Question on WR's - For the Football Informed

[TerraCat]

First off, great win, and I think we have so much talent. Which leads to my question...

Why did it appear so easy for the Purdue receivers to find seams in our secondary and why was it so difficult for our receivers to find those same kind of seams in theirs?

Is this a simple talent issue, or is our zone defense prone to that kind of thing? It seemed like TJ and Christian were throwing into very tight windows, but if their QB wasn't in the process of getting sacked he had guys getting open quite a bit.

Moore is an incredible talent! But why can't Lees find some of those same seams? I know they lost a lot on their front 7, but what about their secondary? How good is Purdue's 2ndary. They looked pretty good in the 2nd half.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

First off, great win, and I think we have so much talent. Which leads to my question...

Why did it appear so easy for the Purdue receivers to find seams in our secondary and why was it so difficult for our receivers to find those same kind of seams in theirs?

Is this a simple talent issue, or is our zone defense prone to that kind of thing? It seemed like TJ and Christian were throwing into very tight windows, but if their QB wasn't in the process of getting sacked he had guys getting open quite a bit.

Moore is an incredible talent! But why can't Lees find some of those same seams? I know they lost a lot on their front 7, but what about their secondary? How good is Purdue's 2ndary. They looked pretty good in the 2nd half.

Purdue has a great scheme! They are going to beat a few top 25 teams!

 

[Mr Wickerpark]

w

First off, great win, and I think we have so much talent. Which leads to my question...

Why did it appear so easy for the Purdue receivers to find seams in our secondary and why was it so difficult for our receivers to find those same kind of seams in theirs?

Is this a simple talent issue, or is our zone defense prone to that kind of thing? It seemed like TJ and Christian were throwing into very tight windows, but if their QB wasn't in the process of getting sacked he had guys getting open quite a bit.

Moore is an incredible talent! But why can't Lees find some of those same seams? I know they lost a lot on their front 7, but what about their secondary? How good is Purdue's 2ndary. They looked pretty good in the 2nd half.

wow. It looked like our wr were wide open early on with pitch and catch. The second half, we adjusted to a conservative scheme and left the RB in and only had 2 guys in routes. Our TE was mostly kept close to the los as well and only released on little flairs. I saw only one time where we broke that scheme and that was the larkin fly, who was wide open but missed.
I think it was a good called game as there wasnt any need to open up with a 17 pt lead.

 

[CatManTrue]

First off, great win, and I think we have so much talent. Which leads to my question...

Why did it appear so easy for the Purdue receivers to find seams in our secondary and why was it so difficult for our receivers to find those same kind of seams in theirs?

Is this a simple talent issue, or is our zone defense prone to that kind of thing? It seemed like TJ and Christian were throwing into very tight windows, but if their QB wasn't in the process of getting sacked he had guys getting open quite a bit.

Moore is an incredible talent! But why can't Lees find some of those same seams? I know they lost a lot on their front 7, but what about their secondary? How good is Purdue's 2ndary. They looked pretty good in the 2nd half.

Based solely on my observations from the periphery: Historically speaking, explosive WRs, coverage CBs, and dominant pass rushing defensive ends are the hardest types of players for academically inclined schools to recruit. E.g. Randy Moss couldn’t cut it even at 90s FSU and had to transfer to Marshall.

Those types of players are usually the elite recruits that the football powers covet - and get - as they are game-changers, and our academic requirements make it more difficult. As an example: Stanford has ridden powerful offensive lines & power backs to their success, and their only recent explosive player I recall is McCaffrey (whom we dominated). Duke, Vandy, and other academically elite schools are often a step or two slower than schools with more lax standards.

It looks like Newsome is a real steal for us, being able to play so well as a true freshman cover corner in a Big Ten. Rees is a converted quarterback and is still learning the WR position, while Gaziano has an incredible motor that enables him to compete and sometimes dominate games. Hopefully the improved facilities help improve our recruiting enough where these harder to get players come to NU more often.

