Holmes opened some eyes with his first carry of the game last weekend, a 13-yard gain with 10 yards coming after contact. It was a pile-mover.
Credit to Holmes for planting his foot, getting north-and-south, lowering his shoulder, plowing through contact, all of those good things. That wasn't something he readily did in years past but the coaches are seeing some progress in retraining him (had to retrain Jeremy Langford once upon a time, too) .
That was a tackle trap with Machado pulling and sealing Shilique out. The play was reasonably well blocked.
But in looking at it again, as much credit as I want to give to Holmes for the job he did, it seemed that the defense was in "thud" mode a little bit. Sometimes in practice, they scrimmage in "thud" mode, in which the defender is supposed to arrive with a good hit, but there might not be emphasis in tacking the tackle to the ground. You might even hear coaches yell "Stay up! Stay up!" at the end of a repetition, to avoid a needless pile of carnage.
Of course, this was a game, not a scrimmage, not a thud-mode drill. But some of the defenders who arrived to try to help get Holmes to the ground were playing thud mode on that particular play (Colquhoun, Demetrious Cox). It was the first run play of the game. So maybe those defenders needed to be reaffirmed that this wasn't supposed to be thud mode.
Who was less-than-stellar on defense on that play? Chris Frey did a good job with a hit-and-shed vs LT Beedle (hitting the correct shoulder and controlling and everything), but then Frey was kind of a bug on Holmes' windshield as the first man to the ball. So Frey won against an o-tackle but lost against RB. Gotta finish.
From there, d-lineman David Fennell tried to assist high on the tackle. In a real game, I think Fennell tackles low on that play, or at least I hope he would, and they would get the guy on the ground.
Then the progress of the gain began to slow up and I think that's when Riley Bullough, Cox and Colquhoun kind of "thudded" into the pile rather than playing with usual autumn Saturday mode. And Holmes pushed the pile for another five yards.
Interestingly, on the very next play, Fennell was replaced by Gerald Owens at DT, and Bullough came downhill quick, controlled and HARD to meet Holmes in the weak-side B gap for little or no gain. Riley was officially out of thud mode now.
Credit to Holmes for planting his foot, getting north-and-south, lowering his shoulder, plowing through contact, all of those good things. That wasn't something he readily did in years past but the coaches are seeing some progress in retraining him (had to retrain Jeremy Langford once upon a time, too) .
That was a tackle trap with Machado pulling and sealing Shilique out. The play was reasonably well blocked.
But in looking at it again, as much credit as I want to give to Holmes for the job he did, it seemed that the defense was in "thud" mode a little bit. Sometimes in practice, they scrimmage in "thud" mode, in which the defender is supposed to arrive with a good hit, but there might not be emphasis in tacking the tackle to the ground. You might even hear coaches yell "Stay up! Stay up!" at the end of a repetition, to avoid a needless pile of carnage.
Of course, this was a game, not a scrimmage, not a thud-mode drill. But some of the defenders who arrived to try to help get Holmes to the ground were playing thud mode on that particular play (Colquhoun, Demetrious Cox). It was the first run play of the game. So maybe those defenders needed to be reaffirmed that this wasn't supposed to be thud mode.
Who was less-than-stellar on defense on that play? Chris Frey did a good job with a hit-and-shed vs LT Beedle (hitting the correct shoulder and controlling and everything), but then Frey was kind of a bug on Holmes' windshield as the first man to the ball. So Frey won against an o-tackle but lost against RB. Gotta finish.
From there, d-lineman David Fennell tried to assist high on the tackle. In a real game, I think Fennell tackles low on that play, or at least I hope he would, and they would get the guy on the ground.
Then the progress of the gain began to slow up and I think that's when Riley Bullough, Cox and Colquhoun kind of "thudded" into the pile rather than playing with usual autumn Saturday mode. And Holmes pushed the pile for another five yards.
Interestingly, on the very next play, Fennell was replaced by Gerald Owens at DT, and Bullough came downhill quick, controlled and HARD to meet Holmes in the weak-side B gap for little or no gain. Riley was officially out of thud mode now.
