Devon Parks

da3mite · Post by **da3mite** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:03 pm

Is Devon Parks going to match up with Wisconsins really good left guard Joe Thomas. If he does, I can't wait to see how he fairs up against a "projected first round pick." How do you think he will/would do?

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:15 pm

da3mite wrote:Is Devon Parks going to match up with Wisconsins really good left guard Joe Thomas. If he does, I can't wait to see how he fairs up against a "projected first round pick." How do you think he will/would do?

Well, I would hope that Devon wouldn't have to be going up on LG but more a LT or RT but if that is the way it turns out , that'll be the way it is. I have no idea. Joe Thomas is pretty big 6'8 and 318. Its gonna be the height combined with the long arms thats going to give Devon problems. DP is gonna have to be extremely explosive to get by him. One way to help DP's cause is if our interior lineman get penetration and often so that that the attention is paid more to our DT & NG so that our ends can get pure one-on-one matchups. If Devon is double teamed he's gonna have a real long day.

And of course all of this is predicated on our whole d-line being strong enough to not be pushed around like a rag doll.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:46 pm

It will also be Thomas' first game coming off of a very major knee surgery. Thomas is a stud, but you would have to think Parks might have some success early while Thomas gets back up to speed, and maybe a little more late in the game depending on how much offseason work Thomas gets in.

Parks is good, but Thomas is much better. I wouldn't count on a consistent edge rush from that side.

da3mite · Post by **da3mite** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:41 pm

I'm pretty sure Thomas is a left tackle.

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:15 pm

I"m confused, are you saying you made a mistake in your initial post or are you second guessing yourself? Either way it I concur it will be a tough task for Parks, but I hope he can start something up front for the Falcons.

da3mite · Post by **da3mite** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:29 pm

Oh my bad. I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I wrote in the first post. He's a tackle.

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:22 am

With Devon's quickness, he'll do fine. He's a Senior and should be going all out in 2006. Parks and Briggs will pose some problems for opposing O lines.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:38 am

Falconfreak90 wrote:With Devon's quickness, he'll do fine. He's a Senior and should be going all out in 2006. Parks and Briggs will pose some problems for opposing O lines.

I think Briggs is even quicker off the ball than Devon. Briggs looked explosive last year. They should definitely cause some trouble in the backfield this season.

Unfortunately UW will be a VERY tough matchup for Parks as he's going against a top flight OT. The rest of the DL must make up for this by forcing the OL to focus on them as well. The only way Devon has a chance is if he can at least get some one on one matchups, and even then he's going against a star LT. If UW can afford to commit another blocker to Parks that would be bad news for our DL.

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:16 am

hammb:

I wonder how much blitzing Lovett will employ against UW. Last year it seemed like we just lined up and waited for the play to develop. We don't have the size and strength to do that. A nice mix of blitzes needs to be utilized to disrupt the UW offense.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:41 pm

1987alum wrote:hammb:

I wonder how much blitzing Lovett will employ against UW. Last year it seemed like we just lined up and waited for the play to develop. We don't have the size and strength to do that. A nice mix of blitzes needs to be utilized to disrupt the UW offense.

Agreed. And not just blitzing either. Disguising it well and mixing it up. Mix up who's coming, who's showing blitz, and the coverage behind that blitz.

There is no way we can physically expect to line up and play straight up smash mouth football with them. There is no reason that we cannot, however, outsmart them.

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:11 pm

hammb wrote:
1987alum wrote:hammb:

I wonder how much blitzing Lovett will employ against UW. Last year it seemed like we just lined up and waited for the play to develop. We don't have the size and strength to do that. A nice mix of blitzes needs to be utilized to disrupt the UW offense.
Agreed. And not just blitzing either. Disguising it well and mixing it up. Mix up who's coming, who's showing blitz, and the coverage behind that blitz.

There is no way we can physically expect to line up and play straight up smash mouth football with them. There is no reason that we cannot, however, outsmart them.

Exactly. Blitzing different people at different times, stunts on the line, zone - man and zone/man coverages ... there needs to be a wide mix of options because we've proven that we just can overpower teams.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:21 pm

That was one of my biggest complaints last year. When we blitzed consistently (the Miami game comes to mind), we were very disruptive as a defense and much more successful. I could never figure out why we didn't blitz more often last year. It drove me nuts.

Devon Parks

Devon Parks

Re: Devon Parks