Ed Hardin

https://www.journalnow.com/sports/c...e_9baff4ba-6e34-512c-a01b-2e531d081a5e.html#1

A 21-0 lead in the first half had a strange effect on both teams. Carolina, which had won its first two games of the season in miraculous comebacks, looked out of its league against Wake. Going well into the third quarter before converting a third down, North Carolina looked lost. But it was Wake’s reaction to the 21-0 lead that was so unsettling. A dazzling display of offense and defense throughout the first half suddenly evaporated. Wake began calling odd plays, running its delay draws and inside options into piles of players and then throwing desperate passes deep downfield into coverage.

Good article. Worth a read.

Carolina is no longer the darling of the ACC.

I love Clawson but wonder if he and Ruggerio have the capacity to understand the truths in this article how close they came to giving the Holes a win with poor coaching/planning. In the second half we coached ourselves into the antithesis of what has made us successful. Channeled the Grobe playing not to lose and El Lobo play calling.

dcon69 said:

I love Clawson but wonder if he and Ruggerio have the capacity to understand the truths in this article how close they came to giving the Holes a win with poor coaching/planning. In the second half we coached ourselves into the antithesis of what has made us successful. Channeled the Grobe playing not to lose and El Lobo play calling.

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this. i cannot fathom the mere thought of playing conservative when you have the chance to make a national statement especially with our football history. The coaches flat out robbed the players of satisfaction. Pathetic.

We were conservative play calling in the 1st half. We just hit on a couple of the big pass plays.

The passing attack was not very balanced all game. Sagecentric

ChrisL68 said:

We were conservative play calling in the 1st half. We just hit on a couple of the big pass plays.

The passing attack was not very balanced all game. Sagecentric

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Scotty did not win the early jump balls sent his way. Sage did.

If Roberson and Claude continue to be no shows in big games then we need to pull Greene and/or Groulx shirts and play them now along with Hinton. Maybe it is on Newman for just looking deep which if so needs to be coached out as we have to have mid range pass success as we did vs USU and Rice for RPO to work.

saltydeac said:

If Roberson and Claude continue to be no shows in big games then we need to pull Greene and/or Groulx shirts and play them now along with Hinton. Maybe it is on Newman for just looking deep which if so needs to be coached out as we have to have mid range pass success as we did vs USU and Rice for RPO to work.

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Roberson was back after injury and Claude was big against Utah State, which was a big game. I wouldn’t write them off yet, do we even know they weren’t open at times last night and Jamie was locked in on Sage?

saltydeac said:

If Roberson and Claude continue to be no shows in big games then we need to pull Greene and/or Groulx shirts and play them now along with Hinton. Maybe it is on Newman for just looking deep which if so needs to be coached out as we have to have mid range pass success as we did vs USU and Rice for RPO to work.

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With Claude it seemed more coverage and play call than anything. Sage was getting separation/position deep early and the corners were sitting on the short routes/slants. We also seemed to favor Sage in the slot over Roberson. Will be nice to get Hinton back and glad we didn’t need him last night or really next week so he can heal. But overall, I think they disappoints night because of where Newman was looking.

liveanddiedeac said:

Roberson was back after injury and Claude was big against Utah State, which was a big game. I wouldn’t write them off yet, do we even know they weren’t open at times last night and Jamie was locked in on Sage?

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Claude wasn’t really that I saw. Roberson definitely was open a few times and Newman either missed him or didn’t trust him.

Deacfreak07 said:

Claude wasn’t really that I saw. Roberson definitely was open a few times and Newman either missed him or didn’t trust him.

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Jamie seems to have a comfort level with Scotty and Sage that he doesn't (hopefully yet) have with Roberson.

Walker’s emergence makes it clear that if Groulx and Greene were ready, they’d be on the field.

It’s not a big deal. We see at the college and pro levels that rookie RBs are more likely to thrive than rookie WRs.

Walker needs to be getting more carries than CBS from here on out. Beal is still really valuable in the passing game, both blocking and receiving.

nvadeac said:

this. i cannot fathom the mere thought of playing conservative when you have the chance to make a national statement especially with our football history. The coaches flat out robbed the players of satisfaction. Pathetic.

