Schnoodler said it best below

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Doc1001

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If we dont get our passing attack together just watch - the big ten will stop our running game cold in its tracks. The offensive line looked great in running but in the first half they gave Weber little or now time just as last year. Our passing game worries me most---other than our placekicker. Sure we want to pound the rock but vs good teams and in important situations it will be stopped cold unless we can have some sort of passing game. Vs South Dakota i want to see that we have receivers that can get open and catch the ball and a quarterback that has some time to throw. Then watch our running game kick but against anyone. That will be fun to watch.
 

Well said. If we start to run on a B10 team, they will stack the line of scrimmage and force us to throw. If our line has trouble blocking the pass rush, expect Weber to get happy feet and either throw an incomplete pass or get sacked. I am hoping that these early games give our players the reps they need to solidify their pass blocking.
 

Who knows how the running game will stack up until they play a defense with a pulse (i.e. USC). MTSU is a high school team defensively compared to most of the B10.
 

As much as Weber needs to improve, the wr's need to improve even more. Right now they are pretty terrible at running pass routes-(going back to last year). We have some talent there, but the offensive group needs to all gel together. It can happen (MSU game) we've seen it before.
 

I think we will see some tricks come out of the bag against USC similar to what we saw LY vs Cal. Should be a pretty vanilla attack against USD similar to last week, but against USC we all know we won't be able to line up and run the same 4 plays over and over.
 


I hope we add some 5-8 yard passes to the TEs. I don't expect Weber to have much time, even as the OL starts to improve in passing situations. Weber has to be able to get rid of the ball pretty quickly. My worry is that short passes looked like Weber's weakest option. I'd also like to see some direct snaps to Marqueis. I think that we will see against USC that we need our best athletes on the field to have any chance. Their DL will be too fast for our OL and Weber is not going to beat anyone with his feet. We will need to find a way to use that speed against them, but that takes us back to short passes to TEs and WRs or screens and shuttles. Hope we can find a viable Plan B, because I'm pretty sure we will need one.
 

Art Vandelay said:
Who knows how the running game will stack up until they play a defense with a pulse (i.e. USC). MTSU is a high school team defensively compared to most of the B10.
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I'm not convinced yet that USC's defense has a pulse. Nearly 600 yards allowed to Hawaii this week isn't much of one anyways. Sure Hawaii always has that run n' shoot, wide open passing offense rolling (even after June Jones went to SMU), but the USC defense oughta have enough talent and pride to hold anybody in the country under 500 yards of total offense.

But you're right, they will be better than MTSU at any rate.
 

I'm kind of confused by some on this board that want to see a lot of variety after the big push for this year's offense is less variety and more doing the same plays over and over again. We saw variety last year, and it wasn't something we like very much. Why are we after one game of an offensive butt kicking are we asking for some tricky stuff again. Or am I just misunderstanding the requests?
 

It was the opening game. Coach Horton has said we will be a power rushing team, we will pound the rock, and break their will. Game one is in the books as a win. In the opener the offense faced slants, loops, run blitz, and 9 in the box and ran the ball. Now it was MTSU, not MSU but we threw the ball 17 times competing 10. At least 3 of those attempts were poorly designed. One was thrown into double coverage. Of the 7 misses no interceptions, two flags for interfence.

The key for Coach Horton is to have the next moves in place and practiced before he needs them. One run counter, one pass counter. This week he probably has it ready, but doesn't need it, and won't use it. He will practice it again till its perfect though.

The game will come when the best running play off right tackle is stopped. Coach Horton should know or see how it was stopped. Was it a slant, a run blitz, 8-9 in the box? Was it poor execution? A missed block? At that point I think he will run it again, to make sure how it is stopped. Depending on score, field positon, time left in the game, down, and distance he will move his next piece on to the board. Now if he plays that piece and it works does it neutralize the stop of the base play? He will go back to the base play again to make sure, one way or another.

Does this mean we will ever throw it 30 times this year? I hope not. The passing needs to compliment the running game. If linebackers are shooting gaps to stop the run, the 15 yard dig route, a TE drag to sprint out, or a slant are all high percentage throws. If the corners play off in man coverage to faciliate 8 in the box, the quick 7 yard out. Again base throws. All designed to slow the support against the run.

By a complimentary passing game, the offense dictates to the defense what they can do. Not the reverse.
 



MTSU with Kilgore at QB can beat several BT teams.
 

What Husker said.
 

diehard said:
MTSU with Kilgore at QB can beat several BT teams.
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MTSU just doesn't have the line size to stand up to B10 competition, the teams are simply too big on the lines for MTSU to beat them on a consistent basis. Obviously there is always the upset chance, but I think that each B10 team would beat MTSU at least 8/10 times.
 

We said we'd pound the rock and we did. Weber had five inaccurate throws of out 17, most of which came in the first 1/4. Big pass plays were made down the stretch when they counted. Our defense never broke a sweat in the 2nd half. 1-0. There's a reason why you tune up against the MTSU's and USD's of the world before you play a USC on National TV.
 



husker70 said:
Now it was MTSU, not MSU but we threw the ball 17 times competing 10. At least 3 of those attempts were poorly designed. One was thrown into double coverage. Of the 7 misses no interceptions, two flags for interfence.
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Pass interference calls don't go down as incompletions. Even still, 10/17 isn't bad.
 

No, but 13/20 with an additional 45 yards would have made Weber's stats look pretty strong.
 


10 of 17 is still 58.9%, right? 10 for 13 after the first two series, correct? Still 76.9%, right? Three outstanding passes to Hoese, Gray, and McKnight, right?

Most QB's don't even get warmed up until 17 passes. Come on, guys...let's see this pan out a little...
 

It's easy to pound the rock against the MTSU and South Dakota's of the world. We are going to have a hard time doing that against Big Ten teams. Having a passsing is a must when we get to the Big Ten. Yes running is our identity this year but you need to be able to pass on a consistent bases. It's really time for our whole offense to step it up.

In the Big Ten I look at the split being about running 60 percent of the time and passing about 40 percent. I just think the defenses in conference are going to be to tough for us to run about 70 percent of the time or more.
 

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