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This was the quarter where the game was pretty much ended. App State switched quarterbacks halfway through and the defense gave up a couple of long runs. App State couldn’t have had worse luck with their quarterback going down on the first drive in a game against a 1-loss team on the road. Throw in the rain and GSU being a team that can easily abandon the pass and you have a recipe for a loss.
Not a lot happened in the third quarter that is worth breaking down but there are a few plays that I liked to see on both sides of the ball. I’m not sure if it’s really a positive, but there just isn’t a lot that happened in this game from App State that I would say was “bad”. This is the second youngest team in the country so losing a quarterback is much harder to overcome and they still had some chances in this game.
GSU Ball, 1st and 10
Some of these plays make me just want to make sure you guys see them. Just look at the defensive line explode off the ball and blow this up before it even gets started. Again, App State’s biggest player was a 280 pound nose tackle. Everyone else is extremely undersized for a 3-4 defense.
GSU Ball, 2nd and 7
App State gave up their longest pass play and run play in this game so it’s only fair that I post both. This is an extremely well executed play and you can see that the action of the offensive line freezes the two middle linebackers. That’s all that is needed as the quarterback plays off the blockers right hip and gets through the seam for the touchdown.
The assignments were followed here by App State but sometimes the other team executes things perfectly.
App State Ball, 1st and 10
On the play before this they got a nice gain on an in route to the tight end. So, it obviously jumped out to me that they ran such a similar play with the tight end running the same route. You can see that the middle of the defense closes in on the route pretty quickly. Scott Satterfield had to simplify things for his struggling freshman quarterback but I would have loved to see some more creativity with play action to help open things up for him.
App State Ball, 2nd and 8
I liked the design of this play even though it didn’t turn into a big play or anything. The levels in the middle of the field is nice with the slot receiver running underneath the linebackers with a tight end behind them. The outside receiver is running behind the slot guy as an option if the linebacker to that side chases. Then you have the levels on the outside where the quarterback throws it. There are options all over the field with a very easy read. You can see the quarterback looks to the middle and doesn’t like what he sees so he goes to the easiest throw.