No... because Nobody believes in Us. Football is a game of inches, and Duke fought harder for their inches than we did.
Flush it, and let’s go 1-0 against Akron.
Lack of speed on offense is a problem
- Thread starter gocatsgo2003
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Flush it, and let’s go 1-0 against Akron.
I think I saw those at the Glenview Costco.
I think play calling is too predictable.
Some plays will never work but we keep trying (a couple more Nagle sweeps, and a CT option again)
Wide Receivers who have speed, certainly much more than Austin Carr did, but they are too raw running routes to gain separation. AC set up dbs and got plenty of separation. Big Ben is really really bad running routes. Nobody will ever feel uncomfortable guarding him. Lees was open downfield and he certainly can catch, but Thorson got rattled after he got pressure on him and simply didn't look downfield or didn't throw a crisp Thorson pass. IMO, Thorson looks better this year as he stays in the pocket better, but once a defense gets pressure, he is too easily to rattle. Jefferson needs to make a play. One deep outside he should have caught. He sorta slowed and it was borderline over the shoulder sorta catch but he didn't adjust properly.
At the end of the day, this one falls on the OL. And with 2 OT injuries our chances are less than equal.
The offensive WR and QB's need to make plays.....the defense is, and Larkin is......so should they.
A&M got jobbed on that called fumble into the endzone - the plyon camera clearly showed it was fumbled out of bounds about the half yard mark. They still nearly came back to win it, but Jimbo Fisher was right to be livid with the refs.
Anyway, I had to look up Kendrick Rogers’s (#13) Rivals page to check on his offers as he was incredible against Clemson’s vaunted defense. He was a 3 star whose second best offer was TCU. He has a similar frame to Skowronek and more raw athleticism, but somehow kept getting open in the middle of the field and making incredible catches. Can Big Ben learn to use his body that way?
I can't accept that, its going to be ok that we got stuffed (again) by probable 5-loss Duke but we should be fine in the B1G. It's no different that when, a few years back, we were excusing a crushing loss to Iowa because their line was so dominant.
Are we saying the B1G top teams don't match Dukes pass rush or DBs?
We probably will right the ship. We usually do. But this, 2 years in a row, is frustrating
Two years in a row? NU has lost in week 2 in four of the past five seasons.
Had one of those great Saturdays where I could just watch college football and I did!!!!!! and every where I looked I saw speed, speed, speed,,,,Even Uof I looked quicker on both sides of the ball, their freshman qb was super quick. I know they were playing Western and we were playing a good Duke team but Minny looked quicker, Nebraska looked quicker. If we are moving more to the pro-style offense we still need to be able to at least stretch the field with one or two deep threats and a line that can protect. Other than our more restrictive recruiting rules is there a reason we have trouble recruiting sufficient speed ?
I’m not saying that the OL played well, but rather that they weren’t the worst coached unit yesterday. Thorson was able to make a number of deep passes even with the pressure (sadly, he’s used to it by now).
The interference call that really pissed me off was a deep ball to 81 (I think), not Skowronek. He was double covered but it was a catchable ball - the cornerback held his right arm back, and instead of being incensed the receiver just jogged back to the huddle.
If our crowd isn’t going to influence the game, the WRs need to be vocal & demonstrate when getting held and curry favor from the refs. There’s no fight in them and they rarely get open. We can’t win consistently when our OL & WR perform inconsistently.
Are you implying that Fitz relies on cliches to avoid sharing his true thoughts & avoid bulletin board quotes? Perish the thought. </sarcasm>
Eh, defenses like BC's had little problem w/ Colter/Mark.
And Army had little problem w/ Colter's speed.
When healthy, Thorson has speed (for a QB), but it's all straight-line speed (Thorson has less wiggle than Siemian).
Carr doesn't have speed nor the athleticism/wiggle of the top receivers but makes up for it by running routes well, having a large catch radius and being able to win his share of 50/50 balls.
I use ignore very sparingly and selectively, but man, it is an incredible feature.
The two QB system seems designed to bring CT along while keeping him upright. Injuries are more likely to happen when you get tired. And this is the first time since CT has been the starter that our backup has gotten any meaningful snaps so while it was disruptive of momentum in the PU game, it is likely a necessary evil if we want to have CT ready for big games and able to play the whole season. It was likely a total staff decision.
Our OL blocking was problematic, especially after the injuries
You could run a search though this board's database with that sentence and find a gazillion hits going back I don't know how many years.
Nothing. Ever. Changes.
And if we ever got one we could try to clone him like they are doing with Polo horses down in South America
That no call and the losing our Superback after the ejection were the two most significant turning points leading to our failure to score after the first touchdown. Well, those and of course not taking the easy points for the field goal.
