Saturday, January 19, 2013

East-West Shrine Game 2013

If your interests lie in bland and uninspiring football, or sifting through a lot of chaff to find a little bit of wheat, this year's East-West Shrine Game was the game for you. Though last year's game did produce the #2 rusher in the league, Alfred Morris, and a couple of players who made the Rams roster, Corey Harkey and Austin Davis, all three of whom I extolled in the review of that game, this year's game just didn't have much to recommend. The West won a dreary 28-13 mistake-filled affair. There was a turnover on the first play of the game. I don't believe a single ball traveled longer than 8 yards the entire first half. You know, if they're going to dictate a bland game where the defenses can't blitz (though I'm pretty sure the West was breaking that rule at the end) and you apparently can't even rush the FG kicker (and he slices one into the woods anyway), they should at least make the offenses TRY to throw more than 25 feet downfield. (They did a little in the 2nd half.) Better coaches would be a good idea, too. Today we got the Non-Clash of coaching Non-Titans: Jerry Glanville and... Leeman Bennett? Seriously? Were Marion Campbell and Dan Henning unavailable?

Well, hopefully I can punch things up a little. Non-professional scouting notes by position:

QB: Nothing special at QB. Alex Carder's (Western Michigan) first drive ended with a bad-looking INT, but he had the best numbers of anybody (9-11-95), and the INT was part poor recognition and part poor route by Jasper Collins. Carder did show nice rhythm in the short passing game, and threw well on the run, when he could outrun the DEs, that is. Arizona's Matt Scott mostly handed off, and he had to blow two timeouts because this is the first time in college he's ever had to call a play in the huddle? What the hell are some of these college coaches doing? He did fire a pretty bullet to the sideline that Chad Bumphis turned into a 57-yard TD. Seth Doege (Texas Tech) did not impress. He has a good play-fake, but he's tiny, he missed open receivers and threw a bad pick into a crowd at the end of the game. Collin Klein looks a lot more like Tim Tebow than Colin Kaepernick, which is not a good thing. Same goofy hitch in his delivery, same terrible accuracy on sideline passes... make it stop. I didn't see his speed as elite, either, though he did some successful scrambling (5-35) here. Colby Cameron (Louisiana Tech) threw a terrible sideline pick-six right before halftime. Read the defense poorly, threw too late and threw too far inside. Nathan Stanley (SE Louisiana) couldn't get anything done on read options and had a pass batted down despite his 6'4” height.

RB: Remember Johnny Cash's “A Boy Named Sue?” I learned today there is a football player named Christine. And no, pronouncing it “Kristin” doesn't help. And Mike Mayock's calling him one of the best RBs in the country, even though he broke a leg two years ago, tore an ACL last year and was in the coaches' doghouse at Texas A&M this year and had only 92 touches. Seriously? But Christine Michael was probably the most complete RB in this game. Ran with good power, ran well after contact, showed nice jump-cut and cutback maneuvers, had a catch out of the backfield and ran well in traffic. Admittedly didn't have great numbers (13-42) to show for it, and he had a fumble hacked loose by Devin Taylor. Pitt RB Ray Graham (6-23) fumbled on the first play of the game switching hands. Zach Line (8-33) of SMU did some tough middle running, but nothing like I remember Morris doing last year. (Ask) Kerwynn Williams (8-28) was the closest thing this game had to a breakaway RB. He could get the corner, ran well after contact and bounced a draw for 12 for the longest run of the game. Zac Stacy (Vanderbilt) got stuffed a bunch of times and dropped a pass.

WR: A couple of wide receivers looked like they'll be worth closer looks. Chad Bumphis (Mississippi State) is a little small at 5'11” 198 but made a variety of catches (4-92) and sped off with a 57-yard TD for the game's biggest play. Anthony Amos (Middle Tennessee, 6'0”, 185) had 4 catches for 59, looked like a reliable WCO receiver and showed a little ability to get YAC. He also scored the first TD of the game on an end-around and drew a deep DPI. Corey Fuller (Virginia Tech, 6'3”, 195) looks the part, and had a 21-yard catch, but with a hold and a false start, hurt his team as much as he helped it. The NFL Network gang fussed a lot over Jasper Collins (Mt. Union), but he did not deliver. He ran an awful route that helped Carder get picked off in the 3rd and muffed away a punt. TE D.C. Jefferson (Rutgers) will need to improve his mental game; he missed a block to get a run stuffed and lined up wrong another time, causing a penalty. BC TE Chris Pantale made the game's best catch, a 17-yarder off his shoetops.