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dcon69 said:

I love Clawson but wonder if he and Ruggerio have the capacity to understand the truths in this article how close they came to giving the Holes a win with poor coaching/planning. In the second half we coached ourselves into the antithesis of what has made us successful. Channeled the Grobe playing not to lose and El Lobo play calling.

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These are rather harsh. Yall are acting like Clawson coaches with his head chopped off. I recognize the complaints regarding Friday and don't entirely disagree (e.g., if we are going to run out the clock, run the play clock to the last second before snapping the ball). Think we need to give Clawson more credit.

Acting like there was no strategy involved or a calculated decision that was made by Clawson and Co. is ridiculous.
There are 2 ways to finish a game with both decisions having its positives as well as its potential for collapse.

1) Keep running the offense, being aggressive. Positives: it could all work out, no turnovers, and you crush them (as everyone wanted). Negatives: start giving up turnovers, pick 6s, and good field position.
2) Run out the clock, being conservative. Positives: You get some first downs, only need a few possessions to run out the clock. Negatives: get complacent, and don't get first downs.

We just so happened to choose option 2, and guess what, we fucking won. Clawson weighed the strengths/weaknesses of the game going into halftime and believed that with UNC's freshman QB, how they couldn't move the ball to save their life, and the way our defense was playing - that that strength outweighed the others. He picked that option and went with it and we won. He put the game on the defense and running the clock out. And guess what? the clock quite literally ran out and defense showed up when we needed. Mission accomplished.

It was going to be a close game, it was a rivalry, and we walked out with a W. Sorry it didn't meet your requirements of a 56-14 blowout we all wanted.

I am not fully vindicating Clawson of this, but I am presenting his mindset, which was a rational and calculated decision. Remember when we doubted whether he would put Bowers in over Hartman to preserve his RS, and much of the fanbase doubted that Clawson "had the capacity" to think about this scenario.

We are 3-0 BECAUSE of Clawson, in who we should Trust.

Our play calling was not that much different in the second half than it was in the first half. The reason we had trouble sustaining drives was that our passing attack was not very effective. We only had 5 pass completions other than Sage.

Every time we struggle for periods in the game moving the ball everybody complains that our play calling got conservative

The good news is that in a game where newman didn't have his best game throwing the football and the receivers really weren't on the same page and clicking we are still able to gain over 400 yards total offense and the defense made plays to win the game

nvadeac said:

this. i cannot fathom the mere thought of playing conservative when you have the chance to make a national statement especially with our football history. The coaches flat out robbed the players of satisfaction. Pathetic.

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ChrisL68 said:

The good news is that in a game where newman didn't have his best game throwing the football and the receivers really weren't on the same page and clicking we are still able to gain over 400 yards total offense and the defense made plays to win the game

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Yeah. Also, we put up 222 yards rushing on their defense, another consideration to slow it down.

Watched the condensed game yesterday after being at the game Friday. This has certainly never occurred to Carolina fans, but we really didn’t play that well on offense. Washington had one big catch, Sage went off, but no other receivers to note. They didn’t have to face our best RB, who could have helped make the second half shorter. Jamie didn’t play his best. But we didn’t need it to beat them.

If the defense plays that well every week, we finish 11-1.

nvadeac said:

this. i cannot fathom the mere thought of playing conservative when you have the chance to make a national statement especially with our football history. The coaches flat out robbed the players of satisfaction. Pathetic.

Click to expand...

wakelaw13 said:

Watched the condensed game yesterday after being at the game Friday. This has certainly never occurred to Carolina fans, but we really didn’t play that well on offense. Washington had one big catch, Sage went off, but no other receivers to note. They didn’t have to face our best RB, who could have helped make the second half shorter. Jamie didn’t play his best. But we didn’t need it to beat them.

If the defense plays that well every week, we finish 11-1.

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Noticed this in the box score. Newman typically spreads the ball around pretty well, but he only completed passes to 4 differenct players Friday. Might have been a strategy by Bateman. But the previous two games, Newman completed passes to 6 (Rice) and 7 (USU) players

I don’t know if it was scheme or their defense, but I think we only had one catch in the middle of the field. Everything was on the outside. Missing Hinton definitely hurt there.