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Something that shouldn't get lost in the shuffle

Joe the Panther Fan

Lair Hall of Famer
Jul 6, 2001
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So we are starting a guy who started one game last year and then one game last week. Against a team with a pretty good defense. So how do we start out the game? Of our first 21 offensive plays, 18 of them were passes. Because who doesn't think that it's a great idea to have a young quarterback throw the ball all over the place in a situation like that?

And then the best part is that with a minute and a half left in the half in a half that you are behind 21-3, instead of continuing to throw the ball and maybe completing a couple passes and having a chance to score, THAT'S when you decide to run the ball three plays in a row to I guess try to kill the clock, except you go out of bounds on two of those three runs and all the sudden it's 4th down and they call a time out to force you to punt. Oops.

But in any event, given what we were starting at quarterback with, who in their right mind thinks that the correct strategy is to come out and try to throw the ball 18 times in your first 21 plays?

A moron, that's who.
 
So we are starting a guy who started one game last year and then one game last week. Against a team with a pretty good defense. So how do we start out the game? Of our first 21 offensive plays, 18 of them were passes. Because who doesn't think that it's a great idea to have a young quarterback throw the ball all over the place in a situation like that?

And then the best part is that with a minute and a half left in the half in a half that you are behind 21-3, instead of continuing to throw the ball and maybe completing a couple passes and having a chance to score, THAT'S when you decide to run the ball three plays in a row to I guess try to kill the clock, except you go out of bounds on two of those three runs and all the sudden it's 4th down and they call a time out to force you to punt. Oops.

But in any event, given what we were starting at quarterback with, who in their right mind thinks that the correct strategy is to come out and try to throw the ball 18 times in your first 21 plays?

A moron, that's who.
That series at the end of the first half was pathetic. In every way.
 
In a free year of eligibility, why not put that 370-pound lineman at fullback and see if that can help gain three yards a carry? It would be an improvement. Freaking try something, anything.
 
So we are starting a guy who started one game last year and then one game last week. Against a team with a pretty good defense. So how do we start out the game? Of our first 21 offensive plays, 18 of them were passes. Because who doesn't think that it's a great idea to have a young quarterback throw the ball all over the place in a situation like that?

And then the best part is that with a minute and a half left in the half in a half that you are behind 21-3, instead of continuing to throw the ball and maybe completing a couple passes and having a chance to score, THAT'S when you decide to run the ball three plays in a row to I guess try to kill the clock, except you go out of bounds on two of those three runs and all the sudden it's 4th down and they call a time out to force you to punt. Oops.

But in any event, given what we were starting at quarterback with, who in their right mind thinks that the correct strategy is to come out and try to throw the ball 18 times in your first 21 plays?

A moron, that's who.
Would it have made you feel better if we’d have mixed in 10 more runs for little to no gain?

I mean,it was pretty clear that we weren’t gonna get anything at all on the ground.
 
To be fair, with our run game I'd probably have thrown it 21 out of 21 times.
Yea but the more this season goes along the more I am convinced that the plan designs of the running plays is most to blame. This scheme sucks. It has sucked since Whipple arrived. I cant understand how our offensive line is a year stronger and wiser but got worse as run blockers. It makes no sense. You would think they were at least the same as last season.
 
speaking of running game, was it a morrisey interview this week he said we were embarrassed, we've worked hard , we're going to be better? I cracked up when I saw a guy bull rush poor jimmy, push him right back into the qb and take them both down.... jimmey said the same thing after they couldn't score like 27 times from the 1 yard line last month. That offensive line is well, extremely offensive!
 
So we are starting a guy who started one game last year and then one game last week. Against a team with a pretty good defense. So how do we start out the game? Of our first 21 offensive plays, 18 of them were passes. Because who doesn't think that it's a great idea to have a young quarterback throw the ball all over the place in a situation like that?

And then the best part is that with a minute and a half left in the half in a half that you are behind 21-3, instead of continuing to throw the ball and maybe completing a couple passes and having a chance to score, THAT'S when you decide to run the ball three plays in a row to I guess try to kill the clock, except you go out of bounds on two of those three runs and all the sudden it's 4th down and they call a time out to force you to punt. Oops.

But in any event, given what we were starting at quarterback with, who in their right mind thinks that the correct strategy is to come out and try to throw the ball 18 times in your first 21 plays?

A moron, that's who.

Normally, I would agree with what you're saying about the first 21 plays. However, when the entire offense is a broken trainwreck, there is a tendency to ditch logic and act out of desperation.

The 3 plays Pitt kept it on the ground were all handoffs to Davis, one for no gain, one for a 2 yard loss, and the other for a 2 yard gain.

And sadly, our only scoring drive of the game came during the first 21 plays. We didn't even pop the tops off the ketchup bottles Saturday.
 
Yea but the more this season goes along the more I am convinced that the plan designs of the running plays is most to blame. This scheme sucks. It has sucked since Whipple arrived. I cant understand how our offensive line is a year stronger and wiser but got worse as run blockers. It makes no sense. You would think they were at least the same as last season.
Bingo! Spot on!
 
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Would it have made you feel better if we’d have mixed in 10 more runs for little to no gain?


It would have made me feel a little better if we stop trying to run the ball up the middle with our wee little running back, but we can't always get what we want.

Maybe try a toss play to get the running back to the outside. Or hell, we've had games where we've run a half a dozen jet sweeps, maybe try that once or twice. Or maybe after you've thrown the ball ten times in a row try a draw play to see if you could fool them. That play actually did work once in the second half for a nice gain. Once.

Part of the reason that you try to run the ball is to keep the defense honest. When you are starting a quarterback like we were yesterday maybe that helps a little. It certainly couldn't have hurt.
 
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