A full third of our passes were behind the line of scrimmage. One out of every three passes. That is way too high a number of passes behind the los. When we take the risk of throwing the ball we should at least be going down field.
As is common place in society today - numbers can be presented in a fashion that supports whichever side they are on. For myself, I feel 35% behind LOS is way too high especially given the results of our offense thus far. Now if we avg 50 points a game and throw 35% behind the LOS, then I’m all for it!
With that Being said, I am still optimistic that we can improve offensively and hopfull it’s the coaching staff just getting their sea legs. But a poor performance against a below average SMU D may push me to the other side.
I don’t mind plays behind the line of scrimmage, but they need to go for positive yardage. I would be interested knowing the percentage that go for zero yards or less.
% that lose yards is irrelevant. KP had 10 completions behind the LOS for 41 yards. That’s 4.1 yds/catch. These plays are a run alternative so how many of you would be complaining if our running game averaged 4.1 yds/carry? Well guess what? Our running game averages 4.1 yds/run as well.
I’m not going to be too harsh on the passes behind the line of scrimmage as they’re basically running plays in this offense. We don’t run sweeps so look at these as staking the place of sweeps.
These plays were also working against Tech, mostly because Tech’s weakness is on the edge. Problem was that we went away from what was working, and stopped throwing these passes in the 2nd half. That goes back to the play-calling and either being too rigid with the game plan or not recognizing what’s working and adjusting.
The throws behind the LOS aren’t nearly as big of a problem as the failure to attack the middle of the field with the passing game. Defenses are sitting on those routes in the flats and crashing down on short passes, so the middle has to be exploited or the offense won’t succeed.
I’m ecstatic to see 24% of the passes going 20+ yards down the field. With Dunbar, Corbin and Jefferson, we have the size out there to throw the ball up and let our guys make plays. And despite not having great speed, Dunbar burned his guy on a few occasions Saturday. On two occasions he either dropped the ball, or was overthrown. Postma needs to be able to throw catchable balls and our guys have to come down with them when they are catchable. But there’s no chance of that if we don’t throw those passes.
Like everyone else here, I would really like to see us exploit the middle of the field more often. The QB has to keep an eye on sitting LBs, but the nature of our screen game is that eyes tend to get stuck behind the LOS, thus opening up huge holes in the middle of the field. We just don’t throw enough slants and crossing routes to take advantage of that tendency.
Hold on now. If the average is 4.1 because 9 passes ended up 0 yards and 1 ended up 41 yards, not exactly the same because those 9 that ended up 0 yards probably killed a few drives just for that one big play.
Both of Allen’s interceptions were to guys cutting back to the middle of the field. One was picked off my an inside linebacker and the other I think was by a safety. Correction, just looked it up, both were by inside linebackers.
That’s absolutely the risk, which is why your QB has to have good field vision. Kyle Allen does not have good field vision. Not sure yet how much better Kyle Postma is in that regard. But the WR screen game should draw eyes to the boundaries, which, in theory, should open up the middle of the field for TEs and slots. I did notice on a couple of plays that Postma pump faked to the screen and then looked deep to the other side. It would be nice to have more than one option on those plays.
Yeah, he did make some head scratcher throws. I’m hopeful that with more first team, game-day reps, he gets a little more comfortable back there. If not, let’s see what King can do.
Crossing routes are some of the easiest to throw for a QB if the other team is in man coverage. It is especially easy if you have time because the db is usually in a trailing position.
Tyron Carrier at 5’7" made a living on the short crossing route.
It is difficult to throw short when you have no speed that needs to be respected. The db crowds the line knowing it is unlikely he will be scores on if the WR goes on a deep route.
