This week I am going to post a game review in two parts. In those post I’ll summarize the offensive performance at a high level and provide observations on the 4 big 1Q plays for NCSU. Sometime in the next two days I’ll post part 2: observations on the QBs and the OL, playing time observations, and a focus on the most positive plays and performances for the Deacs.
1Q BIG PLAYS FOR NCSU
Jacoby Brissett (transfer from Florida, Rivals #75 overall player in the 2011 class) 59 yard pass to Maurice Trowell – This play had two critical mistakes. First, Wendell Dunn – who has accumulated 1.5 career sacks in 1,009 plays from scrimmage in his career – went unblocked but was unable to bring down Brissett despite at one point appearing to have him wrapped up. In the postgame comments Clawson would criticize Dunn for hitting Brissett too high. To compound the problem, Dunn’s missed tackle appeared to take down a blitzing Marquel Lee. The second mistake was Devin Gaulden’s decision to leave his receiver when he mistakenly assumed that Brissett was going to run. Gaulden ended up in no man’s land. When the ball was thrown Gaulden was 10 yards in front of Brissett and the receiver was 10 yards behind Gaulden.
Matthew Dayes 85 yard run (Dayes was Rivals #27 running back in the country in the 2013 recruiting class). Chris Stewart was shoved out of the way to create a hole. Demetrius Kemp - who has done some good things this season as a redshirt freshman – didn’t seem to be in great position and just pawed at Dayes a few times as he went by (he clearly would have been down if they were playing two-hand touch). After Kemp, all that Dayes had to do was breeze by Zach Dancel – and that hasn’t proved to be much of a challenge for RBs. The television coverage did a good job of showing how Dancel was also in a terrible position to make a play. Here’s why: Ryan Janvion first shifted down into the box and then he and Brandon Chubb followed a WR in motion towards the sideline. At the snap you see Dancel moving to cover the center of the field as a single high safety and then having to reverse direction to get back to the sideline. Because he was running laterally to cover that side of the field he was easily eliminated by a simple cutback move from Dayes. 14-0 NCSU.
Jacoby Brissett 58 yard pass to Nyheim Hines (Hines was a Rivals four-star and the #2 all-purpose back in the 2015 class). This play started with a 6-man blitz that was completely stonewalled by the NCSU offensive line plus a tight end that had stayed in to block. Nyheim Hines beat Devin Gaulden by 2 steps. This came despite Gaulden supposedly playing cover-3 (meaning his focus was supposed to be keeping the receiver in front of him, even if it meant giving up a shorter reception). 21-0 NCSU.
Matthew Dayes 57 yard run. I immediately noticed a similarity to Dayes first TD run. Pre-snap and right after the snap you see both Ryan Janvion and Brandon Chubb vacate the box to cover players that have motioned out wide, including a player that fakes taking a handoff on a reverse. Was this the correct play by Chubb? Did he bite on a fake? I can’t tell, but it is clear that he was taken out of the play. That leaves Zach Dancel to cover most of the second and third level by himself. When Dayes comes through the line Dancel is actually in pretty good position. He just flat misses him. 28-0 NCSU.
Bottom line: it sure looked to me like NCSU was scheming to exploit both Gaulden and Dancel.
OFFENSIVE PERFORMANCE
While the defense was giving up big plays, the offense was very unproductive. Going into Wake’s stat-boosting final possession that started at 4:30 of the 4th quarter, Wake had only 196 yards of total offense – and 39% of that total came on Hinton’s 2Q run. Going into that last possession, Wake had only one play longer than 20 yards, and just two others longer than 12 yards (completions from Hinton to Hines and Wade).
Bell and Colburn were largely ineffective for most of the game. They had rushes of 3 or more yards on only 4 of their first 15 carries (27%). However, in their last 4 carries of the game they did tear off two of Wake’s longer runs from scrimmage this year (a 20-yarder from Colburn and a 33-yarder from Bell).
