Post Game: Road woes continue

[zirge]

Out of curiosity, whose responsibility is to make the changes necessary for the players to be put in better position and opportunities to execute better? Sorry, but at this level, for every team it is on the coaching staff.

It is on both the coaches and the players to get out there and win football games. The coaches come up with game plan, and the players execute it. It is up to the players to make the correct reads when out on the field, to take the right angles when attempting to make a tackle or make a pick, to get off blocks and make tackles, to call out proper blocking assignments on the O-line, to make accurate throws, to catch, and generally to be meaner than the other guy. This is not to say that losing is the player's fault. I'm not calling out any specific players. I'm only saying that football is a team activity. Coaches and players are part of that team.

I think what is missing here is credit being given to Cal Poly. They are a good football team and played very well tonight. How many mistakes did they make? Very few. When I say this game was about execution, it is NOT that we executed poorly. It's that Cal Poly executed better than we did. It happens. Well done Cal Poly. Now we move on to Sac State and try to execute better than them.

the question still remains.......why would you start or even play the game at this level if you were unable to execute?

You missed one question. Why would you leave in players not executing? Even when the players are not executing, it is still the coaches responsibility to adjust the game plan and/or personnel. The reality of it is, this staff does not know what the words adjust, adjustment, adjustments, adjusting means. It is not part of the GRIZ coaching vocabulary.

actually we are saying the same thing...........read my response to your response further up the page.

 

[first11]

No upset for griz in this one. The pragmatist in me says we again got schooled and out executed by better prepped/focused team. We can get away with less against weaker opponents but several games in front of us will again have our hands full.

Winning out if possible...... maybe a shot in playoffs, but with conference the way it is this year not looking good.

We have been again somewhat suspect this year. Shame so little done with talent available on team.

The optimist in me says we may marshall our talent and pull out of our nose dive!

.....guess we will see, as always go griz!

 

[griz4life]

Really don't understand why Gregorak didn't spy the qb-the most productive player on the field should have been spied. I said before the game the Griz defense would die from a million cuts if they waited for poly to make enough mistakes to kill its own drives.

 

[monte is a character]

I posted this in the game thread. Think it belongs here too.

This game was about execution, not coaching. Much like the NDSU game, the opposition doesn't do anything fancy, they do simple things and execute them to perfection.

The season is not over. It would have been great to win this game, but o-well. We pick ourselves up, dust off, and focus for Sac State. It is still entirely reasonable to think that we could win out. That would put us at 8-3 with big wins over MSU and EWU. I haven't given up, the GRIZ sure as hell won't, and neither should GRIZ nation.

GO GRIZ. Bring on Sac State.

Soooooo...in 2 and 1/2 years, it's been execution problems in 90% of the games against teams with winning records? I hope the players can clean this up...definately not a coaching issue.

2012 doesn't really count. New staff. Lost starting QB. Huge off the field distractions.

2013. Yes, I think it was mostly execution. In 2013 however, it was defensive execution killing us. This year, it appears to be offense (and defensive, but to a much lesser degree) execution.

Do I think every play call our coaches make is correct? No. But that doesn't mean that we are entirely being out-coached. The other side occasionally makes bad play calls too. Coaches occasionally make mistakes too. But that does not mean that this coaching stuff is being out-coached every game like everybody here believes. It is MOSTLY execution.

On to Sac State. Can't wait to yell REALLY loudly in Wa-Griz again. GO GRIZ!

Stop the excuses. If a team consistently fails to execute, it is because they are NOT COACHED PROPERLY TO EXECUTE.

 

[monte is a character]

Really don't understand why Gregorak didn't spy the qb-the most productive player on the field should have been spied. I said before the game the Griz defense would die from a million cuts if they waited for poly to make enough mistakes to kill its own drives.

It is because Gregorak believes in the Paulsen philosophy of not having the opponents' offense dictate to his defense. He makes no adjustments, just keeps doing the same thing, hoping the results will eventually change as the game progresses. Trouble is they never do.

 

[UMGriz75]

There was some good stuff in the first half. That was a competitive Griz football team that played an "A" game, exciting. But, whatever happens in that locker room, the Griz once again came out in the second half with their "C" team. Last week offered hope that this had changed, but it hasn't. Something goes on in there that dismantles this team's ability to play football. And it is so consistent that it has to be a structural (staff) problem there somewhere.

 

[jcu27]

Other teams make adjustments. Griz don't. Plain and simple.

 

[monte is a character]

There was some good stuff in the first half. That was a competitive Griz football team that played an "A" game, exciting. But, whatever happens in that locker room, the Griz once again came out in the second half with their "C" team. Last week offered hope that this had changed, but it hasn't. Something goes on in there that dismantles this team's ability to play football. And it is so consistent that it has to be a structural (staff) problem there somewhere.

Should be pretty simple to understand. The opponent makes halftime adjustments, and we don't. It is like a chess game, with our staff being "check-mated" all too frequently.

 

[grzz]

Really don't understand why Gregorak didn't spy the qb-the most productive player on the field should have been spied. I said before the game the Griz defense would die from a million cuts if they waited for poly to make enough mistakes to kill its own drives.

It is because Gregorak believes in the Paulsen philosophy of not having the opponents' offense dictate to his defense. He makes no adjustments, just keeps doing the same thing, hoping the results will eventually change as the game progresses. Trouble is they never do.

The delayed QB run up the middle, whether by design or improv, has been there all year. Someone finally planned to take full advantage. Similar to the delayed pass out of the backfield. Part of the reason we struggle on third downs.

 

[grzz]

There was some good stuff in the first half. That was a competitive Griz football team that played an "A" game, exciting. But, whatever happens in that locker room, the Griz once again came out in the second half with their "C" team. Last week offered hope that this had changed, but it hasn't. Something goes on in there that dismantles this team's ability to play football. And it is so consistent that it has to be a structural (staff) problem there somewhere.

Should be pretty simple to understand. The opponent makes halftime adjustments, and we don't. It is like a chess game, with our staff being "check-mated" all too frequently.

Does anyone have stats on what our first ofensive drive after halftime have looked like under Delaney?

 

[Robsnotes4u]

griz gave up 528 total yards. They finally played a productive offense...

Wow, we're almost up there with EWU. Ole'

ya. too bad you don't have the #1 rated offense to go with that shitty defense. :thumb:

:thumb:

 

[monte is a character]

No upset for griz in this one. The pragmatist in me says we again got schooled and out executed by better prepped/focused team. We can get away with less against weaker opponents but several games in front of us will again have our hands full.

Winning out if possible...... maybe a shot in playoffs, but with conference the way it is this year not looking good.

We have been again somewhat suspect this year. Shame so little done with talent available on team.

The optimist in me says we may marshall our talent and pull out of our nose dive!

.....guess we will see, as always go griz!

Agreed. This was no upset. Poly would beat us every time if we played them 5 times.

 

[Fahque]

Other teams make adjustments. Griz don't. Plain and simple.

And it's been happening for at least a couple of years.

 

[cclarkblues]

Honestly, I think they played about as well as you could expect them to. On offense we don't block well enough to open holes for our running backs. In the passing game we have seen some great catches this year mainly because they had to. I'm not seeing much separation downfield so there are a lot of jump balls - thankfully we have some talented receivers to make catches, but it's hard to go through a whole season relying on amazing catches. Also those rarely offer much in the way of yards gained after catch. Last week Canada had a terrific game, but a lot of it was due to his ability to bounce to the outside for big gains. It didn't work yesterday. We also shoot ourselves in the foot a lot whether it is by penalties, baffling play calling, or lack of execution. How many third and shorts did we have yesterday? Darned few.
Giving up 528 yards cannot be considered good defense. Our D maybe played our best the first 2 games of the season. Giving up well over 200 yards to Brown by allowing him to do the same thing time after time is crazy. The bend but don't break keeps the defense out on the field to the point of exhaustion, then it is bend and break, one of the reasons we struggle in the latter parts of the game. Unfortunately as the season wears on it also wears down the players.
These things have pretty much been ongoing the entire season, I doubt whether we will see a huge amount of change. If we can't execute by now, it might not happen.
One other observation - I noticed when we ran out on the field before the game that the Griz ran out like they were there to play a game, not like they were there to storm the castle and kick some ass like they used to. And it was pretty obvious by the beginning of the fourth quarter you could see on their faces that we had already lost.
I wish I could believe that we are making a lot of improvement but aside from letting JJ do his thing more it looks like we are stuck in the same patterns. CP executed at a high level yesterday and won a game they had been wanting for an entire year. I can't remember us executing at a high level for more than 2 quarters on offence in any game.
But there is always hope. We aren't an awful team we will win a few more games. Go Griz!

 

[Blgs Griz Fan]

Brint, I have a lot of respect for you and how much of a fan and part of the Griz experience you have been. I know that this team will fight for its life for the rest of the season. I am just tired of seeing the coaching staff not scheme well enough, or adjust well enough, or even be aggressive enough. Those kids will go down swinging, but the staff has tied one of their hands behind their backs. It is a sad day when the only thing keeping a group of athletes who have busted their tails for an entire year, and more, is the very people who should be helping them be great.

I'm fed up with great people and players being used in a manner that makes them average at best. Haslam really needs a good long chat with Mick and his staff at the end of the season.

