I just cannot believe that offensive performance.
Defense held WSU 3/12 on 3rd down.
Gave up just 115 passing yards.
Had more first downs than them.
Ran nearly 20 more plays than them.
But lost by 21.
Offense put the defense in a massive bind from the 2nd quarter on. Defense was stellar in the 1st quarter and I thought generally played more than well enough to win the game. Huge turnaround by the D from the previous week overall.
But the offense was the opposite and probably 90% of the reason for the loss tonight.
The offense was sloppy, poor execution, poor penalties all night. Playcalling seemed very scatterbrained. No cohesive gameplan other than being committed to the screen game early.
At the beginning of the game, it seemed like we were completely committed to airing it out all night with the run game as an afterthought, which got us in some binds on the early drives with incompletions and short yardage calls where we could’ve/should’ve run it. Then after the first few drives, it was like a titanic shift in gameplan, started running it a ton for a few drives. Just doesn’t give me confidence in a well-thought, logical gameplan.
I just don’t understand the playcalling at times. A well executed play that leads to a short yardage 2nd down or a first down often doesn’t have a sequential, logical play to follow. For example, can’t remember the exact play in the first half, but we had 2nd and short in the red zone, and the next play is a screen with Drae McCray as your lead blocker, and play got blown up for a loss. Why run a screen there with your smallest receiver lead blocking?
On 4th and short, the third time we ran Conyers in wildcat, we ran outside with a true freshman RB as the lead blocker. Seems like a bad idea, to put a true freshman in that spot out on an island in his second game ever in college after barely playing in the first game. I love Dickey and think he’s going to be a killer tailback for us, but that’s a tall ask of him less than 30 snaps into his college career.
Why did we not go to quick hitting crosser routes to our really athletic WRs who are great in space before late in the game? We instead decided to spend the first half throwing screen screen screen, maybe a random deep shot, screen. Where was the intermediate passing game?
It just seems like a lot of the playcalling is like throwing a dart at a board. As
@T. Beadles has said, it seems like we run a collection of plays and not an offense.
Morton had an awful night. Airmailed all his deep throws, seemed too amped up for the game, a ton of misreads and obviously bad decisions. 4th down sprint out with the out route, threw it too late, or if you’re going to hold it, you have to then commit to running for the first down until the DB bites and you can throw it over him. INT he threw where he airmailed it over a wide open Josh Kelly was just a really sloppy throw. Just a couple of examples, but he looked lost and anxious the entire night. The OL was rough in some spots I definitely don’t blame Morton for, but he made plenty of awful decisions on his own. I don’t know why he was so bad, but I have my thoughts about his development and lack of progress. He seems skittish, and I don’t know if that’s a coaching issue, injury phantoms chasing him down, or all the above. I just don’t see the confidence I saw from him as a freshman or even at times last year. I’d rather see the risky gunslinger making plays and hanging it all out there than what we’re seeing right now.
Something has gotta change and change FAST. You have too much great skill on this offense to be playing like you did tonight.
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