Offensive Woes - Breakdown of How Each Offensive Drive Ended

[vegasvolfan]

From what I am seeing/reading there is virtually no blame on Nico this game, and there shouldn’t be. To me it’s more of the same, only Nico is distancing himself from the blame.

Not one drive ended because of him, and again he had the offense humming from the beginning, only for the opening drive (and others) to be killed by someone else.

The below is not a play by play, so you won’t see all of the plays there, but I think I counted 4 bad passes out of the 38 that he threw and only one was dangerous. All long balls were on the money, whereas in the past many were blaming him for being off even though they were passes recent receivers would have caught half the time.

So, now it’s glaringly obvious Nico is not the issue we aren’t hammering teams. That should make us all feel better about who we have at QB, not that I was ever worried.

Also, our receivers are mainly having trouble with big play balls, but still are making clutch catches. Additionally, we are rolling with a deeper run game now and have found some tight ends with hands.

The thing that concerns me still as it did before the season started is that Left Tackle position. I was told that wouldn’t be an issue before the season, and this is one of those times I hate to say I was right.

Now that said, the OL IS playing better, and Sampson doesn’t get all those yards by himself.

A LOT to be excited about that we can fix.

Can we fix long balls, penalties and that LT spot by the time we play GA and I dare say Vandy? Mississippi St. had played some good teams close. So, they shouldn’t be a cupcake. What say you?

——-

1ST HALF
Q1

1st Drive

We were all the way to their 15. With a sack (2 guys got through), and a hold, and a bad kick the OL and someone else blows another drive Nico had rolling.

I think this is the 4th time we had the ball within their 30 in the opening drive and the drive was killed due to mistakes.

Fault = OL, Kicker

2nd Drive

Overthrow by Nico made up for by beautiful pass for first down and then another beautiful pass for about 15 and it’s called back.

Saved by defensive Facemask

Brazzel drops perfect TD pass (why do these guys keep dropping while they catch instead of catching in stride ?)

OL collapses on Nico and he is dropped for 1 yard gain.

Fault = Receiver, OL

3rd Drive
(Following interception)

We get the ball to their 30 and fumble it

Fault => Sampson (benched for


Q2

4th Drive

We get the ball to their 18
OL false start
Perfect TD pass to Kitselman
Nico gets sacked
Missed FG

Fault = OL, Kicker (hard to blame Kitselman with a great helmet on ball tackle, but slight fault on him)

5th Drive

Long ball a little under thrown but would have been caught but, pass interference not called

Keep the drive going
Low pass to SW for short gain
2 plays later we go for it on 4th and Nico rolls out for a 1st down run
Beautiful pass to Kitselman to 9
2 runs and we get in


6th Drive
(Vandy up by 3 with 44 seconds)
Beautiful pass to midfield
Another pass that to me should have been reviewed for accurate spot
QB run play and we run out of time somehow after he got the 1st.

Fault => Refs, not sure if we messed that up, because I never saw them put 2 seconds back on the clock). We only had time for a HM.

2ND HALF
Q3

7th Drive
More Kitselman on this drive
Sampson back in with big gain of 14 on 3rd to their 19
Just some bad play calling (short run and two short passes with no throws to end zone)
Missed FG

Fault => Coaches and kicker

8th Drive
(Following fumble)

We get the ball around their 30
Work the ball down to their 15 and it’s all Sampson and he ties school record for most rushing TDs in a season and sets SEC record for most rushing TDs through 8 games
14-10 TN (he would end up breaking that by 2 TDs)

9th Drive
(Pierce knocks their QB out of game previous play)
Pinned on our 7
Short run
Short pass
QB hurry and almost throws interception

Fault => Hard to blame anyone with that FP, but I think we should have tried down field. Apparently, they play 2 safeties so that limits what you can do downfield and probably dangerous to do from your 7.

10th Drive
(Following Brooks’ interception taken to their 10)
Nico rolls out and throws beautiful TD pass to Kitselman across his body)

11th Drive
(Following fast score from KY that was well defended but was a beautiful one handed catch with a push off using the other hand.)

Q4

12th Drive
Nico with tough pass in double coverage to McCoy well defended)
Beautiful pass between 2 defenders in stride on slant to Nimrod right in the numbers that would have gone for a TD… guess what? DROPPED)

Fault ==> Receiver

13th Drive
(Pinned on 9)
Nice pass to 20
Beautiful pass to Stars to our 37)
Chunk run from Sampson
3rd and 7 DART by Nico on the sideline for 1st down
Entire team gets a TD by pushing Sampson from the 6th into the end zone furthering his SEC 8 game record and breaking team record)

14th Drive
We should have had another chance to increase the lead if not for the boneheaded 4th and forever penalty on LOTT, but that was prolonged to a drive where we simply ran out the clock.

 

[njvols]

things known and things we found out:
*KNOWN: Championship level D. All American RB. Brooks is invaluable to this D. Don't leave Pierce one on one on passing downs.
*LEARNED: TE can be a great and dependable tool in JH offense while we work out of our funk...but in reality, two more weeks to figure it out w/ WRs, but if we continue to hit the TE's hard, it will add another level of coverage for teams to worry about...if we just had a 5* WR on the bench that we could give a shot. We have a field goal kicker issue.

 

[chuck0303]

things known and things we found out:
*KNOWN: Championship level D. All American RB. Brooks is invaluable to this D. Don't leave Pierce one on one on passing downs.
*LEARNED: TE can be a great and dependable tool in JH offense while we work out of our funk...but in reality, two more weeks to figure it out w/ WRs, but if we continue to hit the TE's hard, it will add another level of coverage for teams to worry about...if we just had a 5* WR on the bench that we could give a shot. We have a field goal kicker issue.

Yes, Max had a bad day but he's also hit some long ones in other games. Can't be perfect all the time. However, yes he needs to work on it.
Doesn't seem like we do enough short or medium passes past the line of scrimmage. The ones to the sideline are ok if they receive a block & the defensive guy misses the tackle. It just doesn't seem to me that we have enough plays where we're not predictable. Yes, Dylan can get the yards if he has ppl giving him decent blocks but he shouldn't have to fight for yards 3 times in a row running the same play basically. One might say, run it until they stop it but just seems they could mix the plays up better than they do. Hard to argue against a W but not crazy about the play calling.

 

[macrovol]

12th Drive
Nico with tough pass in double coverage to McCoy well defended)
Beautiful pass between 2 defenders in stride on slant to Nimrod right in the numbers that would have gone for a TD… guess what? DROPPED)

Fault ==> Receiver

I think the KY defender got a hand in there to knock it out.