"Be Quick - But Don't Hurry"

[OrangePA]

The old John Wooden advice stuck in my mind during Friday's game.

That's what I saw - a team trying so hard to be quick that it was hurrying - to the point where there was no rhythm or execution.

The object of offensive football is to move the chains and scoring points.

The object is not to run as many plays as possible.

Could it be that the offensive coaches became more concerned with play count?

 

[RF2044]

The old John Wooden advice stuck in my mind during Friday's game.

That's what I saw - a team trying so hard to be quick that it was hurrying - to the point where there was no rhythm or execution.

The object of offensive football is to move the chains and scoring points.

The object is not to run as many plays as possible.

Could it be that the offensive coaches became more concerned with play count?

I'm not sure that was the issue, OPA. I think it was more about the QB not looking sharp, then a completely inexperienced QB replacing him when the game was still up for grabs, poor run blocking by an OL that was down two interior linemen, poor pass blocking by the WRs on bubble screens, with a sprinkling of some inexcusable drops on a few key possessions mixed in.

Frankly, I didn't see the offensive tempo moving apprecably faster, even when Hunt was in the game. Certainly not to the level that the coaching staff suggested this offseason.

 

[OrangePA]

I'm not sure that was the issue, OPA. I think it was more about the QB not looking sharp, then a completely inexperienced QB replacing him when the game was still up for grabs, poor run blocking by an OL that was down two interior linemen, poor pass blocking by the WRs on bubble screens, with a sprinkling of some inexcusable drops on a few key possessions mixed in.

Frankly, I didn't see the offensive tempo moving apprecably faster, even when Hunt was in the game. Certainly not to the level that the coaching staff suggested this offseason.

The QB and the OL and the WR perhaps did not look sharp for the very reason I have suggested.

The coaches did not put them in the appropriate comfort zone - they did not allow them to fully execute the offense.

I'm a fan - I don't have a coaches eye.

But that was my lay impression of what I saw.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Yeah, I thought compared to PSU last year they actually looked to communicate well.

The execution sucked, but it looked like for the most part they knew what they were doing. Especially impressive that it went as well as it did using a back up QB for most of the game.

 

[Libero2]

Like anything else one has to practice going fast. So it will take the guys a while to get comfortable playing at a higher speed.

 

[statsgrad]

I will never understand why a team lacking for playmakers on the outside wants to "speed up" it's offense. It's just going to result in your own defense being on the field longer/more often. Alabama has been one of the slowest teams in the country the past few years and they seem to be doing just fine.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Alabama has been one of the slowest teams in the country the past few years and they seem to be doing just fine.

 

[Chip]

The old John Wooden advice stuck in my mind during Friday's game.

That's what I saw - a team trying so hard to be quick that it was hurrying - to the point where there was no rhythm or execution.

The object of offensive football is to move the chains and scoring points.

The object is not to run as many plays as possible.

Could it be that the offensive coaches became more concerned with play count?

I'm not all that worried to be honest. I think it's best to just analyze when Hunt was playing. He had 4 drives. 2 led to scores. A 3rd was leading to a score, 2nd and 4 at the Villanova 34 before the incident that shall no longer be named. The only stalled drive was the one where Estime dropped a bubble that was right to him, and they lost 8 on the fumble.

 

[rrlbees]

I'm not all that worried to be honest. I think it's best to just analyze when Hunt was playing. He had 4 drives. 2 led to scores. A 3rd was leading to a score, 2nd and 4 at the Villanova 34 before the incident that shall no longer be named. The only stalled drive was the one where Estime dropped a bubble that was right to him, and they lost 8 on the fumble.

I'm not sure a 65 yard TD run is a drive, especially when we had to originally punt but they roughed the kicker. I'm also not sure we can say we would have scored on the drive he got tossed since we still had 40 yards to go.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Part of the reason they look so rushed IMO is the high volume of subbing that goes on after every play. Remember when Lemon, Sales and West ran 90 % of the WR patterns, I miss the continuity you get from that.

 

[jgeorge322]

Part of the reason they look so rushed IMO is the high volume of subbing that goes on after every play. Remember when Lemon, Sales and West ran 90 % of the WR patterns, I miss the continuity you get from that.

I miss that entire offense compared to what we have now. Its not the lack of execution bothering me as much as the plays being called.

 

[Chip]

I'm not sure a 65 yard TD run is a drive, especially when we had to originally punt but they roughed the kicker. I'm also not sure we can say we would have scored on the drive he got tossed since we still had 40 yards to go.

34 yards to go and a favorable 2nd and 4. Sure, anything could happen. But we were moving the ball, I feel pretty good we get at least 3 out of that.

OPA's point was that he didn't like our hurried pace, felt like we were rushing. My point is that I don't think it's worth worrying about if we were scoring points when the starting QB was playing.

 

[rrlbees]

34 yards to go and a favorable 2nd and 4. Sure, anything could happen. But we were moving the ball, I feel pretty good we get at least 3 out of that. OPA's point was that he didn't like our hurried pace, felt like we were rushing. My point is that I don't think it's worth worrying about if we were scoring points when the starting QB was playing.

Actually it was the 49. If he doesn't get tossed he'd probably still get a 15 yd unsportsmanlike penalty. Unless you want to assume the play never happened.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Part of the reason they look so rushed IMO is the high volume of subbing that goes on after every play. Remember when Lemon, Sales and West ran 90 % of the WR patterns, I miss the continuity you get from that.

I don't miss the fatigue you get from that.

Look, they wanted to give a lot of guys some run. The rotation will tighten up.

 

[Chip]

Actually it was the 49. If he doesn't get tossed he'd probably still get a 15 yd unsportsmanlike penalty. Unless you want to assume the play never happened.

Yes, I want to assume the play never happened. If I'm trying to assess how I think the offense is going to look, I'm going to consider that an anomaly.

If it's going to happen again, well then, we've got bigger problems than pace.

 

[AZOrange]

That's what she said...

 

[RF2044]

The QB and the OL and the WR perhaps did not look sharp for the very reason I have suggested.

The coaches did not put them in the appropriate comfort zone - they did not allow them to fully execute the offense.

I'm a fan - I don't have a coaches eye.

But that was my lay impression of what I saw.

I think we sometimes look for causality when there might not be an actual correlation.

It is an interesting observation, I just don't happen to agree.

 

[BlazeOrange]

Part of the reason they look so rushed IMO is the high volume of subbing that goes on after every play. Remember when Lemon, Sales and West ran 90 % of the WR patterns, I miss the continuity you get from that.

I wonder if they went into the game with the mindset of:

"It's a 1-AA opponent, we have several players worthy/vying for playing time, and we have two weeks until the next game. Let's get some game film on as many players as possible to get them the most benefit from the review sessions and help us refine the depth chart and allot playing time going forward."

I didn't see if they shortened the bench as the game went on, but you'd think that fringe benefit plan would go out the window once we lost QB1 and wound up in a close one. But maybe not since we still held the lead (a tenuous as it was).