I've now had time to watch the replay several times and break down the game without the emotions of the first time. The onsides kick has dominated the airwaves as one of the best calls in a NCG of all time, and rightfully so. However, there's much more to it than singular call. CNS is a defensive guy, and in his first 7 years here, our whole approach was to run an offense that chewed clock, and kept the defense fresh. This is still absolutely his desired style of play, but he has made the adjustment of realizing that sometimes you have to abandon that mindset and swing for the fences. I think that was the main reason for his hiring of Lane Kiffin, and expect his next OC to be a dynamic playcaller as well. Clemson has a very good defense, and we absolutely shredded them when it was necessary. Looking back to Ole Miss, we did the same thing, but just made too many mistakes to overcome. Ask yourself this - do you not think we could could have done this to most, if not all of teams on our schedule? With that style of play, we wouldn't have had the defensive stats that we did nor a Heisman winning RB, but you can't convince me we would have one of the most prolific offenses in the SEC and probably the country if we had went this route. When the game was on the line, we had a quick strike, explosive offense that was very explosive. Even going back to Tennesee game, nothing we did in that game looked like that last scoring drive to put them away.
I don't really mean to suggest that were holding things back, as much as we have the capacity (and willingness, when necessary) to play wide open, shoot out style football. This is something CNS used to seem to be totally against doing. I feel like we lost some games being too conservative, and that opinion was pretty much shared by most at the time. Our gameplan in the NCG started out like our typical plan, but the playcalling after halftime had no regard for protecting the defense. CNS and Kiffin realized we needed to score a lot of points to win this game. I'm not sure we would have won this game 3 or 4 years ago. Part of CNS' genius is that he realizes there are some offenses that even a great defenses cannot stop. The defensive coach in CNS probably hates this as much as I do, but he has accepted that and planned for it. Games like this one and AU last year are just going to happen. Nick Marshall and Deshaun Watson actually had record setting games against us, which is what is used to be our death knell, but they were both rewarded with big fate "L's".
Looking forward, if Blake Barnett, David Cornwell, or Jalen Hurts ends up being as advertised, we are going to be a very dangerous team for many years to come. We'll probably primarily punish teams on the ground with Scarbrough, Harris, Emmons, etc.and play great defense, but when needed, hopefully we'll have the ability to unleash a uber talented QB with a ridiculous WR corps. Unfortunately for our competition, I think CNS is hitting his stride as a head coach, as unbelievable as that sounds.
I think the pundits need to put the Dynasty obits on the shelf for just a bit longer.
I don't really mean to suggest that were holding things back, as much as we have the capacity (and willingness, when necessary) to play wide open, shoot out style football. This is something CNS used to seem to be totally against doing. I feel like we lost some games being too conservative, and that opinion was pretty much shared by most at the time. Our gameplan in the NCG started out like our typical plan, but the playcalling after halftime had no regard for protecting the defense. CNS and Kiffin realized we needed to score a lot of points to win this game. I'm not sure we would have won this game 3 or 4 years ago. Part of CNS' genius is that he realizes there are some offenses that even a great defenses cannot stop. The defensive coach in CNS probably hates this as much as I do, but he has accepted that and planned for it. Games like this one and AU last year are just going to happen. Nick Marshall and Deshaun Watson actually had record setting games against us, which is what is used to be our death knell, but they were both rewarded with big fate "L's".
Looking forward, if Blake Barnett, David Cornwell, or Jalen Hurts ends up being as advertised, we are going to be a very dangerous team for many years to come. We'll probably primarily punish teams on the ground with Scarbrough, Harris, Emmons, etc.and play great defense, but when needed, hopefully we'll have the ability to unleash a uber talented QB with a ridiculous WR corps. Unfortunately for our competition, I think CNS is hitting his stride as a head coach, as unbelievable as that sounds.
I think the pundits need to put the Dynasty obits on the shelf for just a bit longer.
