WE STILL CAN'T PASS

Donate To GopherHole
L

littlebigboy

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
902
Reaction score
0
Points
16
We won and looked better than last week and that was impt. But, we have to get muc better at passing the ball or we will not move up in the BT. I watched more football than I should have and wore out my clicker finger, but with the exception of Mich St. most teams throw ALOT better than we.do. Hope I'm proven wrong.
 

We also still can't be happy after a win. How soon we forget losing to this team at home.
 

People weren't complaining about our passing game two years ago when we lost to NMSU at home. A solid running game, a good defense, and spectacular special teams will keep us in every game. Sure, our passing game has room for improvement but I would rather have that as our weakness at this point than some of the other areas.
 


8/15 is .53 percent. But while you decry the passing. The team rushed 43 times for 342 yards. Had two players go over a hundred yards. R. Williams was the man. 16 rushes for 148. He broke the game open. If you can hit 8-10 passes and run it 43-55 times, play good defense you will win. See Stanford.
 


littlebigboy said:
We won and looked better than last week and that was impt. But, we have to get muc better at passing the ball or we will not move up in the BT. I watched more football than I should have and wore out my clicker finger, but with the exception of Mich St. most teams throw ALOT better than we.do. Hope I'm proven wrong.
Click to expand...


True.

Passing game needs a lot of improvement. Some won't want to hear it though.
 

I know this sounds crazy, but Phil will become a better passer if you let him throw the &@#@# thing.
 


husker70 said:
8/15 is .53 percent. But while you decry the passing. The team rushed 43 times for 342 yards. Had two players go over a hundred yards. R. Williams was the man. 16 rushes for 148. He broke the game open. If you can hit 8-10 passes and run it 43-55 times, play good defense you will win. See Stanford.
Click to expand...

I distinctly remember drops by D. Jones and Logan Hutton. If those are caught the completion percentage rises to 66.7 percent. WR's are by far the biggest problem on this team right now. I thought Nelson played well tonight, running and throwing the ball.
 



Over 50 % with at least three drops. Donovahn will help once he gets it figured out, and I still think Harbison is going to be an asset if we can ever get him on the field consistently.

Patience. Let's wait and see what our passing offense (and passing defense, by the way) looks like when we actually have to full-on play either one.
 


Studwell55 said:
I know this sounds crazy, but Phil will become a better passer if you let him throw the &@#@# thing.
Click to expand...


Throwing the ball more is not going to solve our problems. It's not going to make our WR's better. What is going to make Phil a better passer is if we RUN the ball. If a team is in full coverage on our WRs, Phil is going to really struggle. We need to avoid all third and longs.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Throwing the ball more is not going to solve our problems. It's not going to make our WR's better. What is going to make Phil a better passer is if we RUN the ball. If a team is in full coverage on our WRs, Phil is going to really struggle. We need to avoid all third and longs.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the brilliant lyrics of Spinal Tap: "The more things stay the same, the less they change."
 




look. let's be honest. i'd say our model needs to be exactly what the skunks do. use and abuse the other team on the ground and kill them with the play action pass. our biggest problem is that we seem to never go with the PA pass on early downs when we establish success on the ground, so obviously when you're only throwing on 2nd and 3rd and long, completions are harder to come by. look at the PA pass to Williams down the seam. he was wide open as the LBs had to stay up to contest the run and that's easy pitch and catch for chunk yardage. our passing game doesn't have to be whip it around, NW style flashy, it just has to be effective. The ground game being established will do that. It enables Limegrover to mix it up and throw in the PA on early downs. I mean for chirst's sake, Stave was 24-29 today and i'd take Nelson any day over him.
 

my take on this is different. i think it has less to do with receivers (yes, I know, we're still looking for receivers to step up, blah, blah) and more to do with the fact that the coaching staff is not ready to let Nelson make the correct decisions down field at this point in time in order to establish a dynamic mid-range passing game. they never, ever ask him to make challenging throws or check down. gophers strategy is clear: no mistakes, no penalties, no turnovers, win field position, run the ball, take no risks, throw short or heave a long one that can't be intercepted and hope for a win. unfortunately, that's not going to cut it this year. our defense is not as good as last year and our o-line may be in trouble against Big Ten teams. as of now, it doesn't seem like this team will make it to a bowl game. I actually think their running game is better than last year and I think they're a more disciplined team and well coached. but the pass defense is pourous, the run defense is just okay and we have no passing attack. this could be a disappointing season i'm afraid unless rapid improvements are made. of course, as your thread implies, this is based only on a two game observation and analysis.
 




Amazing the stats various QBs around the nation and in the B1G are running up - 70, 80, 90% completion rates and some higher than that. We'll have to do better than .500.
 

I'm not sure if it's Nelson's passing, the receiver's inability to run routes and catch, or really bad play calling and coaching. Probaby all three. I do know, however that we've beaten 2 pretty bad teams solidly without a lick of a passing game and ths won't get us past the next 3 games undefeated. Any bowl chance requires this.

The season's young, we shall see.
 


So what will we look like when the teams with good a D play 8 in the box and press our receivers?
 

I don't know what people really expected. We couldn't pass last year either, especially after Barker left (hate on his schizophrenic ass all you want, but he could catch the ball).

Receivers are a problem, but Nelson is also very inaccurate, even on simple throws. I've never seen a QB more uncomfortable sitting still, which is good I suppose since we roll the QB so much.
 

