Seriously DCE needs to sit down and watch his ballplaying performance especially in the first half it's just not good enough for an elite player in the game.
So many glaring technical errors in his approach, delivery and technique on display in our spreads, not entirely his fault in some instances but his style is always a contributing factor.
I watched the first half again to see if my frustrations while watching the game are warranted or i just need to get out more and not over analyze life, but f8ck me it's even worse second time around.
The more time DCE has with the ball before the defensive line the more pronounced his faults become. Defensive lines know this and just back off and slide allowing him to either cramp up the outside backs who are not confident enough to line/hole run off him or let the hole runners come through and DCE gets killed with the ball as he is not confident enough to dig into the line and play late even for a safe second man depth play.
DCE needs to square up his shoulders to the line have his ballplaying hands more out in front and run directly at a chosen defender to stop the line backing off and sliding.
Garrick had a spray at DCE earlier in the game for not releasing the ball on a spread.(you can see a few times Garrick feeling it is pointless to run a line when DCE is ballplaying on that side) DCE replies back in kind blaming Garrick for not being where he wanted him to be----good on Garrick for sticking up for himself but best do it at half time.
In saying that Garrick was a touch late, deep and the angle was off a little when he initiated his run but DCE should not have been killed with the ball and delivered the pass, it was still a good option.
Problem is Garrick and others are not confident line running or hole running off DCE and it creates hesitancy plus poor timing, you spot the difference as soon as Foran gets the ball and Garrick goes in for a try, massive difference.
Too often on receiving the ball off a second man play DCE will instantly turn his inside shoulder too much towards his outside backs making him play sideways from the get go. There is no fear in the defensive line that he will play direct or dig into the line so they just back off, slide and allow his options to reduce the longer the play goes on, usually ending up in either a lame safe unders play or he cramps up the outside backs and succumbs with the ball tackled in an almost paused state.
I could go on and on technically but i feel i should share the Ironstine award around these days.
