Explosive Plays

[GoSU96]

One of the single biggest problems last year was lack of plays that got big chunks of yardage. All of last year there only 142 plays that went for 10 yards or more, and only 9 of those went for 30 or more.

Saturday, there were 23 of those plays by nine different guys and 4 of those, almost half of all of last year, went for 30 yards or more.

That is huge.

 

[RF2044]

One of the single biggest problems last year was lack of plays that got big chunks of yardage. All of last year there only 142 plays that went for 10 yards or more, and only 9 of those went for 30 or more.

Saturday, there were 23 of those plays by nine different guys and 4 of those, almost half of all of last year, went for 30 yards or more.

That is huge.

Didn't your hear? Saturday's offensive performance was the same offense we saw last year.

 

[Cuseman78]

Didn't your hear? Saturday's offensive performance was the same offense we saw last year.

I don't think anybody said the performance was the same as last year. Pretty clear it wasn't. Who thought we would ever see a 600 yard output? But honestly the actual system wasn't that different from last year. Pretty much everything we ran we saw last year specifically in the passing game. The biggest difference to me was the inclusion of the zone read (Nassib ran over 10 times for example. Passing game was similar stylistically with the biggest difference being the pace at which we played. We clearly put much more pressure on the D with the hurry-up.

 

[RF2044]

I don't think anybody said the performance was the same as last year. Pretty clear it wasn't. Who thought we would ever see a 600 yard output? But honestly the actual system wasn't that different from last year. Pretty much everything we ran we saw last year specifically in the passing game. The biggest difference to me was the inclusion of the zone read (Nassib ran over 10 times for example. Passing game was similar stylistically with the biggest difference being the pace at which we played. We clearly put much more pressure on the D with the hurry-up.

Trust me--somebody actually said it.

 

[GoSU96]

Didn't your hear? Saturday's offensive performance was the same offense we saw last year.

It's silly.

They scored on 3 of their first four possessions, had a rough patch in the second quarter and then Smiths fumble to start the third but from the 13:32 mark of the third on they went 43 yds to the NW 27, missed FG, then four straight long TD drives of 77, 91, 89 and 72 yds to go along with the 82 yd TD drive in the 1st.

Pretty typical stuff to see 5 drives of 72 yds or greater in a game here recently.

They only started two possessions in Northwestern territory and scored 41 pts.

Northwestern dominated the field position game and was still dominated, they started 3 possessions inside the SU, and that doesn't count the punt return and fumble return. They started one possession inside their 20. When is the last time SU was competitive when the field was tilted against it all day.

 

[rrlbees]

Didn't your hear? Saturday's offensive performance was the same offense we saw last year.

If this years offense is significantly different, why didn't we run this offenses last year? What kept us from that?

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[CuyahogaCuse]

It was said.

Bottom line. We beat up Northwestern. We knocked their QB out if the game. We made their weak secondary look silly. We gave the game away.

 

[Jake]

Trust me--somebody actually said it.

Yep. Nate Hackett.

 

[Millhouse]

I don't think anybody said the performance was the same as last year. Pretty clear it wasn't. Who thought we would ever see a 600 yard output? But honestly the actual system wasn't that different from last year. Pretty much everything we ran we saw last year specifically in the passing game. The biggest difference to me was the inclusion of the zone read (Nassib ran over 10 times for example. Passing game was similar stylistically with the biggest difference being the pace at which we played. We clearly put much more pressure on the D with the hurry-up.

Other than zone read? It's like the Mrs Lincoln joke but in a good way

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[Millhouse]

If this years offense is significantly different, why didn't we run this offenses last year? What kept us from that?

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Depth. Confidence in defense. Sales

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[kcsu]

Big difference. Hurry up changes everything. We went 100% out of the gun, again changes everything, Zone read huge changes everything. In short what didnt change? The fact that a reciever runs a slant or an out or a curl is never going to change it is the formation and tempo that made a huge difference. Also i believe that with very few exceptions all of Nassibs throws came off a three step drop.

 

[Cuseman78]

It was said.

Bottom line. We beat up Northwestern. We knocked their QB out if the game. We made their weak secondary look silly. We gave the game away.

Half of the 3rd and the entirety of the 4th, absolutely. 350 yards were put up in the last 20 minutes (which is absurd). For example, the 2nd quarter we put up a whopping 50 yards. Out of our first 10 drives, 3 were 40 yards or more.

