I suggest you listen to Todd Blackedge's comments on the game. They are excellent. He indicated that PSU cannot win against a top notch team without first rate wide receivers that can get separation and be a threat downfield. He felt PSU does not have any receiver or receivers that meet that need.
Todd
- Thread starter DrJC
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The offensive problems go way beyond WR's not getting open. Drew has been terrible in all three road games now, primarily b/c of footwork and his actions in the pocket. At least that's what he has said before in interviews, and what MY indicated during the bye week. His fundamentals have been terrible and just seems so uncomfortable.
The lack of a running game combined with once again, an average OL, and of course, an average WR room all equates to...an average offense. But, we could have swapped WR rooms with OSU and it wouldn't have mattered. DA crapped his pants all game...whether he was checking it down or somewhat attempting to go downfield. It was frankly embarrassing on the offensive coaching staff. There hasn't been a single position on offense coached up or that is truly excellent this year. The OL, RB, TE, WR and QB all have been either mysteries or disappointments.
Meanwhile, on defense, those guys are coached up, play with so much energy and purpose. I love watching that group.
So, yes, Todd is correct that we don't have any first-rate receivers....even if we did, that doesn't mask the myriad other issues that PSU has. Does Michigan have first rate receivers who are comparable to OSU's? No...but regardless what people think of the sign stealing scandal, they have built their team correctly....from the inside out.
The lack of a running game combined with once again, an average OL, and of course, an average WR room all equates to...an average offense. But, we could have swapped WR rooms with OSU and it wouldn't have mattered. DA crapped his pants all game...whether he was checking it down or somewhat attempting to go downfield. It was frankly embarrassing on the offensive coaching staff. There hasn't been a single position on offense coached up or that is truly excellent this year. The OL, RB, TE, WR and QB all have been either mysteries or disappointments.
Meanwhile, on defense, those guys are coached up, play with so much energy and purpose. I love watching that group.
So, yes, Todd is correct that we don't have any first-rate receivers....even if we did, that doesn't mask the myriad other issues that PSU has. Does Michigan have first rate receivers who are comparable to OSU's? No...but regardless what people think of the sign stealing scandal, they have built their team correctly....from the inside out.
Drew's feet is a coaching issue. I believe we need better OC's. Period.
Against Delaware …..three times Drew dropped back, couldn’t find anyone open, drifted around, still no one open…and threw the ball away. 7-8 seconds and no one could get open….AGAINST DELAWARE!!!
So other teams saw this tape, and just plays to stop the run. So now Allar has lost his mojo, confidence, and rhythm. His mechanics are off, his timing off. Same with running backs.
Football is a complimentary game. Like a fine tuned sports car, all the pieces must work together.
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Often I see opposing teams have open receivers based on "scheme". That is, Penn State is in some kind of zone and receivers are in open areas or they have a match up against a much slower LB. Are our receivers unable to find those "soft" areas or do they simply always see man-to-man because opposing DCs don't think they are capable of defeating such match ups?
Del State ?
Todd watched another game then ... Allar disagrees with him so do those that watched the films with care... and I like
Todd's in game commentary a lot... Watch this games films...m
100% false. If we had Harrison instead of osu we would have won.
Todd took a shot at Yurcich and Franklin without mentioning their names when he said something like: I don’t care who you are playing, no team should go 0-15 on 3rd down conversion attempts.
Loved it!
So what...we didn't have him. And, until JF made his usual bonehead call to go for it with 7 min left in the 4th quarter, our defense had allowed 13 pts...more than good enough to win with even an 'average' to 'ok' offensive performance. It's not as easy as "If we had MHJR, we win." I have no doubt, the coaching staff would have found a way to screw that up.
PSU has had many good WR's post 2017 season, like Hamler, Dotson, etc., and we still weren't good enough to beat OSU. If you think the singular issue with this offense is that we don't have a MHJR, I totally disagree. The offense is a mess, and has been since week 1.
I read that average yds to gain was 7.5. I struggle to see it as a primarily a 3rd down issue.
They were open on about half a dozen occasions last Saturday.
Our quarterback wasn't ready for the moment: it's ok to admit it. Meyer said so after the game and so have many many others.
Maybe the offense is more geared to a dual threat QB. Sean was a real threat to take off while scrambling and also in designed runs. That's not Drew's strength at all.
Average 3rd down was 7.7 yards but that is a bit skewed by the 3rd and 30. Throwing out the 3rd down conversion they made on the last drive when OSU was playing prevent, they were 0 for 8 on 3rd downs with 6 yards or less, including three times when they had 3rd and 1.
3rd and 1 (3 times)
3rd and 2 (1)
3rd and 4 (2)
3rd and 5 (1)
3rd and 6 (1)
No thank you. We have to actually develop the guys we have....I dont remember us beating OSU with "dual" threat qbs. In fact, all of our dual threats regressed and got more injured as their careers under Franklin evolved. We have a 5 star qb who has real arm talent, its MY's handpicked QB that is in the mold of some of his most successful offenses. The line needs to be better, Allar needs to be developed, the offense needs to adjust to his strengths(which i still belive are many). If Franklin and MY cant mold a system around the #1 ranked recruit in the country then we have the wrong coaches, not the wrong kind of QB.
