The most unofficial Bobcat gameday thread - Mercyhurst

[BobcatBuiltTexan]

I know the game was a blow out. I know Mercyhurst was overmatched. I tell you what though, for a small school with an enrollment of 2700 people and having just moved up to FCS, Mercyhurst certainly didn’t embarrass themselves out there today. They played hard and didn’t give up. I saw some real talent on that team. I have a lot of respect for every one of those players and their coaches too.

That big wr really helped them today. Those quick throws really hurt us and helped them move the ball.

That’s been a theme for a while. Maybe someone can shed light on why those are open? @BobcatBuiltTexan

Good evening.....I appreciate you tagging me in. Been super busy here recently so my participation has waned a bit...lol.

From what I saw, I recorded the game, it's our scheme. We do a lot of bailing at the line or being 5-6 off and getting deep. Considering our starters have shown a propensity to not necessarily play the ball in the air all that well and we aren't super tall at the cb position, it's a tech that you use to force them to throw short, then come up and be physical on the tackle. It can be highly frustrating as a fan(and a former cb who was taught to challenge every single throw, lol) but they decided to take the lesser of two evils. The coaches figure they'll give up the short throws and then throw a mixer coverage like 6, 9, or 2 where you have a hard roll down cb to try to catch them on that short throw and create a turnover or make them hold the ball so the rush can get to them. Not a huge fan of that, but much less of fan of giving up deep balls because we can't play the ball in the air correctly. If we come down and press, the offense will AFC(automatic formation check) to the fade which puts us in a bind with how we are playing the ball currently. What I would have liked for them to do was show press and at the snap bail to cov3 looking back at the qb, which gives us a better chance to play the ball if the qb throws it. If the qb is smart he'll pull it down which again gives our rush a chance to get there. If we use that tech that allows us to play games the whole game with the qb and make him think......one snap start off then drop down with a hard cb....next snap press and play press, next snap play press bail to 5yds then sit like a hard cb....it really jacks with the timing and we discourage the short timing throw and make him have to really read what the cb is doing which gives the cb time to react and the rush time to affect the throw.

That's what I saw...hopefully they start playing more mind games with the qb with disguises and alignment shifts.

Effin’ sweet dude!

lol, thank you.....I played in the 4-2-5 so I'm pretty well versed in it. I love it. It's the old nickel(5dbs). It doesn't look like they are double calling(one coverage on the front side, potentially different coverage on the backside). If they every graduated to that, man they would be super sporty. When you have zone on one side then man on the other....or cov3 look on one side but a cov 2 look on the other...it really messes with the qb. that qb really has to be able to read what's going on in the secondary, that takes time...time we need to get to the qb. That's why i love it so much. you literally can have the secondary and the front completely separate from one another...front takes care of the run(6 up front) and the back end takes care of the pass(5 on the backend). Then based on coverage you can have and add in of one to two dbs to help with outside run fits. it gets real confusing real quick if done correctly. Plus it's simple for the defense but comes off as super complicated for the offense to read. Your weakness though is when the opposing teams decide to get in a heavy formation and just run down hill, got to have some guys that don't mind knocking skulls up front and safeties that can read where they fit and don't mind mixing it up either.

If you get a chance to look at some ISU video it would be awesome to hear what you think about how we matchup with them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Very enlightening.

And when you’re done sharing your thoughts with us, maybe drop Bobby Daly a line and let him know too

I see the so I assume you are joking about Daly needing any help with the defense. He’s doing an outstanding job.

We fans need help understanding football and BBT is a great resource for that.

Absolutely joking about the Daly part. I feel like I could have backed myself into a corner with that comment too. Daly does a great job and I have no real concerns at this point.

BBT on the other hand rolls into BN and has to explain how football works to a bunch of toddlers, and in a way that after every post, we all learn a thing or two.

I took the Daly part totally as a joke...all good from over here, lol. I too think he is doing a great job with the defense. We will get tested this week I do believe. Our secondary will have to step up and really show that we can cover and play the ball well in the air.

I appreciate the kind words man....i just love football. I started out coaching ms and I had a lot of guys that had never played before. So we had to learn how to break down football in a way that they understood but we also were teaching higher level concepts so they were prepared for when they went to hs. Remember I coached in texas so if you don't go to hs ready for what they do you will not survive and their patience is short round here, lol. it's hard for me to watch football and not break it down while watching....i hardly ever watch just for pure enjoyment, makes it really hard to just enjoy the game...but i do get a lot of enjoyment from the chess that is football....love seeing great players and coaches get out there and move those pieces around....it is truly the beautiful game.

[TomCat88]

The quoting string was getting long, so:
BBT what did you make of MSU’s scoring drive before half. Seems you’re mostly a D guy but just checking to see if you have any insight on that. I have my own thoughts but I’m interested to hear what you think.

[lutecat]

Who's putting together the zoom meeting on the next away game where we listen to BBT live disect the game? Lol

[rfischer94]

Who's putting together the zoom meeting on the next away game where we listen to BBT live disect the game? Lol

I would listen to that.

[BobcatBuiltTexan]

The quoting string was getting long, so:
BBT what did you make of MSU’s scoring drive before half. Seems you’re mostly a D guy but just checking to see if you have any insight on that. I have my own thoughts but I’m interested to hear what you think.

so going back and watching the series my thought are:

the OC knew what coverages they were going to be in and called some great plays to take advantage of those coverages. Tommy made great reads knowing what they were going to be in and knew where to go with the ball. Mercyhurst didn't want to give up the big play so ran cov2 and cov 3 every play. they played deep coverage to the field and cov 2 to the boundary on the first play easy read, easy 5yd pick up. after that mercyhurst went to cov 2 almost every play to try to take away the short outside throws but tommy read the defense and threw to the inside wr to get easy pick ups. On the scoring td they went to cov 3 but the genius of the play call was that the route call would work against cov3 OR cov2. We ran a wheel route which is good against cov2 or cov 3. The play worked because they were in cov 3 we ran off the cb with the wr jones ran the wheel route(putting our most explosive player on an lb). The genius of the play is that even if they were in cov2 the safety would have to cover one of our talented wr and the cb would cover jones as he passed through is zone but here's the kicker tommy had yardage for days if it was covered. It was an easy read, there was no intention of throwing to the wr jones was the target off the muscle. Tommy was looking to see who was on Jones. If it was a lb he's throwing it no matter what, ours is better than yours...besides their lbs can't run with jones any way, he was going to be open(again genius of the play). If you go back and look they knew that with that play call everyone would be vacated so even if all the routes were covered tommy could have ran and ran for days to if nothing else get in field goal range. That play alone should give everyone plenty of piece of mind of knowing that these coaches are doing what coaches do. They are game planning correctly and even more so, looking at what is going on in the game and calling off what they see. It really was a great call on that TD. Our coaches are really putting in the work to make sure that we are situationally prepared.....THAT'S championship football.

[BobcatBuiltTexan]

Who's putting together the zoom meeting on the next away game where we listen to BBT live disect the game? Lol

I would listen to that.

it's funny you say that...when i go to hs games i really try to sit far away from people. I hold EVERYONE accountable...coaches and players. If you mess up you mess up and I call it. If you make bad calls I state that. But for some reason people have a way of gravitating to where I am. At the end of games I have got many comments usually from women, no disrespect, that thank me for talking through the game(my wife hates it). They say that I explain stuff so they can understand. I really don't do it to help them I just talk the game because I can't keep it in my head, it'll explode...lol. It would be fun to be an analysis for a day, lol. But I have a lot of obligations and have a lot of young men's games that I coached to watch so that would be a hard thing for me to do. I still have players that ask me about what I see during games to help them out(I'll watch the first half and text them at half time). As much of a new found fan I am of MSU my loyalty resides with my former players and if they need/want my input I feel obligated to give it to them. So I watch multiple games on saturday and record a lot of games, lol. When the last of my players are done maybe that would be a cool thing to do.

[rfischer94]

Who's putting together the zoom meeting on the next away game where we listen to BBT live disect the game? Lol

I would listen to that.

it's funny you say that...when i go to hs games i really try to sit far away from people. I hold EVERYONE accountable...coaches and players. If you mess up you mess up and I call it. If you make bad calls I state that. But for some reason people have a way of gravitating to where I am. At the end of games I have got many comments usually from women, no disrespect, that thank me for talking through the game(my wife hates it). They say that I explain stuff so they can understand. I really don't do it to help them I just talk the game because I can't keep it in my head, it'll explode...lol. It would be fun to be an analysis for a day, lol. But I have a lot of obligations and have a lot of young men's games that I coached to watch so that would be a hard thing for me to do. I still have players that ask me about what I see during games to help them out(I'll watch the first half and text them at half time). As much of a new found fan I am of MSU my loyalty resides with my former players and if they need/want my input I feel obligated to give it to them. So I watch multiple games on saturday and record a lot of games, lol. When the last of my players are done maybe that would be a cool thing to do.

I love that. I appreciate your commitment to your players and admire you for your dedication. Maybe you'll make it up to Bobcat Stadium for a game simeday and we can sit together!

[lutecat]

Who's putting together the zoom meeting on the next away game where we listen to BBT live disect the game? Lol

I would listen to that.

it's funny you say that...when i go to hs games i really try to sit far away from people. I hold EVERYONE accountable...coaches and players. If you mess up you mess up and I call it. If you make bad calls I state that. But for some reason people have a way of gravitating to where I am. At the end of games I have got many comments usually from women, no disrespect, that thank me for talking through the game(my wife hates it). They say that I explain stuff so they can understand. I really don't do it to help them I just talk the game because I can't keep it in my head, it'll explode...lol. It would be fun to be an analysis for a day, lol. But I have a lot of obligations and have a lot of young men's games that I coached to watch so that would be a hard thing for me to do. I still have players that ask me about what I see during games to help them out(I'll watch the first half and text them at half time). As much of a new found fan I am of MSU my loyalty resides with my former players and if they need/want my input I feel obligated to give it to them. So I watch multiple games on saturday and record a lot of games, lol. When the last of my players are done maybe that would be a cool thing to do.

An even bigger fan then. That's the kind of leadership I respect. You're a good man, man.