Earlier in the year I posted on my hope that Bajakian would scrap the Lausch package. Bajakian wasted first down after the second Joseph interception and then the offense fell inches short on fourth down. If there was a moment that made me want to scream yesterday, seeing Lausch trot out was it.
Carping on the Lausch package again
- Thread starter eastbaycat99
- Start date
“Hey! [Wife!] Come watch #12. He’s going to run less than 3 yards and then fall down.”
“Ha! You’re right!”
It is definitely notable and discouraging that Hilinski was the #3 and not Lausch. The Bajakian legacy is secure!
He’s on his way out so he figured, put Lausch in for the halibut.
On a serious note, that was a terrible move and it cost us a precious opportunity for a quick score after a massive momentum change. If you’re going to run essentially the same play every time Lausch takes a snap, it’s not going to work. They must have no confidence in his passing ability.
Then 3 plays later coming away with zero points from the 1/2 yard line.
That short series to me was the punctuation mark for the end of Bajakian and Anderson. The D serves the ball up inside the 10 yard line, everyone knows you go for the kill shot after a turnover but Jake calls a Lausch run that probably has the lowest % for a TD of any play in the book. The OL is unable to get a push to run it in from the 1. No confidence in the OL so we have to run a pass play on 4th and goal at the 1. Then a fade to a TE which I don’t know if we have even run this year, who appeared to be the only receiver option on the play, instead of going to one of our outstanding WRs.
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Hah! Who's the RB they said, "if you need one yard, he'll get you two...if you need three yards, he'll get you two"?
If you mean on the Wildcat, and using that wide run, and no /s, I would have no confidence for that near the goal line.
If you take away the Lausch sweep on first down, I don’t have much of a problem with the other two plays. Assuming the pass came on second down, and was an incompletion, you would end up with third and a yard to go, and you could send Tyus crashing through the line.
Instead the Cats telegraphed the first down play, literally nobody was fooled, and a down was wasted. I agree that was exasperating.
Lausch package will not work unless he proves he can throw a pass. The problem with the two tight end set bunched up is it forces a battle at the line of scrimmage which was not NUs strength. The D Line did well all year, O Line did not so why pressure the O line. QB should be under center but don't take a quality receiver off the field and NU had 3 good ones. Hopefully NU can get some grad transfers on the O Line to run behind. Sullivan will be an ok QB but keeping a QB 13 games is not easy with the pounding.
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You can’t separate the subsequent plays because those calls were affected by he first wasted play. The fade to the TE should have been the first play and probably would have been a TD. I had the uneasy feeling when Joseph didn’t score a pick six.After the first down play failed I was almost sure we would not score a TD When we got to the 1 and then got stuffed on 3rd down I cringed because it was too close to settle for a FG, but I had low confidence we could convert. It would have been better if we were on the 3-5 yard line as Braun would have taken the FG there. It’s like inside the 2 yard line is our kryptonite against decent defenses.
On the fourth down play, I would have sent AJ in jet motion to the TE side, but deeper in the backfield. That sets up the threat of a wide screen that might occupy the outside defender and allow Mangieri to break free on the fade. You could also fake the dive before the throw, and have another TE leak into the end zone and cross away from the action.
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If they would throw off of it, it might make some sense but as it is everyone knows what is coming
The next two seasons might be rough. How many of our senior studs on offense still have eligibility left? I am not seeing NU having a good QB post Bryant, unless we snag another stud via the portal. Our offensive scheme for the most part is well.... offensive to watch. The new OC better be a lot more innovative than our past OCs. Signing two star quarterbacks is good if you are in the Sunbelt or Mountain West, but in the new B1G, even a three star most likely isn't going to get the job done, as we can all see with our current QB situation.
Under another OC/QB coach. Which we will probably have within a few weeks. My hope is that Sullivan, who showed some flashes last year of making passes that Bryant made, can perform similarly under different coaching. It has to be something to do with coaching. We had 5* HJ and 4* Hilinski who, under Bajakian, ended up not even being able to throw a forward pass within 5 feet in any direction of a receiver. I can see one highly ranked QB not panning out, but the odds of 2 regressing that far, the commonality seems to be coaching.
Yeah, but that isn't going to happen often. We won our first division title with a 4 star recruit, and the second with Ramsey. Was he a 3 star? My point is we haven't recruited a QB that has been worth a damn since Clayton, which should have been obvious. Our crappy offensive system as of late has been the prime source for that. I hope Boe can prove me wrong, but post Thorson, we can't recruit at QB. Any really good gunslinger wants to amass gunslinger type passing yards to get to the NFL. Hopefully the new OC that is dialed up is exactly what the Dr ordered. Going via the portal route hasn't been that great for us. It has been basically a coin toss. Better off to just bring the offense into the 21st century.
No. He was a 2* Rivals QB.
But your point is valid, NU hasn't developed QBs as good s Ramsey or Bryant even though they have recruited kids with similar HS rankings. You don't need 4*s to succeed (viz. HJ or Hilinski) but you do need coaching and development. Hopefully the next OC can deliver.
Leroy Hoard
"If you need one yard, I'll get you three. If you need five yards, I'll get you three."
Nah, let's just run a one man pattern with our tight end...