+ infinity

 

[Blgs Griz Fan]

There was some good stuff in the first half. That was a competitive Griz football team that played an "A" game, exciting. But, whatever happens in that locker room, the Griz once again came out in the second half with their "C" team. Last week offered hope that this had changed, but it hasn't. Something goes on in there that dismantles this team's ability to play football. And it is so consistent that it has to be a structural (staff) problem there somewhere.

Agreed.

 

[Umista]

A simple minded observation:
If we had a good to great offense we would have kept Poly's offense off the field and not allowed them the time to score. Hence we would have won and our defense would have been fresh and in turn not allowed as many good runs by Poly!

First three plays called by the Griz should tell us all we need to know about our offensive coaching!

 

[PlayerRep]

It doesn't surprise me that UM lost this game. I have been concerned about the game all along. Even after the good first half by UM, by both O and D, it doesn't surprise me that CP won the game. But it does surprise me that both the O and D faltered so badly in the second half. I thought the O would continue to perform well or fairly well, and that the D, while still giving up yards to CP, would improve in certain areas. That was a bad half. Don't know what went wrong in that half.

Their qb, who is very good, absolutely killed us. Good thing he isn't a good passer. I thought we'd do better against him in the second half.

CP is a very good offensive team, and their defense was better than I expected. 13 - 18 in 3d down conversions. That is unbelievable good. Their secondary covered very well and made many very good plays. Note that many of our completions, especially in the first half, were great catches by our receivers.

JJ was very good yesterday, as well the receivers. However, UM needed more from the offensive, in both halves, to win this game. UM should have had a lead in the first half. Once CP moved ahead and UM had to pass, it became harder for UM to complete passes, as CP adjusted its D.

As others have said, significant credit needs to be given to CP. They played very well. They were fired up the whole game. They completely outplayed UM in the second half. Hope their qb is okay. Would like to see how the Cats handle him next weekend.

While Strahm seemed to play well, it didn't help having Van Ackeren out. He was playing well. He had 7 tackles (all solo) in less than a half. The performance of the D in the second half was surprising and disappointing. I thought they would do better.

As others have said, the team needs to regroup, and get ready to win, and win the next game. I think they will, but SS is no pushover. UM cannot be down coming into next Saturday, or they will not get a win. Need to be ready, focused and sharp. UM can still control its destiny.

UM needs to beat SS, as well as SU. I'm less worried about the EWU and MSU games. While very good teams and very tough games, I think UM will be fully up and prepared for those games, assuming the season hasn't crumbled. Those games worry me less than CP did, assuming Adams is still not back at full speed.

There is little margin for error now. Dropping the game to CP is a setback, but not necessarily the end of the world. All of the remaining games are tough. We'll see what the team is made of. We'll see what the coaches can do to get the team focused and prepared, and what adjustments can be made. I am still hopeful, but, as some of you have noticed, I have not made any predictions on the season's record--as I haven't been able to figure out how good the team is and how much they will be able to improve from week to week.

It will interesting to see if the team can re-group and come back strong. This is what I like about sport. It's not all about winning. It's also about overcoming losses and adversity, and responding. The Griz have usually been very good at doing this in the past several decades. They've been overcoming adversity all season this fall (5 starters, and really 6 with Thiebes, out on the offense, plus both kickers recently). Hopefully, they can rally. I know I'm with them, and it looks like many others on egriz are too. Go get em, and Go Griz!

Josh Dennard: "All of our goals are still there. Our Big Sky goal is still there. We don't have to panic. This a a loss and we're going to learn from it." Missoulian article today.

Also, some nice posts, qwerty15.

 

[Buttegrizzle]

I have no documentation of this but I compare JJ of his first two season with this season and I suspect he is playing with injuries. He simply does not seem to want to run as much and the run is there. When JJ runs, the game changes.

Also, we saw a (small) variety of creative offensive plays in the first half and moved the ball. In the second half we closed the playbook and just go with a few runs and then a Hail Mary. Why does the staff give up on the creativity? Here is a thought- how about lining the giant Gusto up as a reciever? How about letting him throw from a lateral pass? Why no experiments with the offense because we do not score enough to compete in this conference.

 

[garizzalies]

anyone questioning JJ is barking up the wrong tree (not saying you are Bgriz but I've seen a few posts around here suggesting he is the problem and it makes me wanna puke).

The scheme is beyond dumb. Short to mid-range dink-n-dunks and various screens can pick CP apart. JJ proved this the two prior times he beat them. But in this game there was way too many bombs. It was all or nothing. When they were giving us the underneath stuff, JJ's read is to audible to a run. That is what he is taught to do, instead of taking what they were giving us. That's why he audibled to a run (twice!) on 3rd-n-long.