10.02.11
by

Addazio needs to find a can opener


In this video, SA goes into a lengthy explanation of why one QB was taken out with a lead against Penn State, yet another was allowed to remain in to throw fuel on Toledo’s fire …. NOT!!! Just a few lobbed softball questions.

Bill Parcells said a lot of things best, but this is one of his gems:
“If you are going cook the dinner, they better let you buy the groceries.”
Al Golden was fond of another saying:
“I’m going to build a house of brick, not straw.”
Much to Golden’s credit, he not only built that house with a fine kitchen but  he also stocked it with some pretty nice groceries for the next cook, Steve Addazio.
What Golden forgot to do was get a can opener. He recruited a lot of terrific players, but he swung and missed at the most important position on the field.
There are a lot of nice moving parts on this Temple football team, but one of them is not a quarterback.
At least not yet.
I thought about that a lot while watching Chester Stewart go 9 for 9 in a 38-7 win over Maryland a week ago.
While the euphoria of beating an ACC team was nice, I noted to a friend on the bus home that Chester did not throw a ball farther than nine yards. All nine completions finished with longer than five-yard gains, but not a single throw covered more than nine yards. All were RACs (runs after catches).
“That’s somewhat disconcerting,” I said. “Other coaches are going to be watching that film and game planning to get him to throw deep. The film don’t lie.”
Watching Chester Stewart play for four years, it has become painfully obvious to me that he can throw the ball deep but rarely come close to hitting anybody. He’s got a gun for an arm, but no scope.

I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo


The play chart told the story of Temple’s 36-13 loss to Toledo on Saturday.
With Temple facing a third-and-goal at the Toledo 9, the Owls elected to go with a swing pass that looked like a glorified lateral. That’s a telling call by a pretty good offensive coordinator named Scot Loeffler.
Obviously, either Loeffler or head coach Steve Addazio does not have confidence in his quarterback to throw the ball into the end zone on a third-and-goal.

I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration


If they don’t, then maybe they should have tried another quarterback.
Or maybe they don’t have confidence in any quarterback Golden put on his shelf.
On another play in the first half, Rod Streater made a terrific double-move to get 10 yards behind his defender and Stewart either did not see him or was so locked into the middle of the field that he threw an interception. Chester seems to play with blinders on way too many times and that’s not good for a quarterback who should be able to see the entire field in a split second.

I haven’t felt good about a TU QB
since this guy was under center.
I hope I feel as good about the next one.

Also, the Owls have gotten away from tossing the ball on pitchouts to Bernard Pierce, where he can use his world-class speed to beat defenders to the outside. Twenty-two of Pierce’s 24 carries were between the tackles on Saturday. I would think about getting Pierce into open space, rather than run him up the gut but maybe I’m crazy.
Addazio says in the above video that he “liked the way (Stewart) competed.”
It’s one thing to compete.
It’s another thing to make plays.
I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration.
Temple needs a quarterback who can make plays and see wide-open receivers farther than five yards downfield.
The film don’t lie. Toledo coach Tim Beckman saw the same thing I did.
Give credit to Toledo. There were two teams on that field Saturday. The way to beat a “Temple TUFF” team is through a lot of “trickeration” and I thought the Rockets did that extremely well, taking advantage of Temple’s defensive pursuit with misdirection. I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo.
So did Addazio.
Still, quarterback is the most important position on the field.
Right now, until Addazio can recruit one of those fancy spread offense can openers, Temple needs a guy who is good at play-action faking and throws a nice deep ball. He needs someone who will take care of the ball, two interceptions vs. Penn State notwithstanding.
That guy did not start on Saturday.
Hopefully, Addazio will check out the film a little more closely this week and make the same change Golden was forced to make in the first quarter of the Bowling Green game last year.
Otherwise, this dinner party that started out so well is going to cause some unexpected indigestion.

12 thoughts on “Addazio needs to find a can opener”

  1. It's easy to blame the qb…but that offensive line lacked push and aggression. Toledo had their way with putting pressure on Stewart and forcing some of those mistakes. A couple of them were on Chester, yes, but the Owls' vaunted OL should have given Bernard better blocking, given Chester better protection. Frankly, their performance was less than stellar.A good chunk of this is also coaching…have to say that for a team to come out as flat and unprepared for a better-than-their-record Toledo like they did is a good chunk on is coaching staff…they needed to ride these players hard this week and keep them focused….that didn't happen and the coaches need some heat for it

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  2. Agreed. the vaunted offensive line did not do enough. I also have to take some blame for this loss. In telling a Penn State fan how great Bernard Pierce was, I said: "You know what the strange/great thing is about him? He carries the ball all these times and NEVER fumbles. Knock on wood."I looked around for some wood and all I could find was a plastic cooler. Since I knocked on that, he's fumbled two big times in two of the last three games.My bad.(I still the replay clearly showed him with his foot out of bounds before he fumbled five yards further down the field today.)Also, in Heater I trust. He will make the necessary adjustments.About the offensive line, though, it has no depth. If you want to see a jailbreak, play the second team offensive line. According to Daz, only two backup OLineman are even close to ready.Our second- and third-team QBs, though, might be better than our first-team QB. I can't see getting any less production out of that position than we did against Toledo.