OL: One of my favorite players of this game was Kansas LT Hawkinson Tanner (6'5” 300). He had an epic battle with South Carolina DE Devin Taylor, which he ultimately lost. He got pushed around at times and got beaten for two sacks, one a sack/fumble. He was beaten so badly on one play I initially thought it was a blown screen pass. Other times, though, he used his hands well in pass protection, and he made some pancake blocks and some absolutely mauling run blocks. I think he's a player a good line coach could turn into something. Nick Speller (UMass, 6'5” 290) run-blocked well and had some good moments in pass-protection. He didn't give up a sack, but did get beaten pretty good by Wes Horton of USC a couple of times late in the game. Mike Mayock compared Terron Armstead of Ark.-Pine Bluff to Rodger Saffold, for his size, natural bend and quick feet. He looked good run-blocking but got caught holding to erase a long Klein scramble.

DL: The star of this game was big (6'8” 269) South Carolina DE Devin Taylor, who was a nightmare for the West QBs. He beat Tanner twice for sacks, once with an impressive bull rush. He forced two fumbles in the first half with tomahawk chops on Doege and Michael. He flushed West QBs several times. He got sucked in a little bit on runs but showed he could set the edge. Carder tried to take advantage of him on a bootleg run but Taylor tracked him down anyway. He outran the QB on a designed bootleg run! I don't think we're done seeing Devin Taylor this offseason. Another strong performer came from, of all places, Princeton. 6'4” 270 DE Mike Catapano dominated Western Michigan's Dan O'Neill. He beat him to stuff a sweep, beat him to bat down a pass, put him on his butt in the 1st to stuff a run and smoked him and held up Doege for the sack/fumble in the 1st. Travis Johnson (San Jose State) played the read option really well, stuffing Klein a couple of times. Caleb Schreibis (Montana State) showed good edge rush and good bull rush but got caught overpursuing other times.

LB: A.J. Klein (Iowa State) stuffed several runs early, showed he could play sideline-to-sideline and swallowed a draw play whole to close out the first half. Devonte Holloman (South Carolina) popped up a lot, blowing up a couple of draw plays, though Collin Klein beat him on a scramble. Matt Evans (New Hampshire) also popped up a lot. On the Doege sack/fumble, Doege had to eat the ball because Evans picked the back up out of the backfield nicely, and Evans was the man who recovered the fumble.

DB: Illini corner Terry Hawthorne had a productive game, with a fumble recovery to start the game and an excellent INT in the back of the end zone in the 3rd, getting inside position and shielding off a much bigger receiver. Nigel Malone (Kansas State) had a huge game, returning a terrible pass for a short pick-six right before halftime and later breaking up an end zone pass. Sio Moore (Connecticut) looked like a strong in-the-box safety, stuffing several runs and destroying Kerwyn Williams on a sweep. Aaron Hester (UCLA) should be fine, if he can get coached up. Great size at 6'2” 195 and he showed the skill to blanket receivers. But he badly overran a play to give up a 21-yard gain and committed a couple of long DPIs by making contact with his man when he didn't really have to. Take those penalties away and he had a strong game. (One should have been taken away anyway; the ball wasn't remotely catchable.) Branden Smith (Georgia) blew the play badly on Bumphis' 57-yard TD by going for the INT, but he made up for it by picking one later. Jaleel Addae (Central Mich.) flashed the best closing speed of anybody to shut down a short pass in the 3rd. Sheldon Price (UCLA) showed blanket coverage ability on deep routes and on punts. Khalid Wooten (Nevada) picked off a poorly-underthrown bomb from Klein at the end of the game. Earl Wolff (NC State) finished things off with a nice play in the end zone, getting inside leverage on the receiver to intercept a dumb throw by Doege.

ST: The East won the kicking game decisively. Caleb Sturgis (Florida) nailed 2 FGs and looked Greg Zuerlein-like on a 48-yarder that would have been good from 60. Zach Brown (Portland State), meanwhile, duck-hooked a chip shot into the woods in the 2nd. Yeah, thanks for coming. Kerwynn Williams had the only interesting kick return, returning a bouncer for 38. Those are usually harder to return for long yardage. I don't think the folks running this game even invited a decent long snapper. The punters had to make like Tim Howard all day to keep snaps from getting by them. Army WR Trent Steelman apparently also volunteered for that duty, and got to do it, not well.

Takeaway: Devin Taylor dominated the game at DE and I'd think we'll see him again at the Combine, if not the Senior Bowl next weekend. Looked like a lot of good DB talent was there as well. The best offensive player, though, may have been the kicker, Sturgis. Bland offenses run by bad QBs – the Shrine Game people have to find a way to spice this thing up. Better players, less rules restrictions, or maybe coaches who have actually coached in the last 20 years. I did not see a game-breaking RB or a field-stretching WR, either. If the Rams are to add significant offensive talent in the offseason, I don't see much of it coming from this game.

Up next: I will probably concentrate on the conference championships tomorrow. I may get the NFLPA game out on Monday; we'll see. Doesn't sound like that one was a thriller, either. The Raycom Classic should be hitting my DVR overnight, and this week will be filled with Senior Bowl festivities.

-$-

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