A friend of mine has been telling me that I needed to check out Matt Breida of Georgia Southern for awhle now. So I finally got around to that. Since I like reading peoples first impressions of a player I decided to take notes as I watch Brieda, to share that experience.
I have looked at Briedas college stats and they are qute good in 2014 and 2015 but then terrible in 2016. Which makes me wonder what happened? He played 12 games so unless there is an undisclosed injury he played through, it wasn't that he missed games. He just did not play nearly as well as the previous two years. That makes me really curious, and perhaps finding an answer to this might shine light on something else interesting?
My friend shared
this article in regards to that.
On draftbreakdown there are 4 games of Brieda all from 2015 his best season. I guess the 2016 games are not worth watching.
The first game I chose to watch is
against Georgia who I consider to be a decent opponent and perhaps better than the other 3 games available on DB. What follows are my notes from watching this game.
The first play is out of the Pistol with a wingback on the right side in front of the QB and Brieda is behind the QB offset to the left. The wingback gives an initial move that he will be going outside but then blocks through the middle where Brieda follows him but gets tackled in the hole as the defensive lineman gets an arm around Briedas neck area, at the same time another defender gets ahold of him from behind and is pulling him backwards. These two arm tackles combine to stuffing Brieda in the hole. If Brieda had lower pad level instead of running upright and trying to get skinny in the hole, he may have been able to get under the high tackle in front of him (defensive lineman is being held) and the grab from behind, perhaps getting an extra yard or two from the momentum. Incidentally the wing back completely wiffs on his block at the second level if Brieda had been able to break these arm tackles he would be met by two more defenders soon after.
The secon play Brieda is offset to the right in the pistol and the play is a swing pass to him in the right flat. He is wide open as the defense has fallen back into a zone after the snap. The QB puts perhaps a bit too much touch on the ball, Brieda looks it in cleanly although he doesen't gather it in completely smooth, trapping the ball against his chest after catching it and it slides up on him a bit after that. The coner has recognized the swing pass and is beating him block to make the play, he gets held a bit and falls to the ground near Briedas feet. Because the pass is a bit slow he has to wait and then he isn't able to avoid tripping over the corner who has fallen into his legs. While this isn't terrible and I think partly the QBs fault for being a bit slow with the throw, Brieda doesn't show good awareness of where the defender is, or balance to at least keep his feet or get around the defender falling into his feet.
3rd play pistol with a wingback directly in front of Brieda offset to the left. The play is a run to the right, the left guard and wingback pulling across the formation to the right. They run the option and the QB keeps too long I think. Brida after getting the ball is able to get downfield and gain 5-6 yards with a good burst of speed and getting low at the end of the run. They had a two on one against the unblocked defender who has the backside contain, but the play wasn't designed that way.
4th play is an option run to the left. Play calling seems predictable and the defense guessing correctly. This play was not very effective as Brieda is met by a defender at the LOS although he has gotten outside, he never gets turned upfield.
5th play is an inside run to the left with a blocker leading through the hole. A defender gets a piece of his lower leg causing him to trip as he is crossing the LOS. He stumbles forward kind of submarining and keeping his legs churning, but I am not sure where the refs call him down on this play. If his knee doesn't touch he grinds out four yards on this play due to keeping his feet moving.
6th play is a run to the inside with some misdirection of two players flaring out to the right side of the play if the QB had decided to keep. Brieda again stands up high as he reaches the LOS. He is able to find a crease but he gets blown up by the defender hitting him right in the chest because no pad level.
7th play pistol and they motion a player behind the QB before the snap the play is a run up the middle to the left side. Blocking isn't articularly effective but he finds a crease and gets low enough to drive forward for 3-4 yards.
8th play they fake a run inside but the QB keeps and then pitches back to Brieda on the right. Brieda doesn't have anywhere to go, he briefly gets north like he is going to try to burst trhough, but there are many defenders pursuing in front of him by then and he decides to reverse field to the left side and he is able to get around the nearest defender in the backfield and outrun the pursuit of the defense and get the edge on the left side. He picks up a block on perimiter defender that helps as well he turns this into a 20+ yard gain and close to scoring before he went out of bounds.
9th play is an inside run that Brieda breaks to the outside and gets a couple yeards.
10th play is an inside run where he shows better pad level and he is able to find a crease and gain 6 yards.
11th play is an inside run where he gets met in the backfield. He does try a quick cut but the defender isn't fooled and then he has help from the backside as well taking Brieda down for a short loss.