For all those complaining about the play calling, my suspicion is that the coaches decided that they didn't have to pass to win this game. Why take the chance on more dangerous throws when you are running it down their throat? It also serves to give the team reps to establish the run, which is the primary goal of our offense. Another benefit is that you don't put as much of your offense on film so future opponents can prepare.

You can make an argument that you want passing game reps against weaker competition to work out kinks in that part of the playbook. There is also room for improvement, both in WR drops and in QB accuracy. But we won't really know until later in the season whether what we've seen is representative or not. The basic point is that we shouldn't be making broad conclusions until a bit later in the season. I don't think we've seen everything in the offensive arsenal yet.
 

Well if you are ever going to unleash a passing attack to see what you can do, next week is that game. You shouldn't need much to win, so it is time to throw downfield and see what you can do. If we come out next week and run run run and more run, then I'd agree were in trouble. Mostly what you need to do is show some play action so that conference teams need to prepare for it instead of just bunching up against the run...
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Throwing the ball more is not going to solve our problems. It's not going to make our WR's better. What is going to make Phil a better passer is if we RUN the ball. If a team is in full coverage on our WRs, Phil is going to really struggle. We need to avoid all third and longs.
Click to expand...

Throwing the ball can make your WRs better. The problem is the ball needs to be thrown to our TEs to make that happen. We have three very good, reliable options at TE but they are not being utilized effectively in the passing game. With a young QB like Nelson, you need to take advantage of that aspect. Not only will an effective passing game incorporating the TEs help with the running game but it will open up the passing game for the WRs and give Nelson more comfort and confidence.
 

I would like to see the offense be a balance of run, short passing like Northwestern kills us with and then stretch the field every once in a while. Just a balance. I'm not sure our offensive line is good enough to move the ball against BT teams. So far they haven't totally dominated the lower level teams. I haven't seen the second half of the Gopher game yet and from the outcome I figure the Gophers (bigger and stronger) must have worn out NM just like Texas did. Then dominate because of that in the second half. Again not sure they can do that against BT teams. It might be up to a hopefully more creative offense to help them out. Like we talked about before ... I hope they are only showing what they need to show in order to win. Come conference time I hope they open it up.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
So what will we look like when the teams with good a D play 8 in the box and press our receivers?
Click to expand...

You know, Bayfield: that is a great question and we will just have to probably have to wait until we run into Conference play to see that. We know MSU will do that. Most likely Nebraska and Michigan and PSU will do that as well. Never know with Northwestern, but I would guess they will too. iowa just might try it...and undoubtedly, wisky will too.

I don't know if Indiana can pull it off.

The thing is, perhaps IF some of the lesser of those teams dedicate that many of their resources to 8 men in the box...jam the receivers, there just might be a few things that the Gophers can try. Especially IF Williams can make just a little bit of room for himself and the defenses exhaust too much energy and people jamming the receivers and hitting the dive man and taking away the pitch guy from our qb read offense. Maybe a Max Williams can hurt 'em just a tad and maybe the qb can pick up four or five yards on first or second down once in a while.

We know that Michigan and PSU and wisky and maybe Nebraska and Northwestern will be solid enough defensively think they can expect to contain the "reads" our qb will have for the dive...pitch...keep portion of the offense...but will they cover Williams and the rest of the receivers off the line all the time? Some teams will be more than ready to defend anything and everything we can throw at them...but...some of them may not do it quite as well as some of the better teams in the conference.

I am looking for 6 wins Bayfield...hoping for 7 if we can get 3 Conference wins. It may be a long shot...but...I think there is a bit more to see from our Gopher's offense before it is all said and done. At least, that is what I am hoping for.

The Williams combination may be a part of the answer Bayfield. They remind me of old-time smash-mouth football players! And...the offensive line development is KEY...

Time will tell...

; 0 )
 

imthewalrus said:
You know, Bayfield: that is a great question and we will just have to probably have to wait until we run into Conference play to see that. We know MSU will do that. Most likely Nebraska and Michigan and PSU will do that as well. Never know with Northwestern, but I would guess they will too. iowa just might try it...and undoubtedly, wisky will too.

I don't know if Indiana can pull it off.

The thing is, perhaps IF some of the lesser of those teams dedicate that many of their resources to 8 men in the box...jam the receivers, there just might be a few things that the Gophers can try. Especially IF Williams can make just a little bit of room for himself and the defenses exhaust too much energy and people jamming the receivers and hitting the dive man and taking away the pitch guy from our qb read offense. Maybe a Max Williams can hurt 'em just a tad and maybe the qb can pick up four or five yards on first or second down once in a while.

We know that Michigan and PSU and wisky and maybe Nebraska and Northwestern will be solid enough defensively think they can expect to contain the "reads" our qb will have for the dive...pitch...keep portion of the offense...but will they cover Williams and the rest of the receivers off the line all the time? Some teams will be more than ready to defend anything and everything we can throw at them...but...some of them may not do it quite as well as some of the better teams in the conference.

I am looking for 6 wins Bayfield...hoping for 7 if we can get 3 Conference wins. It may be a long shot...but...I think there is a bit more to see from our Gopher's offense before it is all said and done. At least, that is what I am hoping for.

The Williams combination may be a part of the answer Bayfield. They remind me of old-time smash-mouth football players! And...the offensive line development is KEY...

Time will tell...

; 0 )
Click to expand...

Nebraska solid defensively?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom