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Things to work on for 2014...

L

LDopaPDX

Active member
Had I wrote this a couple of weeks earlier, I would've titled it "Happy Festivus: An Airing of the Grievances."

A couple of issues that are at critical mass if we want to move from being a perennial contender to a championship team:

1. Defensive game prep

I don't know why we are so bad in this area.... I don't know what we are doing in film study that isn't getting our D prepared. Think about this: of all the teams we played that were FBS or above .500 in FCS (in other words, the good teams), EVERY ONE of those teams scored on their opening drives except Jacksonville State and Southern Utah. Oregon State, Toledo, Sam Houston, Montana, Montana State, and South Dakota State all scored the first time they touched the ball. Jacksonville State scored on their second and third drives. I know the D makes good adjustments, but you'd be hard pressed to find another quality team at any level that looks so disorganized to start a game. People will point to the last drives as why we lost to Towson, but remember they scored 3 TDs on their first 3 drives and were likely going to score another when they inexplicably fumbled a snap.
 
2. Taking advantage of field position

We were so lights-out in the red zone during the season, it's hard to believe we could totally fall apart in the post-season. A total of 8 possessions inside the opponents 30 yard line yielded no points in our 3 post-season games. I don't know what to make of that. I guess this is just a philosophy issue. We need to take care of the ball better and take points when available.

And this ties in to #3...
 
3. Short yardage offense

How many 3rd and 1s did we blow this year? I don't know, but it sure felt like a lot. We can run the ball, and we have good blocking on the interior line, but we can't run a power-type offense to save our lives. This is just as easy as installing a couple more plays, ones where the RB lines up 3 yards behind the QB, and the QB lines up under center. We had a 3rd and 1 against Towson go for lost yardage because we lined Forte up 7 yards off the ball, and despite the play being well blocked, a safety came from outside the formation unblocked and made the tackle before the runner got to the line of scrimmage... in other words, he ran 20 yards and made a tackle before the RB could even get to the yard-to-make. You can't run plays that are so slow to develop in short yardage. We've got the beef and muscle up front to do better.
 
4. Secondary play

It became an Achilles heel late in the year, which was especially disappointing because our DL really stepped up and the LBs really came of age over the course of the season. A lot of injuries certainly contributed, and getting a healthy Tonani and McDonald back will go a long ways toward improving this situation. I'm surprised Diamonte Wiggins hasn't factored in yet, because everyone thought he was such a steal when he signed with Eastern. It's getting tough to play with DBs under 6', so adding some height will really help against these modern day tall receivers.
 
your points are all well taken and justified, but how many 3rd and over 10 yards did EWU convert on the season to keep drives going----MANY
 
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