Plain and simple, that was not the issue. The kid was not ready for the moment. His throwing mechanics reverted to a form that, to be honest, you don't usually see at the power five level. He looked like a high schooler out there. His base was so wide he almost slipped and fell about half a dozen times, on others he was literally jumping in the air, many others were off his back foot again nearly falling down, others were perpendicular, other times he was pushing the ball like a dart, it was just a really really horrible example of a kid freaking out. It was on Franklin in my opinion to lift him by the 3rd quarter. Franklin left him in there not understanding how big time coaches do things.
Saban would have jerked him by mid 3rd or half time. Same with Dabo.
Perhaps we can work on the Center snap this week also........re-watch the game and count the number of poor center snaps when in the Gun........
Good point, the snaps weren't helpful to the young qb seeing ghosts.
Obviously he’s right about the WR’s. They are very good athletes, but only fair to good receivers. But they were only part of the problem. They did gain some separation on quite a few occasions, but the ball was not close to them. Part of this may have been incorrect route running, but part of it was a QB issue. There were many throws where our QB appeared to have his feet “anchored in a snowboard”…. He simply did not follow through or step into his motion.… decreasing his velocity and accuracy.
—-additionally, the O-line wasn’t “great”, but it was largely pretty solid against a very good defense (other than some very low QB snaps). —The O-line was not the “rate limiting element “ in this equation. —The WR / QB interaction, and some questionable play calling muted the offense, IMO.
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Time to give Dawkins some time at C. Can Nourzad be better at LG than Nelson? Figure that out and go from there.
I agree with a lot of your post. Especially with Drew’s play on the road. He looks totally out of his comfort zone, tentative and inaccurate. Whether the competition he’s playing against is good or bad. Having said that he looks a lot better at home. Far more in his comfort zone. It will be interesting to see him play at home against Michigan. My gut says he’ll play a lot better. But how the rest of the offense plays will have a lot to do with that. He desperately needs to get a couple of good road games under his belt.
We have put a lot of wrs into the Nfl recently.
Saying this is our issue the last 10 years is wrong.
Everyone talks about DA having no Ints. Watching the game on Saturday many of the throws were so off target, they were uncatchable by either team. While the true freshman playing in place for D Burke played reasonably well for OSU I have no idea why the coaching staff didn't try to test him more.
He played horribly. This is big time football, not the ivy league. If you can't deal with this I suggest you follow Dartmouth or Yale.
McCord was no better than Allar—except for Harrison. Harrison was the difference in the game. He is ARob with Hamler speed and Dotson hands. The game was a draw without him.
After giving a pass to our WR development as compared to a team with a one of a kind, I have been mystified by the play calling. Against WVU, we ran lots of WR screens. Not much since—did the staff consider them ineffective? The full house backfield was unstoppable last year in short yardage—rarely used this year. Experimented with the tush push one game and not since. The failure to get Singleton in space is disturbing. Allar runs OK in a straight line, just make sure he slides.
It feels like they are more concerned about getting stuff on tape than establishing an identity.
After giving a pass to our WR development as compared to a team with a one of a kind, I have been mystified by the play calling. Against WVU, we ran lots of WR screens. Not much since—did the staff consider them ineffective? The full house backfield was unstoppable last year in short yardage—rarely used this year. Experimented with the tush push one game and not since. The failure to get Singleton in space is disturbing. Allar runs OK in a straight line, just make sure he slides.
It feels like they are more concerned about getting stuff on tape than establishing an identity.
Stop making excuses for the kid. He played awful and choked. It happened. Admit it and move on.
And I would not need to if these posters would stop making up excuses and just admit it.
I am not excusing Allar. He did not play well and needs to grow.
However, in these conversations I remind myself I used to criticize Todd in the same way. He had more bad games than good games for 2 years until he got “it.” Pitt 48-14 game and the emergence of Kenny Jackson was Todd’s watershed moment. Kerry Collins had similar growing pains.
I don’t know if Allar will get “it” eventually, but I learned patience.
However, in these conversations I remind myself I used to criticize Todd in the same way. He had more bad games than good games for 2 years until he got “it.” Pitt 48-14 game and the emergence of Kenny Jackson was Todd’s watershed moment. Kerry Collins had similar growing pains.
I don’t know if Allar will get “it” eventually, but I learned patience.
Bring in the wing-T and run it until it is stopped. Make Allar more comfortable then expand the offense only if need be. Imo, they put way to much on his shoulders.
See I actually agree with this other than the wing t part. Simplify things for the kid
the offensive plan on saturday was baffling. All of the things that worked for us through the first 6 games seemed to have been ignored. I really believed we outsmarted ourselves. We were convinced that the T and/or tush push wouldn't work so we didn't even try. we were 0-15 on 3rd down.....that is the key for our offensive failures in this game, and why going for it on 4th down, our 43 yard line, 7+minutes in the game was such a WTF moment. I guess the logic was "law of averages" after 15 tries we're due for success.
I feel same about receivers....we have a bunch of them, put them in if the starters aren't getting the job done...what is there to lose?
Adam Breneman touched on it a little bit but I think the coaches were definitely trying to hit big plays instead of just getting first downs. Either they didn't trust their offense to sustain long drives or they trusted the defense too much, but watching them pass repeatedly on 3rd and short was very frustrating.
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This years problem..last year it was the QB, year before that OL/RB, year before that a DL who could not pressure QB late. The common denominator is CJF and his unprepared O.