I think the great ending is skewing some's memory on what actually played out. And this is not a complaint about the overall production, as I said in an earlier post, 600 yards is 600 yards. But there were large stretches of time (i.e 2nd quarter/early 3rd) where we really didn't do all that much.

 

[rrlbees]

Depth. Confidence in defense. Sales

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Maybe defense but that only if they told themselves they would have to go stall ball and keep the dee off the field.

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[RF2044]

Half of the 3rd and the entirety of the 4th, absolutely. 350 yards were put up in the last 20 minutes (which is absurd). For example, the 2nd quarter we put up a whopping 50 yards. Out of our first 10 drives, 3 were 40 yards or more.

I think the great ending is skewing some's memory on what actually played out. And this is not a complaint about the overall production, as I said in an earlier post, 600 yards is 600 yards. But there were large stretches of time (i.e 2nd quarter/early 3rd) where we really didn't do all that much.

That's football--not every single possession is going to lead to a score, or an extended drive. That doesn't equate to failure or subpar offensive play. I think what people remember is that Saturday's performance was the first time we've seen an explosive offense that could sustain drives and had some big play ability--despite missing three key players. We've seen one-off performances scattered over the decade where we've seen games like Saturday--@ Louisville under GRob, WVU last year--but those were blips on the radar, completely anomalies from teams that struggled to move the ball at all.

Listen, I get the skepticism. I don't have an issue with people wanting to see more games before they're willing to believe that the offense is much improved. But I don't buy arguments that impugn the performance by pointing to the few instances where we weren't wracking up yardage at a prolific rate as being indicative that we aren't significantly, markedly better than we've been in a decade.

If that's what people took away from Saturday, then I couldn't disagree more. I saw an offense that could catapult us to contending for the BE title--a far cry from the preseason prognostications that had us in last place.

 

[Cuseman78]

Other than zone read? It's like the Mrs Lincoln joke but in a good way

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I guess my point (which may or may not be clear) can be summed in today's Marrone presser:

Matt Park ‏@MattPark1
. @CoachMarrone on offensive pace & production Sat. "We ran the same offense. We had those plays last year. We didn't have the tempo."

Clearly zone read has been more prominent and inherently changes the offense. But, to me, the biggest factor in the increased productivity in game 1 was the increased pace more than the zone read

 

[Jake]

Fwiw...if this is what Marrone had in mind from the get go, imagine his horror to discover that the starting center he inherited couldn't snap a shotgun reliably.

 

[Chip]

Ironically I thought it most resembled what Spence was trying to run in 2009, but more WR screens outside instead of inside.

Either way, the biggest difference from the ghost of Nassib past was under throwing the deep passes instead of overthrowing it. Gave us a chance to make a play and we capitalized.

 

[Chip]

Fwiw...if this is what Marrone had in mind from the get go, imagine his horror to discover that the starting center he inherited couldn't snap a shotgun reliably.

He inherited McKenzie though. Bart was a guard. We used shotgun quite a bit in his first year.

 

[Cuseman78]

That's football--not every single possession is going to lead to a score, or an extended drive. That doesn't equate to failure or subpar offensive play. I think what people remember is that Saturday's performance was the first time in years we've seen an explosive offense that could sustain drives and had some big play ability. We've seen one-off performances scattered over the decade where we've seen games like Saturday--@ Louisville under GRob, WVU last year--but those were blips on the radar, completely anomalies.

Listen, I get the skepticism. I don't have an issue with people wanting to see more games before they're willing to believe that the offense is much improved. But I don't buy arguments that impugn the performance by pointing to the few instances where we weren't wrack up yardage at a prolific rate as being indicative that we aren't significantly, markedly better than we've been in damn near a decade, if not longer.

If that's what people took away from Saturday, then I couldn't disagree more. I saw an offense that could catapult us to contending for the BE title--a far cry from the preseason prognostications that had us in last place.

I think the skepticism comes from the fact that we didn't really produce much offensively until we got down by 22 points. Before that, we had about 250 yards and 13 points (midway thru the 3rd). That's fact. 350 yards were gained after the score was 35-13.

I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here because I'm absolutely thrilled that its even possible that we could end up with 600 yards but I can see how some would need to see a much more even offensive performance before we start predicting Big East titles.

