TOP

[Wolf777]

One thing I was really hoping to see today after the last couple years was the ability to consistently sustain drives and keep our defense off of the field. Though our offense stepped up when needed and it was really nice to see some quick strikes and big play ability, we did not see good ball control and management of the game by grinding the clock. I know you take the score when you can, but play calling serves a lot of purposes.

Overall TOP was 28:45 for Butler to 31:15 for the Griz.

Out of 13 drives for UM, only 1 drive was over 5 minutes (14 plays for 44 yards), 2 drives were over 4 minutes (10
Plays for 54 yards and 9 plays for 63 yards) and the remaining 10 drives were all under 3 minutes.

We ended up with a pretty good balance yardwise, but this had more to do with Vidlak playing the first and McDowell playing most of the second as opposed to by design. Today was trial by fire with a new to this crew OC, and new weapons, and I do feel that we saw creative ways to get the ball into playmakers hands which is a nice change over the last couple of years. Bergen, White, and Fontes all had 4 catches. However, from what we saw in this team as a whole there is a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done to make this team competitive enough to reach its goals.

 

[fltheadgriz]

One thing I was really hoping to see today after the last couple years was the ability to consistently sustain drives and keep our defense off of the field. Though our offense stepped up when needed and it was really nice to see some quick strikes and big play ability, we did not see good ball control and management of the game by grinding the clock. I know you take the score when you can, but play calling serves a lot of purposes.

Overall TOP was 28:45 for Butler to 31:15 for the Griz.

Out of 13 drives for UM, only 1 drive was over 5 minutes (14 plays for 44 yards), 2 drives were over 4 minutes (10
Plays for 54 yards and 9 plays for 63 yards) and the remaining 10 drives were all under 3 minutes.

We ended up with a pretty good balance yardwise, but this had more to do with Vidlak playing the first and McDowell playing most of the second as opposed to by design. Today was trial by fire with a new to this crew OC, and new weapons, and I do feel that we saw creative ways to get the ball into playmakers hands which is a nice change over the last couple of years. Bergen, White, and Fontes all had 4 catches. However, from what we saw in this team as a whole there is a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done to make this team competitive enough to reach its goals.

Well yes and no
If my memory serves me (sorry was watching the game with a bad migraine), when McDowell and Gillman had the four runs in the one posession, that was ball control management and clock management yet on those four runs they ended up with over 50 yards combined. When you have beasts that can do this then TOP is kind of a misnomer.

 

[bgbigdog]

One thing I was really hoping to see today after the last couple years was the ability to consistently sustain drives and keep our defense off of the field. Though our offense stepped up when needed and it was really nice to see some quick strikes and big play ability, we did not see good ball control and management of the game by grinding the clock. I know you take the score when you can, but play calling serves a lot of purposes.

Overall TOP was 28:45 for Butler to 31:15 for the Griz.

Out of 13 drives for UM, only 1 drive was over 5 minutes (14 plays for 44 yards), 2 drives were over 4 minutes (10
Plays for 54 yards and 9 plays for 63 yards) and the remaining 10 drives were all under 3 minutes.

We ended up with a pretty good balance yardwise, but this had more to do with Vidlak playing the first and McDowell playing most of the second as opposed to by design. Today was trial by fire with a new to this crew OC, and new weapons, and I do feel that we saw creative ways to get the ball into playmakers hands which is a nice change over the last couple of years. Bergen, White, and Fontes all had 4 catches. However, from what we saw in this team as a whole there is a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done to make this team competitive enough to reach its goals.

I suppose like many of you, I bought the competition story. As I see it now, they would be foolish not to implement both guys games in the offense. In a perfect world, it only makes it more difficult to prepare for playing them. Who gets the most snaps will be irrelevant, go with what's working at the time. For the most part, I was pleased with the play calls, clearly tailored for each guy, with the goal of getting the ball to the best playmakers whenever possible. They ran outside the tackles, found the middle of the field with the passing game and added some much needed trickeration. I think the conundrum that kept things way too interesting is now the o-line. If I were being kind, I'd suggest they were simply inconsistent. But it's a lot more than that.

One game anomaly against a bunch of non-scholarhiip, undersized guys? Maybe. I really hope so. But when they sit down to watch film, I can't imagine being more embarrassed about the way they played than their two coaches should be. bozeman, SacState, Davis and Idaho all won handily, primarily because their o-lines played well - facilitating the playmakers and allowing them to shine.

I do believe TOP is important as you note, particularly when it comes to keeping the other team's offense and your defense off the field. If you can run and pass effectively, with the new time rules, you can shorten the game. This puts pressure on the offenses to be productive, more so because they aren't going to have as many possessions in which to work. But even more important is, and bear with me here because it won't be immediately apparent to everyone, is to focus on increasing the number of times you kickoff each game, by a whole bunch. Defenses will forgive some extra time on the field, if their teammates are boat racing their opposition. Play all the defense you want. Be extremely proud of it and the special teams. But the most important work ahead is to figure out how to consistently score points, increase the number of kickoffs substantially and then, and only then, will there not be a middle of the pack finish to complain about all off-season.