 

[Mr Wickerpark]

Fitz has made the move to a power offense. And although it has been an ugly transition at times, its starting to have serious success. The alternative could have been to keep a spreadlike offense where there is more room for wr, but our mantra is probably at least 55% rush and maybe 65-70 plays. It took a while to transition from a hurryup but i like Fitz' idea to build a better program than to have a trick offense that relies on hurryup, gadgets, zaps and traps.

 

[Chuckster1973]

But the point remains, as the question was posed: why our receivers had Purdue Defenders draped all over them in the second half. It seemed like there was no open space at all. Clearly there were a few of those plays where it was actually interference, but still their Corners seemed to be on our receivers all the time.

 

[T_Levine]

Two things

1. We played zone almost entirely all night. If you dont have a pass rush or if you blitz, the wr can sit in a zone. we also missed a lot of tackles and took poor angles on others. UGH

2. Now our wide receivers. Bases on some of the replays, or WR's are s^%T route runners. They do not know how to drive into cuts and plant a foot. Bennet S. rounded his routes all night. What made Jerry Rice one the greates WR of all time was not his speed. He was pedestrian or slow by superstar standards. He was great because he might have been the greatest route runner of all times.

Our WR need to take geometry and learn what a 90 degree angle is.

 

[Chuckster1973]

Better coaching needed?

 

[DaCat]

Goes back to fundamentals - more time with the tennis ball machine.

 

[Mr Wickerpark]

Two things

1. We played zone almost entirely all night. If you dont have a pass rush or if you blitz, the wr can sit in a zone. we also missed a lot of tackles and took poor angles on others. UGH

2. Now our wide receivers. Bases on some of the replays, or WR's are s^%T route runners. They do not know how to drive into cuts and plant a foot. Bennet S. rounded his routes all night. What made Jerry Rice one the greates WR of all time was not his speed. He was pedestrian or slow by superstar standards. He was great because he might have been the greatest route runner of all times.

Our WR need to take geometry and learn what a 90 degree angle is.

on one routs, Big Ben was painfully trying (and obvious) to run on the outside shoulder of the cb in a ridiculous attempt to get the cb to turn his shoulders in front of Ben so Ben could cut inside slant. Well, first off, the CB isnt going to turn any shoulders while ben was still 7 yards in front of him so ben just rounded his route with his head actually tipping where he was headed. The fact is that he doesnt know. Dunno but maybe i just had a great wr coach when I was in highschool and was taught things. Then again, our wr coach lost his job at indiana but mccall had him hired here since he coached rbs with Mccall at toledo. Never played a down at wr.
So the question becomes, who taught AC to set up dbs by running great routes.

 

[NJCat]

So the question becomes, who taught AC to set up dbs by running great routes.

Coach Ugh.

 

[DaCat]

on one routs, Big Ben was painfully trying (and obvious) to run on the outside shoulder of the cb in a ridiculous attempt to get the cb to turn his shoulders in front of Ben so Ben could cut inside slant. Well, first off, the CB isnt going to turn any shoulders while ben was still 7 yards in front of him so ben just rounded his route with his head actually tipping where he was headed. The fact is that he doesnt know. Dunno but maybe i just had a great wr coach when I was in highschool and was taught things. Then again, our wr coach lost his job at indiana but mccall had him hired here since he coached rbs with Mccall at toledo. Never played a down at wr.
So the question becomes, who taught AC to set up dbs by running great routes.

Please stop it, turk.

 

[FanatiCat]

Regardless, the fact is that we need to get more out of our WR and that is going to be through coaching them up. They are not the biggest and not the fastest so they need to run great routes and be able to free themselves up. Seemed like every single throw was to a guy with a DB draped all over him, no margin for error, no YAC opportunity.

Look at all the other games this week. You need WRs that can separate, stretch the field, go up and fight for the ball. Only guy we have with size and power is Skowronek - we need to get Jalen Brown healthy to see if he can fill that role.