boards. Was fun times.

JBQ said...

@mod34b: I thought that you were a little harsh on the referee, Ron Cherry. Vardaro was nailed twice. I thought that the referee did a very good job. He was also very effusive in his shaking the hand of Coach Addazio after the game.