Walker and Aldridge Vs. USC?

[kjones]

. Sam Young is going up against one of SC's best Dlineman. He will need help, which also concerns me. Will that leave the middle open....again?

I don't know about that, Young is a stud. Remember, this ain't some freshmen just coming in anymore, this guys has started 11 games! I think he'll be fine most of the time.

 

[Vince Young]

Have you guys been watching the same Alridge I have??? He got shut down in a 4th and two...

I saw the same play you did, except what I saw was the offensive line completely failing to push Army off of the line. Hard for me to pin that on Aldridge.

All I'm asking for is a little more complexity to our rushing attack. If Aldridge is not ready to play, Charlie will keep him out. But if he IS ready to play, Charlie should play him. This is the time.

 

[BGIF]

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by lattedatte
Have you guys been watching the same Alridge I have??? He got shut down in a 4th and two...
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I saw the same play you did, except what I saw was the offensive line completely failing to push Army off of the line. Hard for me to pin that on Aldridge.

I saw the same play you did, except what I saw was the offensive line completely failing to push Army off of the line. Hard for me to pin that on Aldridge.

Well on the play I saw the OL opened a nice hole. But a LB stepped up into it. I'm sure the PLAY ALDRIDGE NOW! crowd was screaming with glee knowing that unlike Darius, JA wouldn't dance and bounce to the outside around Freeman to his left. No, they knew Aldridge would take that defender head on, punish him, and tough out that needed yard to retain possession.

Aldridge hit him head on, was stood up, and dropped for a 1 yd LOSS on a 4th and 1. Aldridge was the "Go To" ball carrier with only a yard to gain. Aldridge choose not to bounce outside. He choose to take the defender on head on. Just like he did against high school boys last year. All he had to do was fall forward one body length after contact - 1st Down!

Well, welcome to Division 1, James. The power runner got STOOD UP by ARMY's WLB Cason Shrode and dropped for a LOSS. Correct me where I'm wrong but aren't power runners with a head of steam supposed to stand up LBs and drive them back?

Hard to pin that on Aldridge? Only for those in denial.

All I'm asking for is a little more complexity to our rushing attack. ...

More complexity than the one Walker ran in for a SEASON HIGH 162 yds against the same defense?

Walker averaged 6.8 ypc
Quinn 6.4
Lyons (WHO??? oh, a walk-on) 7.0 (2 carries, 1 for 10, 1 for 4)
McConnell 4.0
Aldridge 3.0 (3 carries, 1 for 10, 1 for NO GAIN, 1 for MINUS 1)

Did you notice Quinn who had a 0.8 ypc for the Season averaged 6.4 yds against Army?

 

[Vince Young]

Gettin' a little chippy there, B... I think you're getting me confused with the BENCH WALKER crowd. Roll back through the 8,432 threads on Walker over the course of the season and you'll see I've been a consistent defender of his.

I've also seen Walker get stuffed on short-yardage plays too. That doesn't mean Walker sucks. It means that, on any given running play, sometimes the running back gets it done, and sometimes the D makes a play instead.

Walker's done fine in a one-back offense. I also think that the team could do even better with a two-back offense. Take that 4th-and-short from the Army game, and add one wrinkle. Quinn under center, Aldridge way back just like where he was on that play, but replace a slot receiver with Walker as a halfback between Quinn and Aldridge. Quinn takes the snap and fakes a handoff to Walker, who then bounces left and outside. Meanwhile, Quinn hands-off to Aldridge while the aforementioned hole gets opened in the line. Now, that Army LB Shrode has to take an extra half second to figure out whether Walker or Aldridge has the ball, and thus whether he needs to shadow Walker to the outside or plug that hole and hit Aldridge. And even if he makes the right decision and goes to plug the hold, Aldridge has that extra half-second jump-start, and Shrode doesn't have quite as much momentum. And Aldridge maybe gets that extra yard and converts the play.

Or take that same formation and make it even simpler by sending Walker through that hole as a lead blocker for Aldridge.

Or take that same formation, do play-action fakes to BOTH guys and nail Freeman underneath while Shrode is plugging that hole.

Again I say, if Aldridge isn't ready, then fine. Charlie should already know this, and we won't see Aldridge, and Walker will probably do yeoman's work on his own as always.

But if we DO see Aldridge, I'll be happy indeed, because it will mean that our rushing attack just got that much more complicated for USC's D to figure out.

Shark is the best receiver on the team, but sometimes we throw it to McKnight, or Carlson, or Freeman, or even Walker. The fact that we spread the passes around doesn't mean that Charlie thinks Shark sucks. It means that Charlie likes to play a complex strategy with his passing attack. Shark is probably good enough that we could throw 100% of the passes to him and he'd still make catches and make plays, but he wouldn't have NEARLY the same level of success. The fact that opposing defenses have to ALSO account for McKnight, Carlson and Walker creates more chances for Shark to make the big plays we love him for.

I see nothing wrong with hoping for similar complexity with our running attack. Give the D another runner to account for, and it will create more opportunities for Walker.

 

[BGIF]

Gettin' a little chippy there, B... I think you're getting me confused with the BENCH WALKER crowd.

I've never confused you with the Bench Walker crowd, my comment above "Play Aldridge Now" crowd was specifically to distinguish you from them. The initial post and several followups (JA and Munir) are still reading high school clippings and not watching the on field development, or lack there of. Aldridge and Prince - so far - are the among the most disappointing, highly hyped, freshman RBs I can recall. Particularly on a team that still lists a Starting LB as the #2 RB.

I disagree with your OLine comment at least on the play. The rest of the JA comments deal with previous posters in this thread.

I see nothing wrong with hoping for similar complexity with our running attack. Give the D another runner to account for, and it will create more opportunities for Walker.

