I think Pete Sampson nailed one post-mortem fact regarding Freeman and his staff.
Their collective mis-read on what they had in fall camp led to another early season swoon.
Denbrock gave the best football player in America 10 carries in Miami. He had Carr throw it 30 times in his first start.
Ash made changes to the defense that the players could not understand. It took a quarter of the season to get that straightened out.
Freeman now has a history of poor starts. In the playoff era, this has to be corrected immediately.
2025: 0-2 start.
2024: 1-1 start.
2023: 5-2 on October 7.
2022: 0-2 start.
Replies to: I think Pete Sampson nailed one post-mortem fact regarding Freeman and his staff.
The 30 passes were too mostly made up of little flare passes. They were selling out for the run.
Downfield throws would have loosened them up and Carr was more than capable on Day 1. The running game would have benefited.
Completely disingenuous list.
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Miami's front was dominating us
Add to it the rain, and running the football would have been problematic.
The root of the issue is not play-calling, but scheduling Miami/A&M back/back to open the season.
IMHO, this is all on MF as much as I love this guy. He saw what was happening in real time.
Apparently, gave no orders to run the ball vs Miami unless MF was also down with Denbrock's game plan. Knew what was going on with the defense in Fall camp and through the first two games and let it happen. As a former DC he should have known better almost immediately. Once the defense was allowed to react instead of over thinking , you saw things improved. I think he knows the early season fails and hopefully fixes it immediately if not sooner. Another thing that bugs me is these late game uncontested touchdowns the defense gives up. Eye test matters though no one will admit it.
I have no problem with the decision to throw the ball
Miami's D line was stoning the run. J Love averaged 3 yards a carry. My issue was the type of throws that were being called. Denbrock needed to let Carr throw downfield instead of all those short tosses and wide receiver screens that Miami was sitting on.
"Eye Test" and "Style Points" became critical after 2 losses. Poor system (as we see) but demands
...that you slaughter opponents if you can if there's a chance you'll be on the margin.
Agree on the giving up "meaningless" scores. There are none. They all have some meaning...
...much as I wish that wasn't really the case.
Valid criticism...and raised here more than a few times pre-mortem...
Fan of Freeman but he has to straighten this out.
Last year new OC, this year new DC and Freshman QB.
Big part of what happened. Denbrock needs to go.
That's a fair point and my 1 gripe with the Freeman era. Early season hiccups have plagued him.
I think this year is some ways is less egregious than last, although the effect of this year's mistake was more significant.
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