Maybe he’s been watching too much Le’Veon Bell!! He’s a pro, Duke. Don’t try this at home!
IMO, UH didn’t throw a lot of bombs last 2 years because of of Ward’s arm strength. Allen has the strength and accuracy and we NEED to be going deep a several times each half just to keep the D coordinator nervous. You only have to hit on about 1 of 3 bombs to make your point to the D. Passing can open up the run just as much as vice versa. Imagine if we went deep 6-8 times per half against Rice and power ran the other plays, with bubble screens mixed in. What would future D coordinators prepare for? You can’t simultaneously line up to stop power runs and screens AND the deep ball. Something would have to give. Allen should be allowed to audible, and maybe he is, a deep ball, based on how the D lines up, from a bubble screen or power run formation at any time.
Some of you guys need to get off of the “playcalling was bad” train. If it works no one would complain. It’s up to the players to execute the play call. And if you know anything about football (some of us played and can tell you) not, every body can master the same play. That limits play calling. Also, the identity of this team is to run the football. For all the complaining about how we don’t have speed at receiver, you’d think you’d want to run the ball. It’s getting annoying.
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I felt it was more of us not executing when we needed to. People were trashing the runs, but the two backs averaged over 5 yards per carry, what more do you want? The problem was not scoring when at the 1, not picking up that 3rd and 1 where (I think it was) Dunbar ran into the back of the WR setting the screen, and a couple other times like that. We will miss Greg Ward for a little as he had some special abilities on 3rd down with his legs and also his arm. Seems like he was an average passer on 1st and 2nd, but always came up with the throws on 3rd down if he didn’t use his legs. We will need to find Allen’s bread and butter. I would think more slants and curls with the big receivers (need to get to the 1st down line!!).
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I agree…but the pick (2nd) that Dunbar fell down on, was not entirely on Allen. The first one was ALL on him. He had 3 receivers on the right side and he threw it right to a receiver with 3 DBs covering.
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It was basically a good punt haha.
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If we score TD instead of fumbling and settling for FG. Also if we do not turn ball over on interception and score it would have looked alot different.
Also it seemed we went away from Birden in the second half when He was having a good game.
I’m with everyone saying not to judge too harshly after just one game. Practice is great, but it’s no substitute for live game action. Adrenaline alone is a major difference and affects all kinds of things, most notably decision-making. All things considered, I was pleased with everything I saw except for it seeming like we took our foot off the gas after the first drive of the second half.
Defensively, we were swarming and that’s a good thing. The mistakes we made were in the nature of LBs over-pursuing. We did a great job of contain on the edges, but LBs over-pursuing gave those shifty RBs opportunities to reverse field and do some damage. Over-pursuit mistakes are easy to correct after watching on film. I would have liked to see us get more pressure on the QB, but I’m not sure why we weren’t able to.
Offensively, I would like to see more downfield throws, but I can’t say I was watching closely enough to know if the receivers just weren’t getting open, or if Allen was indecisive. I do know that between Bonner and Dunbar, we don’t have blazing speed on the outside. We do with Corbin (and Lark, wherever he is), and we saw that on the 49 yard bomb to him. Getting King back will certainly help, but we need some of our younger, faster receivers to step up and give us more downfield options. I think there is a time and place for bubble screens, but we ran WAY too many of them for my liking. I’d rather see more slants and crossing routes beyond the line of scrimmage mixed in. Bonner and Dunbar have the size and strength to make those catches and take the punishment that comes with them, and the OL gave Allen plenty of time to make throws like that. As a general rule I don’t like throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage because it doesn’t present a good enough risk/reward ratio. Slants and crosses at least give you 5-6 yards even if stopped immediately.
For what it’s worth, I can easily see that set with 4 WR lined up in a diamond formation to one side lending itself to a double pass flea flicker if needed. Bonner or King would be perfect to pull that off.
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Not Bonner on the flea-flicker for me. Too slow. King or Corbin or the invisible Lark. What’s up with him anyway? Trouble learning the plays? Work ethic? General discipline?
37% of that was on 2 runs (33 and 26 yards). The other 30 carries we averaged 3.4 yards per carry. Can’t discount those 2 long runs, but when 94% of your rushes average less than stellar, you tend to forget the few big ones that skew the stats up.
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I meant Bonner throwing the pass, not running the route. Like he did on the flea flicker to Chance Allen last year. I think it was against Louisville.
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Trying to understand this logic… does that mean play calling can never be bad? It’s always just bad execution? So if I call a QB draw every play and the offense doesn’t work, is it because of poor execution?