 

[RF2044]

I think the skepticism comes from the fact that we didn't really produce much offensively until we got down by 22 points. Before that, we had about 250 yards and 13 points (midway thru the 3rd). That's fact. 350 yards were gained after the score was 35-13.

I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here because I'm absolutely thrilled that its even possible that we could end up with 600 yards but I can see how some would need to see a much more even offensive performance before we start predicting Big East titles.

It was 35-13 30 seconds into the 3rd quarter. And just to be clear, despite "only" having ~220 yards in the first half, that "subpar" performance projects to around 450 per game--which would be an outstanding improvement over recent years.

369 came in the second half [roughly, based upon this drive assessment: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/drivechart?gameId=322450183]. Obviously, we were more prolific in the second half. But people are viewing even the first half productivity without proper perspective on how we moved the ball relative to past performance. Go's summary of the number of plays totaling 20+ yards and 30+ yards Saturday compared to all of last year should be eye opening.

Personally speaking, I'd sign up for 400 yards of offense per game right now if I could. After what I saw Saturday, part of me thinks we are capable of even more than that.

 

[Cuseman78]

It was 35-13 30 seconds into the 3rd quarter. And just to be clear, we "only" had 227 yards in the first half. That "subpar" performance projects to more than 450 per game--which would be an outstanding improvement over recent years.

369 came in the second half [roughly, based upon this drive assessment: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/drivechart?gameId=322450183]. Obviously, we were more prolific in the second half. But people are viewing even the first half productivity without proper perspective on how we moved the ball relative to past performance. Go's summary of the number of plays totaling 20+ yards and 30+ yards Saturday compared to all of last year should be eye opening.

Personally speaking, I'd sign up for 400 yards of offense per game right now if I could. After what I saw Saturday, part of me thinks we are capable of even more than that.

Well with 7:30 left in the 3rd, we had 250 yards. 3 drives over 40 yards through the first 10 drives. After re-watching the game and soaking in the drive chart, it wasn't quite as glowing a performance (throughout the whole game), as I remembered. Obviously after falling behind 35-13, it was a completely different performance.

 

[CuyahogaCuse]

Well with 7:30 left in the 3rd, we had 250 yards. 3 drives over 40 yards through the first 10 drives. After re-watching the game and soaking in the drive chart, it wasn't quite as glowing a performance (throughout the whole game), as I remembered. Obviously after falling behind 35-13, it was a completely different performance.

I disagree. At 13-7 in the second quarter, we were driving, and literally the play before the Nassib-Sales INT, I turned to my wife and said, "We're better than these guys."

You wait all off season and wonder if we're really going to be better. You hope we're going to be better. You want to believe we're going to be better. But there it was. To that point, we'd given up a punt return. We had two short FG drives, one drive for a score and were on our way to more points. Of course, then adversity struck. And it seemed to last a quarter, to the point where you hoped we'd muster a comeback. And then, we did. The same team that was on the field for the first 20 minutes finished up the final 20 minutes. This was a dominating performance in most aspects of the game, save special teams and mental mistakes.

It's infuriating that we lost. But there is so much to build on. I have no doubt after this game that the hope will be fulfilled. I have no idea what that means in terms of wins and losses. But the days of being a bottom feeder are gone. That, I'm sure of.

 

[Rocco]

Nassib had pretty good blocking from his line, but even when protection broke down, he showed a significantly improved ability to maneuver around in the pocket. He lost his happy feet and was very efficient when stepping up or sidestepping pressure. This allowed his receivers to break free, leading to big plays.

If you can't tell by now, I'm all in on Nassib so far.

 

[OrangePA]

Didn't your hear? Saturday's offensive performance was the same offense we saw last year.

And against a bad football team

 

[Cuseman78]

It's infuriating that we lost. But there is so much to build on. I have no doubt after this game that the hope will be fulfilled. I have no idea what that means in terms of wins and losses. But the days of being a bottom feeder are gone. That, I'm sure of.

Absolutely. I'm still bullish. I predicted 7-5 and now think that after the performance, we're still going to win 7 games. There is a lot to look forward to. I just think people are skewing the way the game played out because of the crazy good ending.

But overall, its exciting to think what we can do when Lemon, Stevens, and Pugh return.