I got to continue the replay through the second half to monitor Kraemer/Hainsey and Martini/Coney.
1). Kraemer made essentially zero negative plays. Even when we ran right on 4th and two, he buried his man down inside two yards off the point of initial contact. That play was blown up by Temple because of poor TE blocking. Tommy doesn't always LOOK slick and pretty, but he did his job consistently.
Hainsey was pretty good. If he hadn't got two pre-snap twitch penalties he'd be excellent grade-wise. I saw only two bad misses on blocks. Bars actually had a tougher time reading twists and pulling or crossing than his RTs --- though that's a tough job. Weirdly, Q blew one block that almost got Wimbush in trouble. The poorest blocking was by the RBs, who still are typical RBs with little instincts for it.
2). Martini was pretty solid all around. Surprisingly, he and Coney played a fair bit with one another and with Morgan on the sidelines. This seemed to be a rotation of some almost mechanical sort just like the Kraemer/Hainsey rotation. I thought that (with all due respect to TTT) the linebacker fits were pretty good. Occasionally there was a gash. On one bad one, both Coney and Martini filled gaps, but the DLine got really tied up by the OLine. No one got off their blocks at all, and there were THREE gaps with only two LBs filling. Bonner finally discarded his blocker enough to make the tackle seven yards downfield. On one play we were blitzing and the RB hit a hole. Martini was blitzing one gap away, but the OLineman turned and hooked him --- no call. I could see the casual observer saying that Martini should have been quicker --- well, maybe Jaylon would have been able to overcome the hook but that's asking a lot. Overall, both Martini and Coney looked like they played slightly better than Morgan, but Morgan was OK.
Re-watching two of the so-called "problem areas" that people (including a rather unobservant Doug Flutie) keep mentioning, has led me to believe that those two areas are pretty darn good. If I wanted to worry about things they would be:
A). Get the RBs and the TEs blocking better. I think that will happen, as one of the two rookie TEs finally slammed into somebody at the goal-line rather than high-schooling it in there.
B). Pray that Wimbush gets cooler and more rapidly observant with more reps --- that should happen.
C). Get the DTs more violent and angrier in throwing OLinemen aside (at least a little bit.) I don't know if they have that in them.
D). Either tell CJSanders to hit the hole full-steam, and make somebody miss (I didn't think that he gained a yard that the blocking hadn't simply handed him), or get somebody like Finke or Williams back there on KOs.
E). Hope that Smythe isn't hurt. He is our best whether unspectacular or not. I'll bet that the OLine would only vote him as an honorary OLineman of all the TEs --- maybe the vastly underrated Weishaar.
F). Hope that Adams doesn't have a nagging injury --- they said cramps, but he was grabbing in the area of the hamstring.
