Tuesday September 05, 2006

The Florida Atlantic Game Worksheet

In a blog earlier this summer I asked if you would want me to publish the worksheet I use to help evaluate games and it was almost unanimous in favor of the feature each week. Below is week one’s review worksheet:

The Florida Atlantic Game Worksheet

Offensive Goals Made
More than 27 points-54
More than 150 yards rushing-199
More than 20 first downs-21
More than 4 yards per carry-5.1
Better than 60% pass completions percentage-61%
Red Zone Scoring-80%-66%
Less than 3 sacks per game-1

Offensive Goals Missed
More than 225 yards passing-173
Less than two turnovers-4
Red Zone-60% touchdowns-50%

Defensive Goals Made
Less than 18 points-6
Less than 125 yards rushing-47
Less than 3.5 yards per carry-1.4
Less than 55% pass completion percentage-47%
More than two turnovers-4
Red Zone-40% touchdowns-0%
Red Zone Scoring-70%-50%

Defensive Goals Missed
Less than 200 yards passing-216
Less than 18 first downs-18
More than 3 sacks per game-3

Miscellaneous Goals
Penalty yardage less than 50 per game-50

Overall Report Analysis-Grades and Comments on:

Offense-Rushing
Interior running game-This was one of the most impressive attributes of the offense. The blocking was good and the Tigers’ backs found holes on the inside.

Perimeter running game-This was not a big part of the game plan. I did not see a lot of runs to the outside.

Option game-Again, this was not a part of this game plan.

Draws-The offense did not have to run a lot of draws this week.

Short yardage running game-Excellent. The Tigers converted on most short yardage situations.

Yards after contact-Excellent. I thought the backs ran hard and broke tackles. The wide receivers also did a nice job of creating yards after being hit.

Offense-Passing
Pass protection-Average. Proctor looks more comfortable on the perimeter. The Owls did not rush much up field but they were able to bat down a few passes.

Underneath passing game-Good. The wide outs and Spiller were able to turn positive yards out of the underneath game.

Intermediate passing game-I thought it was OK. Thomas Hunter’s reception was a nice play. Stuckey had a couple of nice catches that turned into first downs.

Vertical passing game-Very good. Stuckey and Taylor had nice touchdown catches in the vertical game.

Screens-The Tigers did not run too many screens or bubble screens on Saturday.

Drops-They limited their drops against FAU.

Yards after catch-This was nice to see. Stuckey had a key third down conversion after making the defense miss.

QB throws on time-I thought Proctor did a nice job here. There were a couple of times where he had to hold the ball a little longer to wait for the receiver to get open.

Offense-Overall
First down yardage-Excellent. James Davis and Reggie Merriweather helped on first down.
Third down conversion-8 of 13 was a good rate.

Big Plays-The Tigers hit on big plays to Stuckey, Taylor, Davis and Merriweather. On offense there were enough big plays to satisfy.

Trick plays-The first play of the game was a reverse but really they limited any trick plays throughout.

Defense-Overall
Tackling-I was a little disappointed in the tackling. I saw a few missed tackles and this is an area of concern.

First down yardage-I thought the defense did a nice job of keeping FAU behind the chains.

Third down conversion-8 of 18 is a little high. I would like to see that number come down slightly.

Limit of Big Plays-The defense did a nice job of keeping the big play out of the game.

Defense-Running game
Interior running game-Good. Clemson stuffed the interior running game and allowed only 47 yards.

Perimeter running game-Good pursuit and nice gang tackling.

Option game-The Owls did not feature much option.

Draws-The Tigers did a nice job against the draws.

Short yardage running game-The defense did OK in short yardage. Especially the final drive when the third team defense keep FAU out of the end zone.

Yards after contact-Again, I was a little disappointed in the tackling.

Defense-Passing Game
Pressure-This was the biggest disappointment of the defense. The Tigers did not blitz much but did not get a lot of pressure. The Owls did a nice job in their three-step drops.

Underneath passing game coverage-I thought this was good. The corners reacted and made tackles.

Intermediate passing game coverage-Clemson look good here. The linebackers did not blitz much so they got nice drops into coverage.

Vertical passing game coverage-Clemson did not give up a big pass the entire game.

Screens-I thought the pursuit was good.

Passes broken up-This was a nice segment of the defense. The Tigers did a good job of breaking on the ball.

Open field tackling-Average. I saw a few too many missed tackles.

Special Teams
Kickoff returns-Blocking, returners-The Tigers only returned three kicks. I thought the return game was about average.

Kick off coverage-Dean kicked the ball well and the Tigers covered very well. Ray Ray McElrathbey had a great special teams effort.

Punt return/block-Blocking, returners-Jacoby Ford had the longest return in Clemson history. This was a nice effort.

Punt coverage-Snap, protection, punt, coverage-This was the best part of the game. No punts were needed.

Field Goals/extra points-snap, hold, protection, kick-Poor. It is hard to imagine missing an extra point and a field goal. The 45-yarder would have been good from 55 but the missed PAT took a little shine off of it.

Overall Team
Energy, Enthusiasm, Leadership-Outstanding. The team played with good enthusiasm. The crowd was into the game. The energy was very high throughout.

Coaching
Emotionally prepared-The Tigers were very ready to play.

Game plan-The Tigers showed a bunch of formations but the game plan was vanilla on both sides.

Adjustments-Not a whole lot of adjustments were needed.

Personnel-The staff played more people than I can ever remember. I think they played five guards in the first quarter.

Time outs-This was not too much of a factor in a 54-6 win.

Injuries-The biggest negative. Waters’ injury is devastating. Bennett, Roman Fry, Rashaad Jackson all missed time but are expected to return.

Note: The most impressive thing I saw all day was the number of young players that looked very athletic. Alexander, Campbell, Butler, Cumbie, Sapp, Butler, Austin, Humphries, Ford, Spiller, Murchison, Etta-Tawo and Conner looked very athletic for freshmen.

Mickey's Blog also brought to you by:

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency