The Jackal wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:31 pm
gofurman wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 8:18 pm
The Jackal wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:43 pm
fufanatic wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:51 am
How Samford could go on the road and almost beat Florida State (who is awful but still) and then lose at home the next week is beyond me. We aren’t in great shape either, but i would be losing my mind if i was a Samford fan.
Florida State is worse than people realize. Samford also had 4 extra days to prepare for FSU while the Noles played on Monday night and then again Saturday.
Samford is/was a weak front runner in the SoCon. They won a bunch last year, but also played a lot of close games. They aren't the 2004 GSU team or the 2007 App State team. They are arguably the best team in the conference, but not by much.
Mercer exposed Samford a bit. They dropped a bunch of guys in coverage and forced the Bulldogs to run the ball, which they struggled mightly to do. You could also see that the absences on Samford's defense (they lost a lot off last years' team) were apparent as Mercer moved the ball on them all game.
Last year I recall we dropped people in coverage and Samford shocked us by running for numerous yards on several plays and we didn’t look prepared for them to run. IE, we would rush 3 and drop 8 and Samford surprised us by gashing us with the run game ... something they weren’t known for doing but it worked Vs us in the final regular season game very well. Simple math. We assumed they would throw. We rushed 3/4 guys. They had 5 blockers and were more than willing to run for easy yards.
I hope Samford is lesser on D this year as last year they were one of the top 3 FCS front 7 we saw. Samford. Wofford. And Elon - those 3 Front 7 Gave us Real trouble last year. Esp Wofford in playoffs and Samford reg season. Those two shut us down pretty well. Right behind those 3 would be Mercer who we had to convert 4/4 first downs - we did ! - to win. But they did force us into several fourth downs.
Generally, Samford is going to put up yards. They would typically score 24-27 points. They did the same against Mercer.
I think the difference is what was concerning many Samford fans - their defense may have taken a significant step back. In much the same way Furman's offense has a lot of talented but untested players, Samford is in the same boat on defense.
Not to take anything away from a fine game by Mercer - the 'cleanest' game they have played since their PFL days, but Samford was really short-handed on D.
They have an outstanding CB in Glass, #31. Their other CB position is currently named By Committee and Mr. Committee is just not very good. They have 2 Starting Safeties out, Freeman, #10 and Pettway, #41. Freeman was their INT leader in 2017 and Pettway is a 6th Year R-SR, who has been a regular for years.
Upfront, their returning SoCon DPOY, DE Gooden, did not play in the 1st half because of a targeting penalty at FSU. When he came in the 2nd half...he didn't seem to be playing with the 'fire' that he usually does. 2 LB's are new starters, I think, and they are good, but 'new.' The 3rd LB, Stark, played much less than his backup, East (a FR) did yesterday, so I'm thinking there is an injury there too.
Mercer exploited all of this and played a fairly clean game on O - by 'clean' I mean not a lot of crushing mistakes. They ran the ball effectively and completed passes to 9 different receivers throwing to all 'sectors' of the field. Very tough for a banged-up and young D to stop that kind of offense.
Same on D actually. I counted 1 missed tackle all day and that was by one of Mercer's best Players. Pretty good performance, against those shifty WR's and RB's from Samford, by a Defense that has previously been characterized by some in language that would have one believing the descriptor was watching an episode of the Keystone Kops instead of a Football game. Mercer is talented, very deep, and well-Coached on Defense - for the most part. In the Secondary, they are a little thin, a little young, and have some Players that need to continue improving, but if they do that and don't have the kind of issues that Samford has, they will be quite formidable down the stretch.