Halfway Mark - Some notes on the offense

[GoSU96]

Milhouse has a similar post but here's some context for the entire season.

The Offense isn't nearly as bad as people were claiming. The issue isn't lack of talent, it was they weren't making the key plays necessary to get them over the top.

It's no big revelation, I've been saying it for a while, but the consistent issue with the offense under McDonald was 3rd down and scoring. It was there all of last year and actually got worse this year.

All that being said this teams ability to move the ball has been very good this year. The last three games they have played two undefeated top ten teams and the #1 defense in the country. The schedule has been as hard as I thought it would be through this stretch.

Here is how SU has done relative to that opponents schedule to date:

FSU, 43rd ranked Defense, SU had the 2nd most yds this season, 54 more yds than they have given up on average, 2nd most Yds per play, 4th more rushing yds, 3rd most passing yds.

Louisville, 1st ranked defense, SU 3rd most yds in a game, 30 more yds than Lvilles ave, 3rd most yds per play, 5th most rushing yds, 2nd most passing.

ND 34th ranked defense, SU 2nd most yds, 81 more yds than average, 1st in yds per play, 3rd in rushing, 2nd in passing

UMd, 101st ranked defense, SU 2nd most yds, 138 more than ave, 1st in yds per play, 1st in rushing yds gained, 3rd in passing yds gained,

CMU, 38th ranked defense, SU 2nd most yds gained, 109 more yds than ave, 2nd in yds per play, 1st in rushing yds gained, 5th in passing.

Through six games SU has played four defenses ranked 43rd or higher, has been 2nd in yds gained against those opponents in 4 of 5 games, 3rd in another, 1st in yds per play twice, 2nd twice, 3rd once.

This is not a horrible offense lacking in talent, you don't perform like that against this schedule without being able to compete. The yards per play shows that we are doing well in getting long plays and avoiding negative ones.

The performance on third down was encouraging. Get the scoring issue fixed and this has a chance to be a very good offense. The disconnect between yardage and scoring this year is huge.

It's on Lester now to get that fixed.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The performance on third down was encouraging.

On that note, it felt like when we had to throw on 3rd down Saturday we made a fair number of plays, and watched the ball go beyond the sticks.

Not sure if it was different play calls or the QBs just making different reads, but at least on 3rd down it felt like we weren't content to dump it off and hope for YAC, the ball just found its way up field.

 

[cuseguy]

We still have a bad habit of running 5 yard routes on 3rd and 7, for example, and coming up short. Nearly every time FSU needed a big play on third, their receiver ran to to the first down mark before making the catch.

 

[Chip]

I just don't want us to have to rely on something gimmicky in the red zone. I know Thompson came here as a 4 star TE, so I get using him, but trotting him and Micah out there in a 3 back I, just isn't the way I hope we have to fix things. Same with reverse passes. Maybe we need to pull out the stops just to break the curse, who knows.

If you can get 2 TDs and 1 FG on 4 red zone trips, which I assume is somewhere near average, we have 31 against FSU.

The guys who are considered dinosaurs around here, PTG, AAM, West, are really stepping up to make this offense productive. Mix in the youth with Ish and Avant and Phillips, they can do good things. Parris is a nice safety valve. Line seems to be coming together as well. I hope we can get Moore back as well, so we can run 2 TEs when needed.

 

[Millhouse]

I just don't want us to have to rely on something gimmicky in the red zone. I know Thompson came here as a 4 star TE, so I get using him, but trotting him and Micah out there in a 3 back I, just isn't the way I hope we have to fix things. Same with reverse passes. Maybe we need to pull out the stops just to break the curse, who knows.

If you can get 2 TDs and 1 FG on 4 red zone trips, which I assume is somewhere near average, we have 31 against FSU.

The guys who are considered dinosaurs around here, PTG, AAM, West, are really stepping up to make this offense productive. Mix in the youth with Ish and Avant and Phillips, they can do good things. Parris is a nice safety valve. Line seems to be coming together as well. I hope we can get Moore back as well, so we can run 2 TEs when needed.

i want to forget that play ever happened. they didn't look very well prepared for it

 

[PhatOrange]

I just don't want us to have to rely on something gimmicky in the red zone. I know Thompson came here as a 4 star TE, so I get using him, but trotting him and Micah out there in a 3 back I, just isn't the way I hope we have to fix things. Same with reverse passes. Maybe we need to pull out the stops just to break the curse, who knows.

If you can get 2 TDs and 1 FG on 4 red zone trips, which I assume is somewhere near average, we have 31 against FSU.

The guys who are considered dinosaurs around here, PTG, AAM, West, are really stepping up to make this offense productive. Mix in the youth with Ish and Avant and Phillips, they can do good things. Parris is a nice safety valve. Line seems to be coming together as well. I hope we can get Moore back as well, so we can run 2 TEs when needed.

I don't want to get gimmicky in the redzone either (double reverses etc) and sometimes the bravado (smashmouth) is worse. I don't know why we haven't tried some counters or misdirections in there. A jet sweep from the 5 yard line, bootlegs, roll outs, throw backs, read option pop pass, play action, Lots of good plays can be called in there, I just dont get what were' trying to do. We always seem to run a play or two that's a complete throwaway play.