1st and Goal from the 1 with a 6-3, 230 lb QB

[Complacent Deac]

Eh, half of Cade’s touchdowns are from a yard out. The 3rd down play was a td if he just follows the blocking instead of cutting back into unblocked defenders. Maybe a miscommunication on the play but if he follows the line diving right he’s in easy. Sure, it’d be nice to have a roll out to the TE on 2nd down (and on that early 4th down dive failure) but a few bad RPO reads and that series made the playcalling look worse than it actually was.

It’s interesting that the delayed rpo stuff still gets so much negative press. Seems like it doesn’t get credit when it’s effective but when a few plays get stuffed it’s garbage and we should be throwing on every down.

Well yeah when it gets stuffed it is the slowest developing most predictable thing ever. But...better than a stuffed toss sweep for a 6 yard loss.

 

[DeacLaw05]

Looked to me like they had our snap sequence timed perfectly in those short yardage situations all night—case in point the 4th down sneak when they had multiple players come over the top of the line to stuff the play. Time to work on the hard count a little bit.

 

[sportsmed86]

Completely agree, but it’s also game 1 so some conservative playcalling is to be expected.

Mainly I just don’t think it was “horrible” and I think the “we won in spite of Clawson” stuff to be a little over the top given his track record. And from a strict playcalling perspective, the 3rd down run should have scored. So there’s frustration around both playcalls and execution, but the only focus here seems to be on play calls. And who knows what the have in the bag for Newman at this point. We’d have run a pitch to Colburn with Winford throwing a lead block a couple years ago. Maybe he’s just not quite there yet. Bottom line is the RPO was effective for much of the game, and it results in a ton of single coverage which makes Newman absolutely lethal because defenses can’t cheat. The only time Newman had to throw against double coverage last night was when we had two receivers holding hands.

My guess is we’ll be in a critical short yardage situation a few weeks from and put Newman under center. And we probably should have had more stuff ready. But we won so fuck it. At least Clawson is the kind of coach who knows the win doesn’t excuse the issues we saw on both the coaching and execution sides.

This run criticism is laughable. Cut down the possessions for touted QB, burn some clock when you can. Make sure are in the game and have a chance to be in it and win it late.
The spread was 3 pts so for us to all of a sudden become so arrogant that we "deserve a blowout is laughable. We ran for 178 yds, Carney with 4.2 avg and Newman 21 carries for avg of 1.7 yds so I know which one i trust DC to call. and be willing to adapt each game. Jackass behind us in section 8 ranting all night about why the hell are we running it. Itwas so nice to pass him on the way out reminding him that he spent all night being wrong about how and why you can wins games based upon many circumstances.

 

[sportsmed86]

Looked to me like they had our snap sequence timed perfectly in those short yardage situations all night—case in point the 4th down sneak when they had multiple players come over the top of the line to stuff the play. Time to work on the hard count a little bit.

Clawson called out Jamie for that in radio postgame with Dave Goren, saying he has to vary his cadence enough that they cant time us which they did. Everyone learns a lot from last night.

 

[DEACS76]

Do we take the Victory / Kneel down from the shot gun? In the RPO, the defense sees all of the ball play action. The runner is flat footed at the exchange, whom ever he is. Thanks to Hinton for saving our ass. I think Claw will bust balls this week and we'll have a blowout in Houston.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

I was amazed watching Boise today, they ran plays from under center and in the gun, traditional running plays and RPO type stuff. All with a true freshman QB, hmmmm?