12th play the QB sees something in the defense and changes the play to a toss left. The corner isn't blocked and crashes down on Brieda in the backfield. He is able to make this defender miss the tackle bouncing to the outside and keeping his feet moving. Defenders are there to stop him for a short gain near the sideline.
13th play the slot receiver motions from the left to the right before the snap. This is a run to the inside where Brieda finds no room and bounces it to the outside for a short gain. They show a replay of this from the back of the formation. You can see there is a crease up the middle briefly but the defender is able to get off his block and fill this hole, Brieda decides to bounce this outside to the left and he gives up ground in the process of getting around. A defender has a piece of his jersy that is tearing off but still being held onto by the defender before Brieda is tripped on a ankle tackle.
14th play is a run inside to the right. His lead blocker makes a pretty good hole and he follows this block through for 6 or 7 yards.
15th play the QB audibles to something else before the snap. This is a run to the inside and Brieda gets some nice blocking on this play as Georgia is pushed back off the LOS. He likely could have followed these blocks for the 1st down. He cuts back to the left side and is behind the scrum of players engaged here, so I can't see it well. He drives after contact and gets close to the first down. While there is a defender waiting for him on the right side of the play, he could have met this defender with a full head of steam and perhaps the 1st down a bit easier to get that way than the choice he made.
16th play this is a run inside to the left. He follows his blocks and there is a surge by the guard for him to follow. He gets taken down around the ankles from the defender in backside pursuit.
17th play is a run to the right. There seems to be a crease inside if he hits this quickly, instead he bounces the play to the outside on the right but he is met by a defender who has disengaged from his block on the edge when he does and is tackled at the LOS. There wasn't much there if he did try to hit that crease inside, but at least he could have gotten a couple yards just from the momentum. He is too quick to bail on these plays and try to bounce them outside.
18th play pistol with Brieda behind the QB offset to the left and a wingback in front of the QB offset to the right. They motion a receiver from the right side to behind the QB before the snap of the ball and the flow of the play is to the left with the wingback pulling across to that side. Brieda presses the hole briefly inside and the blocking has made a dent in the defense here, Brieda then bounces the run to the outside on the right, you have hat on a hat and he is easily able to get outside and start running downfield. Number 20 meets his after about 5 yards and he tries a couple jab steps and a shoulder fake to the inside before cutting away from 20s tackle attempt. He gets a couple more yards after this manuever to get to the outside. There is a replay of the backside view of this play, where you can see the hole inside was being closed although the initial blocks did give a bit of room for him to hit it inside here, it was a good decision to bounce outside on this one I think. He does get close to the 1st down and gains 8 yards or so on this play.
19th play pistol Brieda offset to the right behind the QB wingback on the left ahead of the QB. This is a run inside to the right, the left guard pulls around and the wingback leads through the hole. There is a nice crease here and Brieda hits it hard. He runs into the back of his blocker through and there was a crease for him to bounce this outside to the left after 33s block that he doesn't seem to see.
20th play this is another run inside. Brida stops his feet in the backfield. It looks like he might have some daylight if he bounces this outside to the right, and it even appears that Brieda is looking this way and considering it. He hesitates and stops his feet when the backside pursuit gets there. A quicker decision to outside to the right on this one may have resulted in a more positive play, I am a bit surprised he didn't go for it, after seeing him make that same choice many times in this game already.
Last play is a direct snap to Brieda who gets back to the LOS.
Summary - I question Briedas vision as he seems inconsistent in his decision making process, making the wrong choice several times during this game in my opinion. He likes to bounce plays outside too often and he has inconsistent pad level at the LOS. While he is very athletic, his jab steps and fakes were not really fooling defenders, when he does make defenders miss, I think it is a product of his athleticism more than his skill or change of direction abilities. His two best plays were when he reversed field due to over pursuit and when he got some really good blocking and was able to get the edge on the right side. He does show the ability to run with power inside and gets some blocking to support it at times, but he missed a couple opportunities to hit it inside and then bounce to daylight. I didn't see particularly good instincts from Brieda. There are no examples of them asking him to block in these clips, so nothing to evaluate there. He did fine on his one reception although again if he had better awareness and perhaps balance I think he could have done something after the catch instead of tripping over a falling defender. The score was tied or close for most of this game.
He doesn't look as impressive as Jerrick McKinnon did with this team, but the film quality is a lot less grainy than McKinnons was.