The primary purpose of my complexity comments was to document that both Walker AND Quinn had season highs rushing against the same defense. And a walkon had a career day. Aldridge had one positive gain in 3 carries. There's a lot of emotiposting about Aldridge and Prince with little substance about their actual ND performance. This is the 12 game of the season not the 3rd. "There only freshies" is stale at this point. They should be performing at a much higher level.

I agree with your follow up comments about 2 backs making the defense think. However, the two backs in the set have to operate as a unit with equal probability of being the ball carrier/blocker. Otherewise the defense gets tipped off before the snap. USC's LBs are quicker, bigger, and stronger than Army's. I don't see them being stumped at all unless the threat is real. And unless both backs can block.

In the 2 back set, ND only had two WRs, Freeman will have to stay in most of the time to help out blocking. A previous poster in this thread raved about Young being a stud. He's a talented freshman but he's been getting help from the TE, RG, and RB all season. I think SC would welcome a 2 back set as reducing Quinn's firepower.

I like the plays you describe IF the OLine can keep the defense out of our backfield long enough for the play to develop. But if they get a rush up the middle as many teams have this season ...

On the 4th and short I would have preferred Quinn faked to Aldridge into the line and rolled out behind Freeman, who was blocking on the left side, with the option to run or throw for the 1st down.

 

[Vince Young]

I've never confused you with the Bench Walker crowd, my comment above "Play Aldridge Now" crowd was specifically to distinguish you from them.

Okay, understood. I was hoping I'd mis-read that.

Bottom line: Charlie knows these players better than any of us Internet forum bozos. If Aldridge rides the bench, I'll be disappointed... that Aldridge wasn't able to get himself ready for USC. If Aldridge gets out there, I'll start salivating at the possibilites. I'm hoping for the latter, but if not, hey, D-Walk ain't exactly chopped liver.

I still can't help but wonder if Charlie's playing mind games with the Poodle on this one though. We've seen Aldridge get more and more carries earlier and earlier in the game the past few weeks, but it always seems to be on rather plain vanilla plays. That dropped swing-pass was the fanciest it ever got, and I don't remember seeing any 2-back sets with Aldridge and Walker out there at the same time. But Charlie said after the Army game that in the week leading up to Army, he already had the team practicing plays for USC but didn't tell them.

Now, why would you run the risk of stubbing your toe by practicing for an opponent that you're not even playing that weekend? (It almost burned us; Notre Dame's offense was putrid in the 1st quarter.) For some reason, Charlie felt he needed 2 weeks of practice to prepare for USC, even at the risk of not being fully prepared for Army. Why would he take that risk?

He'd take that risk to install some changes to the offense, changes that would take 2 weeks to get right. New plays. New formations. Things that haven't been done yet all season.

Such as a 2-back formation, for example.

Is it Saturday yet?

 

[lattedatte]

Bottom line is if you trust CW in making personnel decisions, which I think everyone does, you know why he isn't in there, it's either he isn't grasping the offense, isn't performing or DW is just the better option. This is the same coach that put a freshman in at RT from the word go and gave Walls an opportunity to shine. I think JA and Walls are going to big time players for us, just not this year. I think we all need to realize for better or worse DW is our man for the next two games. I am very cool with that, he isn't Steve Slaton or McFadden, but he is a fine player that has come through for us in the past. Plus if anybody thinks we are going to have success against SC on the ground, you better quickly have a come to jesus.

 

[irish4ever]

No doubt Aldridge is the future feature back, yet I don't think that he's ready for that responsibility yet ... especially for the biggest game of the year (or at least since scUM)! Haven't seen enough of him yet in blocking situations, plus he didn't look too polished on the swing pass this past weekend. Darius is a proven "dump off" man for Brady.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Bottom line is if you trust CW in making personnel decisions, which I think everyone does, you know why he isn't in there, it's either he isn't grasping the offense, isn't performing or DW is just the better option. This is the same coach that put a freshman in at RT from the word go and gave Walls an opportunity to shine. I think JA and Walls are going to big time players for us, just not this year. I think we all need to realize for better or worse DW is our man for the next two games. I am very cool with that, he isn't Steve Slaton or McFadden, but he is a fine player that has come through for us in the past. Plus if anybody thinks we are going to have success against SC on the ground, you better quickly have a come to jesus.

That pretty much sums it up. We have more talent waiting in the wings. But Weis has a complicated offense which a youngin will take some time to pick up...no matter how smart and studied they are. Aldrige wisely came in early to learn early...smart kid. This will help him play more earlier...but have no doubt this is not an easy offense to master.

JA will play soon enough...we need to give him time (and the coaches too).

 

[lattedatte]

That pretty much sums it up. We have more talent waiting in the wings. But Weis has a complicated offense which a youngin will take some time to pick up...no matter how smart and studied they are. Aldrige wisely came in early to learn early...smart kid. This will help him play more earlier...but have no doubt this is not an easy offense to master.

JA will play soon enough...we need to give him time (and the coaches too).

Plus he missed significant time due to injury during camp and spring ball(i think), those were valuable reps that were geared toward learning, not preparing for a game week.

 

[brecht]

Yea, CW will play the most experienced guys. But I don't think the question is whether or not JA is ready to step up, I think he needs to step up. We need that second back in this game to be successful. I just watched last years USC game (available of nbc.com if you didn't know) and our success in the running game came from Travis. Walker had some good runs and catches, but using two backs kept USC on their heels in the running game, and made both backs better. I'd say TT would play some at RB this week, but I think our defense is going to be one tired bunch during the game. So JA's contribution is a MUST if we are to win this week. It's not a question of readiness, it's a question of necessity.