Wake’s 3 leading receivers (KJ Brent, Cortez Lewis and Cam Serigne) combined for just 5 receptions for 37 yards (long of only 12 yards)
1Q BIG PLAYS FOR NCSU
Jacoby Brissett (transfer from Florida, Rivals #75 overall player in the 2011 class) 59 yard pass to Maurice Trowell – This play had two critical mistakes. First, Wendell Dunn – who has accumulated 1.5 career sacks in 1,009 plays from scrimmage in his career – went unblocked but was unable to bring down Brissett despite at one point appearing to have him wrapped up. In the postgame comments Clawson would criticize Dunn for hitting Brissett too high. To compound the problem, Dunn’s missed tackle appeared to take down a blitzing Marquel Lee. The second mistake was Devin Gaulden’s decision to leave his receiver when he mistakenly assumed that Brissett was going to run. Gaulden ended up in no man’s land. When the ball was thrown Gaulden was 10 yards in front of Brissett and the receiver was 10 yards behind Gaulden.
Matthew Dayes 85 yard run (Dayes was Rivals #27 running back in the country in the 2013 recruiting class). Chris Stewart was shoved out of the way to create a hole. Demetrius Kemp - who has done some good things this season as a redshirt freshman – didn’t seem to be in great position and just pawed at Dayes a few times as he went by (he clearly would have been down if they were playing two-hand touch). After Kemp, all that Dayes had to do was breeze by Zach Dancel – and that hasn’t proved to be much of a challenge for RBs. The television coverage did a good job of showing how Dancel was also in a terrible position to make a play. Here’s why: Ryan Janvion first shifted down into the box and then he and Brandon Chubb followed a WR in motion towards the sideline. At the snap you see Dancel moving to cover the center of the field as a single high safety and then having to reverse direction to get back to the sideline. Because he was running laterally to cover that side of the field he was easily eliminated by a simple cutback move from Dayes. 14-0 NCSU.
Jacoby Brissett 58 yard pass to Nyheim Hines (Hines was a Rivals four-star and the #2 all-purpose back in the 2015 class). This play started with a 6-man blitz that was completely stonewalled by the NCSU offensive line plus a tight end that had stayed in to block. Nyheim Hines beat Devin Gaulden by 2 steps. This came despite Gaulden supposedly playing cover-3 (meaning his focus was supposed to be keeping the receiver in front of him, even if it meant giving up a shorter reception). 21-0 NCSU.
Matthew Dayes 57 yard run. I immediately noticed a similarity to Dayes first TD run. Pre-snap and right after the snap you see both Ryan Janvion and Brandon Chubb vacate the box to cover players that have motioned out wide, including a player that fakes taking a handoff on a reverse. Was this the correct play by Chubb? Did he bite on a fake? I can’t tell, but it is clear that he was taken out of the play. That leaves Zach Dancel to cover most of the second and third level by himself. When Dayes comes through the line Dancel is actually in pretty good position. He just flat misses him. 28-0 NCSU.
Bottom line: it sure looked to me like NCSU was scheming to exploit both Gaulden and Dancel.
OFFENSIVE PERFORMANCE
While the defense was giving up big plays, the offense was very unproductive. Going into Wake’s stat-boosting final possession that started at 4:30 of the 4th quarter, Wake had only 196 yards of total offense – and 39% of that total came on Hinton’s 2Q run. Going into that last possession, Wake had only one play longer than 20 yards, and just two others longer than 12 yards (completions from Hinton to Hines and Wade).
Bell and Colburn were largely ineffective for most of the game. They had rushes of 3 or more yards on only 4 of their first 15 carries (27%). However, in their last 4 carries of the game they did tear off two of Wake’s longer runs from scrimmage this year (a 20-yarder from Colburn and a 33-yarder from Bell).
Wake’s 3 leading receivers (KJ Brent, Cortez Lewis and Cam Serigne) combined for just 5 receptions for 37 yards (long of only 12 yards)
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