Yes, because if we keep doing it, maybe it will change one day.
When you get bit by a mosquito, do you not scratch the itch?
When someone lays a big fart, don't you try to leave the room?
For every action, there is a reaction. Kind of like the all-but-certain snarky remark that some a-hole is likely lay in response to my own.
You think something in the football program is going to change because ECat from then interwebs posts about it over again?
I can overhear Ftz now: "You know, staff, this sounds like a crazy idea to hire a tennis ball machine as a WRs coach, be because ECat from the Rivals message board posted about it 100 times, I have a feeling that it must be the correct approach.."
You have to be trolling about this, amirite?
Well, if nothing does change, no one can say it was because purple patriots like me didn't step up and speak out.
And I am not trolling per the definition you posted earlier.
Consider it therapy. Would you rather I vent my anger through other actions like visiting the city of Columbus with a truckload of explosives?
Think of it this way. By putting up with and listening to me, you may be saving the lives of many an innocent Buckeye. Except we all know none of them are really innocent.
And don't get me started with the automatic tennis ball machines.
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Well that was all kinds of weird.
Beats apathy. Or worse, abandonment.
So the original post here is from someone else saying that the offense lacks speed - why aren’t you busting that guys chops? Is Fitzgerald supposed to wave his magic wand and suddenly make guys faster? Lacking speed means either Fitzgerald constructed his roster with a flaw, the training isn’t maintaining or improving speed or the game day coaching isn’t putting the right guys on the field or calling plays utilizing the strengths of the guys who are on the field.
Because it was ECat who made a particularly silly post. The OP was just meh, uninteresting. Way to white knight for ECat though, a poster who clearly cannot defend himself, lol.
Agreed; well played! And, just to be clear, I find your posts quite entertaining, kinda like how I watch NASCAR for the crashes. Carry on....
Add another cliche to the steaming pile: You can't coach speed.
Guys that are alleged to have elite speed on the current roster are few and far between.
Solomon Vault - MIA
Jelani Roberts - limited by lack of size
Who else do we have? Guys like Jalen Brown, Riley Lees, Jefferson, McGowan, etc. are purported to be more quick than the type of speed burners who can stretch defenses.
It isn't due to lack of trying or identification by the staff, it's just that we haven't been able to land the elite speed guys in a while. Who was the last speed burner we had at WR? Jeremy Ebert, who did a 4.3 at Pro Day? Andrew Brewer was actually pretty fast and could get separation. Both were converted QB's by the way.
Lees and Jefferson are fast. This whole lack of speed discussion is overblown. That is not the main problem.
Two players on the whole offense? I don't think it's overblown, not at all, and even if it's not the main problem as you suggest, it's definitely part of the problem.
Well I certainly think it’s a part of it. Lack of ability to get open and make big plays, which stems from issues with speed, quickness, maybe coaching, maybe play calling. I’m sympathetic to the view that McCall could do more with play calling to scheme guys open and keep the defense guessing, but at the same time it’s awfully hard to call plays when your OL can’t protect the QB past 2 seconds against a 4 man rush, your QB has no mobility in the pocket, and your WRs can’t win battles against 1 on 1 man coverage.
I only cited those two because they were specifically named not because they are the only players with speed that we have. Very few teams have those high end, track speed difference makers you most frequently see on some of the SEC teams. What we do have is skill position speed that is as good or better than most past NU teams and certainly on par with the Duke team that just beat us. If any of you were watching on Saturday, speed was not a significant differentiator. We got behind the Duke defense several time but either did not have the time to throw the ball or were not able to catch the ball when it was thrown. The problem was not speed, it was time and execution. The Duke OL gave Jones the time to develop the deep routes and their WRs caught the ball when it was thrown. That was the difference in the ball game.
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I disagree and so does our head coach. Listen to Fitz’s post game press conference. He specifically said The issue was a lack of time due to poor pass blocking and the inability of our WRs to come up with the catches when the balls were thrown.
You think ACC when you think "high end, track speed difference makers?"
Duke's wideouts ran much better routes and had much better separation than on our deep throws, which mostly seemed like "chuck it and hope." Lloyd ran a nice post route on a cover-4 beater for his TD ("stepped on his toes" then broke to the post; deep posts always give Hank's defense problems, especially when the QB has time to let them develop) and Rahming absolutely toasted Hartage on an option route for his TD. The FB wheel was a nice little design and completely fooled our LBs.
Whether you want to blame it on scheme or on our wideouts' physical shortcomings, something has to give if we want to generate a legitimate downfield passing game.
I meant to say SEC, not ACC. I don't disagree that their WRs were better than ours on Saturday, but speed was not the determining factor. Better route running, better hands and more time to develop their routes were the reasons their WRs outproduced ours, not speed.
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