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  3. I had to put myself in time-out after the game, so as to be able to compile an intelligible response. First thing's first, I'm going to have to disagree about the OL. They weren't perfect, by any means, but honestly how much more do you want from them?Pierce was sent up the middle again and again, and again, and again. Stewart wasted time, the majority of the time choosing to either lob it half-assed over there heads or try to run in between them.No, no I think I'm going to put this one on Stewart. Two interceptions aside, he was overthrowing and under-throwing repeatedly. Worse still, several times he just plain didn't see his receivers. Toward the end of the game he elected to try and scramble between the legs of the OL rather than throw to his TWO wide open receivers. The one interception was thrown right at Toledo, there was no Temple player within 10 yards of him.Would Toledo have won today if we had started Girardi? There's a solid chance. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed with the defensive play-calling. However, Stewart's incompetence has the effect of making other people around him suck. You could see Brown and Pierce get desperate toward the end (at least, that's what I chalk Pierce's fumble today up to), McManus looked oddly shaky, and the OL looked tired. Stewart didn't even know when he was supposed to be on the field several times. The conversation in the rows around me, among total strangers, became a loud, "aren't there, like, three other QBs to try?" If you're gonna be a scrambling QB, fine, but your scrambling should outweigh the damage done by your interceptions and just, generally bad quarterbacking. End rant.

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  4. I was able to tape the game and just had the nerve to watch it this morning. I was right about my on-site observations but WRONG about the offensive line. Stewart either got a) sacked; b) intercepted or c) tackled because he held onto the ball WAY TOO LONG. The OL did a very good job blocking between the tackles for BP, but BP is the kind of runner you have to mix up with plays designed to go BOTH inside and outside. He's not a fullback. He's a tailback.

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  5. Chester wasn't that good at all but give credit to Toledo's DB's..they were on glue on those wides and TE's much of the game…outside of a few plays (where Jones was in a bubble and Stewart overthrew by 10-15 yards, the Rodridguez TD) they did a good job on coverage.The playcalling though was awful…purely awful. 3 yards left, 3 yards right, 3 yards up the middle. The Millville kids that were in the north end zone at halftime had better offensive creativity than what was out there. Granted, a lot of that comes down to Chester's lack of savvy at the position but there has to be some attempts at keeping defenses honest…even with a less-than-stellar QB out there. You have to mix it up with a few different looks, a few different reads, some spread, even a trick wildcat play or two even if it is merely to throw the opposing defense off and add some confusion to the mix. Toledo simply was able to stack 8/9 in the box all day but on the pass plays they did a good job of coverage.It got so predictable that even the sweeps that they ran on occasion weren't working (see Bernard getting six on one carry, then losing seven on the next).Coaching really crapped the bed yesterday.Last, when can the Chris Coyer era start?

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  6. If I'm Chris Coyer right now, I've got to be shakin' my head.Or smh (or smfh) as the kids say on Facebook.All over Division I, true freshmen are given a chance to show their stuff and this guy who was a superstar in high school has been around to "pay his dues" in our program for a couple of years now.Yesterday, a true freshman from Don Bosco, Rutgers' Gary Nova, got me my "upset special" win over Syracuse when he was inserted because the RU starter had an "uneven" game. If an idiot like Gary Schiano can figure that out, then a smart man like Steve Addazio should, too.

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  7. Two weeks ago Big East officials strongly hinted Temple would be extended an invitation upon the vote of member university presidents today. All has changed…., not sure why, or who objected, but we are stuck in the MAC for the immediate future…,didn't help we lost with only 20k fans in the house…., Let's Go Coyer

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  8. our attendance was incredibly hurt by the TV on Channel 6. I missed about 50 familiar faces in the tailgate who I see every Temple game. I called about six of them on the phone today to ask where they were and, to a man, they all said: "Mike, it was on TV" or "my kid had a soccer game, but it was on TV so I made my kids' soccer game and saw it on TV." Extrapolate those six (or really 50) to about 8K of a hit a HOME TV game hurts us.If there is any way for the Temple admin to keep us off local TV for our HOME games, we should make every effort to do so.Road games, like Ball State, should be on TV every time, absolutely.Home games on TV absolutely kill any positive perception about Temple football.

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  9. This game was like the Ohio game last year in every way. Both times I remember walking away feeling the most damning thing about the game was not the poor and underacheiving play on the field, but the lack of Temple alumni and students and fans who bothered to go see a promising temple team with a promising record play a big MAC game against a good MAC opponent.Its not these losses to good MAC teams that will keep us out of an AQ confrence, it will be the lack of fans voting with their feet and wallets

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  10. Is anyone going to mention the defense? They were unprepared for the hurry up offense, looking out of sorts any time they went to that. Also, they just couldn't defend the swing pass – even when it was run the 5th, 6th, 7th time.

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  11. At what point in the last 4 years of game play did 'Daz think Steward has "IT"? I think I missed it. I'm assume he's a good kid and works hard, but QB is not his position. He needs to find another one if he wants to continue his football career to the next level. Can't they make him a tight end or use him in gimmick pass plays like Toledo did to us?I just don't get it either. Gerardi has proven his worth last year and even more so this year. The year started off in an exciting manner. Now, as a friend put it, "Same old Temple".TFF, I have the same excuse why I didn't go, but I think the games should be later in the day, so families can do both. Noon kick-off is a pain, and you get little time to tailgate. Plus, Students aren't even up at that time.

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  12. I really believe if Daz was around for the last four years, Stewart would be a strong safety, LB or TE (probably not TE because we are deep there).Daz would have been fed up with Stewart on game day a long time ago.But all Daz has to go on were great practices, so he clings to this belief that CS is going to morph into a great gameday QB.Some people are gamers and some are not. Sadly, nothing CS has done over four years has indicated to me he will ever be a gamer.I wish I could sit down with Daz and break down four years of CS game film with him. I might be able to convince him of that to save him some further pain.As far as the noon kickoffs, you only have a couple of those a year and you are 17-22 you should be able to buck up and get up for those.Believe me, you'll never get those back. when you are 40, you'll wish you had seen every game as a student.

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