3rd down O

[HRE Otto IV]

We lead the nation in 3rd down attempts which usually is a bad thing but we are 38th in the nation in 3rd down conversion percentage. So while we aren't doing much on 1st or 2nd down, we are getting into makable 3rd down situations.

I know our strategy isn't to "white knuckle it" but ironically that has been the way the results have played out thus far. Short gains on 1st and 2nd down leading to long drives.

We need to be more productive on 1st down and try to avoid these 3rd downs entirely. But if we are going to face a 3rd down, it is good to know that we can convert them now.

 

[upperdeck]

if you heard the press conf and yds per rush it starts to make sense.. once you start getting 5 yd gains and not 3 yd gains you dont end up needing 4 3rd down conversions and a fourth down one to get down the field every time.

if you cut those by a 3rd its a huge deal.. time will tell if what we saw sat is an uptick, there were actually holes last weekend.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

if you heard the press conf and yds per rush it starts to make sense.. once you start getting 5 yd gains and not 3 yd gains you dont end up needing 4 3rd down conversions and a fourth down one to get down the field every time.

if you cut those by a 3rd its a huge deal.. time will tell if what we saw sat is an uptick, there were actually holes last weekend.

IMO we need to pass it more. We are a better passing team than a running team. If we keep force feeding the run then we will see a lot of 3rd downs.

We are at 57 rushes to 56 passes on 1st down. Being that we have been down the majority of the time, that seems really high to me.

On 2nd down we have run it 49 times to only 43 passes. Since we haven't had a lot of 2nd and shorts, that too seems high.

On 3rd down and 7-9 yards we have run it 6 times to only 5 passes. That is a passing down and we run it more than we pass it.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Yeah, I feel like we do pretty well on 3rd down. At the very least, I'm confident when we're in that situation, which hasn't been true other seasons.

Glad to see the numbers bear it out.

 

[upperdeck]

we dont call plays though, we go buy what the number say.. or at least thats what the coaches say.. i wonder how much of that is really true though. if i was a team watching us i would play the pass and get us into a running numbers game too since we dont do it that well except for the volume.

 

[PAcuse]

we dont call plays though, we go buy what the number say.. or at least thats what the coaches say.. i wonder how much of that is really true though. if i was a team watching us i would play the pass and get us into a running numbers game too since we don't do it that well except for the volume.

Here is what our offense is designed to do. If they take the run away we read that and pass, if they are taking the pass away we run. See Colgate they jammed the box and dared us to throw we did and executed it.
Louisville can literally do whatever they want on defense and they can stop you.
USF started out trying to stop the pass and we got some very good runs in Q1. USF was also able to get their big boys rotated as soon as we swapped someone out they would run out 4 new d-linemen, this caused big problems as they where able to adjust and stop the run. We went to the pass like our offense dictates and did not execute it very well. Penalties, Dungey was aiming his throws instead of just throwing the damn ball, and turnovers doomed us from having a successful air attack.
So does the coaching staff call plays? Yes, BUT it's up to the players to read the defense and anytime you see them all looking over to the sideline for a long time they are getting a read that the coaches picked up on. Also I'm not sure where you read/saw that we don't call plays, Dino did say their was no "playbook" never saw anything about not calling plays.

 

[OrangeDW]

Would love to see us break some more big plays. We've hit a few early, and had the Moe Neal Colgate run.

Seems like Strickland is bound to start breaking some(he was actually close a few times against USF). Estime has had one or two and Is certainly capable. Would love to see a few more shots to him, and getting him the ball in space.

On that note, why is he not returning punts? He was our first good returner in years.

 

[upperdeck]

i didnt say he didnt call plays i meant he calls the play and then the defense then dictates what they do when they get to the line. you could as a D almost force a run play by how you line up against a formation.

 

[TheCusian]

i didnt say he didnt call plays i meant he calls the play and then the defense then dictates what they do when they get to the line. you could as a D almost force a run play by how you line up against a formation.

Coaches really hate giving up 6-7 yards a run though. We are not there, but both Baylor and BG started gashing people.

At least with passes you can INT. The degree of difficulty is upped too.