One minor quibble with the offense….

[two3zone]

Yeah definitely - perspective is key.

My guess is they were overly cautious with UNLVs secondary.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Game was slipping away and we had to stick to high percentage plays.

The end of the 1st half after we went up 14-0 and then in the second half after we wen up 10 UNLV was dominant on both sides. 2 blocked punts. Long pass plays easily could have been picks or strip sacks. They had a 94 yard TD drive late after the pick. Our long drive kept the D off the field just sucks we threw that deep pick. Didn't trust us to hit a FG there though.

 

[blust2i3d4]

A lot of those short passes / screens were part of the RPO game. McCord usually makes the right read but he definitely threw a few that should have been handed off.

I think most likely we were more prepared in case UNLV had adopted Stanford's strategy. Stanford rushed the passer early and it is working and those early points eventually got them the win. NFL QB has only 2.5 seconds for the screen pass. McCord did not do that in early Stanford game. Not his fault, more on coaching staff not prepared for it. You cannot rush passer in the whole game. Once the opponent sees it is working, they will seek other strategy. But in Q1, you have to force your opponent change.

 

[mark79]

You take what the defense gives. We hit a deep cross to OG I think in the 4th. But with gill and Hatcher you don’t have guys that can separate from defenders. It’s not just speed, it’s route running too.

I agree with this. If they are gonna give you 7, 8, 10 yards at a pop due to soft coverage it’s hard to ignore that and not take it. They may have just decided we’d have to beat them with the short stuff. And we did.

But sure enough, I hope Zeed comes back soon because that makes us dangerous on a whole other level.

 

[Millhouse]

McCord is 2nd in the country in passing yards per game. He is 59th in yards per attempt. And has a 64% competion %.

Throwing is better than running. It's sacrilege to say it. But that's what it comes down to

 

[PhatOrange]

They must have saw something they thought they could take advantage of, the problem is UNLV started blowing them up. It became annoying when we kept doing it even though the UNLV dbacks were immediately leaving their guys to cover it. A pump to the underneath flat screen and a go to outside WR would’ve been there for the taking.

 

[kingtidge]

The quick-slant right to just behind the line of scrimmage... UNLV had that gamed after the 3rd attempt.

We tried it like 8 more times for 0 gain or losses.

Definitely one we needed to recognize was gone and adjust.

 

[knicks07]

He was targeted once but that was the only play I noticed him on the field all game long.

It seems with the other speed receivers out that Gill has taken Hatchers reps to get speed on the field

 

[NJCuse97]

Maybe it’s my impatience, maybe it was the beer, but I was frustrated with so many quick slant screens Friday night. I kept waiting for Nixon to go over the top - never did.

As efficient as this offense is, I’d like 2-3,deep shots a game, and we don’t take them. Maybe we’re saving it…

I was guessing that the repetition of the play may have had to do with LeQuint's health. He was hobbled a bit and that quick out enabled him to be more of a decoy rather than the feature back, the blitz pick-up or the outlet. Get it quickly to Pena and negate the rush without taxing LQA. I know that wasn't the case the entire game, but this crossed my mind after he came up lame on the TD run.

 

[upperdeck]

We didn't call that same play. Kyle checked into that same play based on looks from the D because he is running RPO. If we are aligned on certain sets you are only going to see certain types of calls depending on what the D is doing.

many of those plays were poorly blocked, some of that because UNLV was jumping the routes.

 

[orangepassion]

My minor quibble is- why no short passes to Villari where he can carry and beat up defenders

 

[MamesJungro]

Also noticed this. Was surprised we didn’t at least try a slant and go when they started biting so hard on the tunnel screen play. Maybe they rolled a rolled a safety over the top for deep help so we didn’t try

 

[sufandu]

As others have said, I don't think we have great deep threats right now. I also think the short passes are meant to make up for our crappy running game.

 

[MikeSU02]

Maybe it’s my impatience, maybe it was the beer, but I was frustrated with so many quick slant screens Friday night. I kept waiting for Nixon to go over the top - never did.

As efficient as this offense is, I’d like 2-3,deep shots a game, and we don’t take them. Maybe we’re saving it…

Zeed is out and Hatcher hasn’t been dependable enough. Our other guys with top level speed weren’t available.

Who do you want to throw deep to?

Pena, OG, Meeks, LQA aren’t deep guys. Meeks has the skill set to win a ball but he won’t have separation.

If you want it that bad without Zeed, you have to gas up Hatcher and tell him that we’re committing to him deep and he just needs to come down with one or two of them.

Be a poor man’s Brian Thomas Jr.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Zeed is out and Hatcher hasn’t been dependable enough. Our other guys with top level speed weren’t available.

Who do you want to throw deep to?

Pena, OG, Meeks, LQA aren’t deep guys. Meeks has the skill set to win a ball but he won’t have separation.

If you want it that bad without Zeed, you have to gas up Hatcher and tell him that we’re committing to him deep and he just needs to come down with one or two of them.

Be a poor man’s Brian Thomas Jr.

I'm curious if JRS can help here.

 

[upperdeck]

I'm curious if JRS can help here.

he seemed to be another slot guy from his film. Maybe he has that gear but he was not the deep threat at CSU

 

[OttoinGrotto]

he seemed to be another slot guy from his film. Maybe he has that gear but he was not the deep threat at CSU

Perhaps he cannot help there.

 

[phil77]

I think we saw deep shots plenty in our first few games but it seems that Nixon and maybe even McCord have lost some confidence in the remaining deep threats on the team. Hope that changes with who is coming back but it is something to keep an eye on.

 

[swish7]

Maybe it’s my impatience, maybe it was the beer, but I was frustrated with so many quick slant screens Friday night. I kept waiting for Nixon to go over the top - never did.

As efficient as this offense is, I’d like 2-3,deep shots a game, and we don’t take them. Maybe we’re saving it…

I feel like they are saving it for later, bc it seems odd to shelve this part of our offense.

 

[upperdeck]

We lost 1 of the 2 guys we wanted to throw deep to, so not surprising we do it less.

And the assumption is that we call deep passes, when much of that is on what kyle is reading on the D. Teams play single high we will throw deeper stuff, double high not so much,

We also started out trying to be more run heavy and teams played the box differently. We have adjusted the plays to what were are seeing.

Get the ball out of the QBs hand faster is a good thing when blocking is suspect.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

he seemed to be another slot guy from his film. Maybe he has that gear but he was not the deep threat at CSU

In thought I saw him catch several deep passes in his highlights. I could be wrong though. My memory is getting bad. Haha

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

My minor quibble is- why no short passes to Villari where he can carry and beat up defenders

He just doesn’t look right. He clearly added weight and his movements are super stiff now. Really disappointed as I thought he’d be a weapon.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

And the assumption is that we call deep passes, when much of that is on what kyle is reading on the D. Teams play single high we will throw deeper stuff, double high not so much,

That was something I watched for against UNLV. There could have been opportunities for Hatcher down the sideline without safety help, but the few plays like that were run to the other side of the field and he wasn't even looked at. I was surprised we didn't try because it was definitely set up. I think we were content to burn clock.

Hatcher has kind of an unusual skill mix because he can get open over the top but he also blocks well from the WR spot, and with the east west action we seem to like to use him in that blocking capacity pretty frequently.