[Nationals 26] PoNY O-line Settled Possession

settled possession = in possession and after the pull play (I use the general rule of thumb of after the first reset) notes: There were two large problems with pony's offense that I saw while casually watching us open and wucc. The first, which was taken care of at natties, was their pull play game. If you watch the us open or wucc games, it's almost painful how little the pull plays amounted to. At nationals, the playbook was seemingly revamped with new plays and layers and back up plans (sometimes in the form of a swing to the sideline and a flood hidden in the initial pull play action--a big trend in the current meta). Their inability to get the possession started was in my opinion one of the main reasons why they lost in the final at wucc. Obviously, however, the central cause as to why pony's offense looked so smooth all nationals was the addition of Nick Whitlock to the O-line. Such a great decision by pony to move him. Loved when the disc was occasionally centered to him, and he's such a force going deep, coming under, and operating in flow. If this tournament doesn't establish him as one of the best players in the world, I don't know what would. For his first season in the US and to operate at this level--truly, Nick, take a bow. Their second main problem, which I think was more hidden, has been their reset system (or lack thereof) on the trap sideline. You can check my first vid for examples of how this has plagued them all season (imo it's the main reason why they lost to subzero at us open). In this day and age, when the first reset look is covered and they go upline, if the fill commits all the way behind the disc or lingers for too long, that simply is a death sentence for the possession. And for such a dominant offense, it was clearly their achilles heel--look at the two biggest turns of the machine game for pony (7:41 and 14:53). Having the fill linger for so long is something I expect to be killed from high-level play as defenders get better with the offense. Not to say that these turns are entirely on Declan, there are obviously some level of execution and decision-making errors on the throwers, but I feel like easier looks could have been generated. I don't blame Anders at all for his turns at us open. Need more time to sort through these ideas, but this was just my instant reaction to the machine game.