I’m probably just reading this wrong, but I’d love clarification
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Don’t you know? If your opponent blows up your bubble screen and you call the same bubble screen on 3rd and 1, it’s 100% on the players if it doesn’t work again. If you call for a quick pass on 3rd and 8 and your receiver only gets 5 yards, it’s 100% the receivers fault for not getting the extra 3 yards. The most important thing to know though, when blaming the players for execution, never blame the QB.
I agree wholeheartedly with you. This play illustrated our sentiments a little further. It was a brilliant call; it was the polar opposite to what would be expected (thus the numbers advantage outside). Dunbar has the size to run over the smaller corner at the 1-yard line, did not execute. People need to understand that this is the first game( for everyone). We played very well overall given the multiple circumstances.
On another note: Emeke Egbule looked really good. He got a lot of pressure and is going to be a very good pass rusher for us these next two years. I just hope they teach him to improve on his hand fighting. When the left tackle got a hold of him he was essentially out of the play.
Go Coogs!
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Not scoring a TD on 1st down inside the 1 concerns me.
If you can’t hand the ball to your RB 3 times to get less than a yard to get the TD, maybe you shouldn’t be a run first team.
If running your QB (unless it’s a sneak) is a better option than giving it to a RB, maybe you shouldn’t be a run first team.
And I’m not even sure we’re a run first team anyways. It seems like we have 1 running play (not counting WR end arounds), the run pass option based on reading the defense. It seems like if the pass isn’t there, we run it up the middle, regardless of whether the run has a chance of working.
I’m fine with being a run first team, but it seems like our running game is limited to 1 play. If you’re going to be a running team, have multiple running plays, have multiple running formations.
I was watching the Cowboys game last night (I know the NFL games and practice rules are different), but the Cowboys ran so many different ways out of so many different formations. I hate that it looks like we have 1 running play, 1 running formation, and 1 running option.
That’s my complaint. I don’t need air raid, run & shoot, throw it every play. But I do want more variety in my running. Even though many old school running offenses like the Veer and Wishbone had limited formations, they had more than 1 option out of that 1 formation.
Straw Man much?
No, what’s relative to a certain Coog fans (and prevalent since last season) is the catch all “play calling is bad” phrase. It’s lazy, non informative, and does not encompass any part of the play except that fact that it didn’t work. It’s the equivalent to people who blame a struggling offense entirely on the offensive line. My rebuttal to those individuals is please explain why you think a certain play is bad. Sometimes a person misses one block and that would be blocked person blows up a play! Football is a game of variables, and speaking in absolutes is pointless. It’s easily understood that calling a QB draw on every play and it doesn’t work, is a bad play call. That’s not what happened (not even once), and that wasn’t my argument.
If you read my entire post you would understand that when calling a play, coaches have to consider “hey this worked in practice, and almost everyone can get it right; this play is fitting for this situation, let’s call it”. Coaches don’t have a playbook of 300 plays where they can hit “scramble” and the play randomly fits the given situation (FOR ALL PLAYERS on the field). lol They have a set that they go to, and based on how the season progresses (players mastering the plays they are given in practice) they add more or they don’t.
Understood?
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We would need coaches feedback to confirm, but wonder if we played to keep the AZ QB contained and in front of us instead of blitzing and giving up huge plays. I noticed that we would line up a linebacker wide of formation to basically show blitz and push play to short side of the field.
Kudos to offensive line for zero sacks. Great job by special teams!
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I thought we flash signs of how good we can be and then how bad we can be. I contribute a lot of that to rust and this being our first game. I think the one thing that supports that is 10 penalties for 110 yards. That is a huge stat alone that most teams lose when then have that many penalties. And to be honest I felt that we got away with several false starts that weren’t called.
Anyhow I think the team will look different and tighter as we go on. As far as the play calling I felt like it was a little vanilla on both offense and defense. NOT because we were trying to not give away our plays but just to keep it simple because this was our first game and so much had happened to the team. I think I remember CMA saying that, which makes sense. Why burden your team with too many plays when their mind may not be all there.
Regardless, we won and I am more than happy about. I think it will come together now that the first one is out of the way, the QB decision is made, the QB has played his first game in almost 2 years, and they have film to see where they need to improve.
Brad Johnson is a disciple of Urban Meyer; we’re a run first team. No way around that.
Again, relating back to what I mentioned earlier, play calling is dependent on execution. These are college student athletes. Those are professionals who get paid to know their stuff. It can be argued that Dak is 2 years removed from college and there shouldn’t be that large of a difference in knowledge between pros and college; however, we can’t assume that every player preps the same, has the same amount of time, or quite frankly even cares as much as the next person. Coaches can only pay attention to the product on the field (practice or game time). I do understand your frustration but it’s still very, very, early…
we’ll be fine.
I loved this!