Report Card and Game Balls vs GT

Here's my report card and Game Balls to give out vs GT. 

My take on Saturday's win vs GT in the ACC opener is this. I felt we did well for the most part, however, the sloppiness was still there in this game. We turned it over 4 more times in this game and was a -1 in turnover margin. For the most part though, we found a way to win late. We did commit 7 penalties for 54 yards. Gotta clean that up some more. 

Offensively, we had 551 yards of total offense. 224 yards rushing and 324 passing. Duke had a huge game with 184 yards on 22 carries. Solid game out of Dallas with another 31 yards on 5 carries and 2 more TDs. Big day for Hurns in the receiving game with 108 yards on 4 catches and 1 TD. Solid games all around from Stacy here having 74 yards on 3 catches. Phillip and Clive had some good games as well with 66 and 28 yards receiving respectively and a TD each.  Few things that concerned me after this game. Same deal as last game, ball security is still an issue here. Duke loses another fumble, this time in our own side of the field, and it cost us 7. He needs to be better at protecting the football in key situations. Stephen threw 2 picks in this one, the fortunate thing here is that it didn't lead to GT points. Need to be better and clean up those silly mistakes. Of the 7 penalties on Saturday, 4 were on the offense and 2 of those penalties were false starts. The other 2 were holding. The OL did allow a sack in this game. Bottom line, we need to get the ME's fixed now that we're in ACC play. Overall, good performance, but could be better. Grade: B-

Defensively, we forced 3 more turnovers in this game, 2 picks, one being a pick six by LaDarius to seal the win and the other a fumble forced and recovered. Although we allowed 354 yards rushing, we didn't allow a 100 yard rushing game from an individual standpoint. In the 1st half, we allowed 221 yards rushing. In the 2nd half, we allowed 113 yards rushing. The rush defense, considering, who we were facing, did an ok job. However, we need to get the rush defense better fortified going forward now that we're in ACC play. We held the Yellow Jackets to 6-16 on 3rd down conversions, but only 2 three and outs. Another issue we'll have to get fixed is our 4th down defense. GT in those situations was 4-5. That has to be fixed because later in the year, they're going to be some close games we need to shore that up. We sacked their QB's twice. Of the 7 penalties we had in this game, 2 penalties were on the D (offsides call on Justin and the unsportsmanlike call on after the Pick 6. We held GT, who doesn't throw the ball that often to just 66 yards passing on 6-19. We did allow 4 rushing TDs in the game. The D came up big when it had to, but still, there were some ME's here as well that need to get fixed before the trip to Chapel Hill on the Thursday Night after the BYE week. Grade: C+

Special Teams wise, better game out of Matty here. Another solid return game out of Duke with 114 yards of KR's, and 133 yards of total KR/PR in this one. Solid game from Patty in the Punting game and on Kickoffs. The downer here was that we had two big X-Plays here called back by really stupid penalties (one of which cost us 6), In games where field position is going to be vital, these are mistakes we can't have. The Return Defense regressed a little bit here. GT had 135 yards of returns (115 on KR's, but just 20 on one PR). We started drives on Saturday on Average from our own 26 and GT started drives from their own 35. However, the matter we really need to fix is the one penalty and that was the offsides on Antonio on the Kickoff after our first score.   Very fixable here. Gotta be better on the return Defense and not giving opponents short fields to work with here. Those ME's need to be fixed now that we're in ACC play because those mistakes come back to bite you, especially, if the game is in the balance here. Overall, good, but there is some room for improvement, and I felt we did that here. Grade: C+

Now, to Game Balls. This week, I'm going to give out three game balls. 

1. Duke Johnson - 22 carries, 184 yards rushing, 4 KR's, 114 yards (298 all-purpose yards)
2. Shayon Green - 9 Tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL
3. Allen Hurns - 4 receptions, 108 yards, 1 TD

Overall, I felt we played well, we kept grinding and found a way to win late. That being said, there were still some ME's (Mental Errors), that still need to be fixed, namely the penalties and ball security, which are still issues that have to be fixed. Still a little bit too many of those penalties on O (4 to be exact), and the other 3 on D and STs. The ones that bother me the most were the 4 on O, specifically the 2 holding penalties. Those are drive killers right there. In a close game against a good opponent, those type of penalties can come back to bite you. Gotta be sure we correct those going forward now that we're beginning ACC play next Thursday Night @Carolina at 7:30 on ESPN. 5-0 is a good feeling right now, but we could still get better and cut the ME's out. Take care and GO CANES!