Playing not to lose ( long).
After an offseason of hearing how we had a QB with a huge arm our receivers were upgraded to the best we’ve had in years we decided to play the offense conservatively and take all these weapons off the table. 95% of the time we only forced Miami to defend 5 yards off the the line of scrimmage and rarely stretched the field. If you have these offensive weapons use them. If you lose using your best weapons so be it. But if you are scared that using your dynamic qb and receivers will cause you more harm than good maybe you aren’t coaching right. I would have opened the game with a play action fake to love and a post pattern to Greathouse. Doesn’t work then second down a long pass to someone else. THAT is how you get confidence in a QB - tell him you believe in him and just as importantly tell your opponents you believe we can beat you in the air. Also gets excitement in your receivers. And opens up the field for your running backs because this defense of seven transfers is now confused and trying to figure out is it a run or play action going deep. That has the Miami D thinking the whole game. When you throw dink passes you are telling both your QB and your opponent we can’t pass and they defend accordingly bottling up your short play offense.
On D we have been told all offseason our DBs esp CBs are amongst the best in the country. Yet we played this soft zone most of the night and let Beck eat us up with easy passes to wide open receivers - I think at one point he had like 15 in a row. Why not go to a tight man defense and bring as many as it takes to pressure him and put him down - he will have little time to make a throw to a receiver who has a man right on him. Force the play instead of sitting back and letting them do whatever works. If he beats you when you are playing your strength kudos to him. The only time we really stopped them was when they had a lead and played conservatively.
Bottom line - if you are going to lose then lose playing with your best weapons on offense and defense. To not use those weapons because you are afraid you might lose usually ends up with you losing anyway.
Replies to: Playing not to lose ( long).
How is our QB going to throw downfield passes when has roughly
1.5 seconds in the pocket before he’s running for his life?
You do realize for a downfield pass to work the WR needs time to get separation from his defender & get open right? And since our WR still, STILL struggle with getting separation, it takes even longer than usual.
OL issues have to been fixed (for a variety of reasons) before we can expect to see Greathouse, Pauling, etc catching long passes from Carr.
In 59 minutes Carr was sacked once. Twice in the hurried final minute.
Sitting high in the end zone there were dozens of times one our speedy receivers were in single coverage and we could have taken a shot downfield. The two times we threw past 20 yards were both complete once in a single coverage great catch once because the DBs blew the coverage and left #9 wide open. Two plays - about 80 yards total between them seems like a pretty good return on investment. While Carr was certainly hurried at times there were plenty of times he could have thrown a deep ball. You do realize if we don’t throw deep to the WRs no decent QBs or WRs will want to come to South Bend.
Absolutely agree. The OC plan showed ZERO confidence in the QB and the DC plan lacked confidence
as well. It was vastly different than last year. Where we said, we're gonna man up. See if you can beat us.
It's odd that the school that popularized the use of the forward pass, is afraid to use the forward pass. Beyond frustrating and confusing.
Show confidence and throw the ball. At this point, who cares about completions or interceptions. Just prove you know how to throw the ball 30+ yards downfield. In 2025, you don't scare a defense with a run game and bubble screens.
Agree generally especially the tight man to man with a blitz to make the QB throw quickly before
receiver can beat anyone.
Especially against a QB who is notoriously bad under pressure.
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It was a very conservative and often confusing gameplan. Biggest concern, IMHO, lack of fire.
Was very Willingham-esque. I'm hoping that's a one-game issue that was driven by the heat and humidity.
New players and coaches in the mix, so maybe they are getting their sea legs, but we need a couple of guys to step up and lead, and we need better play calling on offense and defense.
Yes. No one on the team had fire other than Faison on the first drive or two.
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Lack of fire. I've heard more than one ND beat writer who was there say the same.
In fact, during warm ups and when the team enetered the field for the NIU game, I sensed the exact same thing. You could feel it and see it, Is that how they practiced leading up to the Miami game? Did the staff feel a lack of fire too? We can point to Don Schuler's non play and say what the heck was that, but, truth is, that was just one play in many. They inexplicitly couldn't cover a WR who actually should still be in HS. OL getting embarassingly twisted and turned around trying to block. Anyway, there's a lot to this lack of fire observation.
Watching the D - it’s night and day last year to this year
Guys last year were flying all over. Not the case this year,with the possible exception of KVA.
I hope this is an anomaly, but this reminded me of the NIU game.
Appeared to me they just didnt trust their decision to go with a frosh QB. So they tried to keep it
keep it close. A.K.A. Kelly 101. Same old script. But this time they even neutered the defense. Ran a Dick Jauron style defense. Don't give up the big play, slow the game down.
Interesting. Maybe you are right about Carr. If so, then MF is team Carr and Denbrock ain’t
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Denbrock would almost have to be team Carr now you'd think. He looked great.
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Agreed. Freeman mouthing "told you" after a TD indicates there was serious debate about who to start
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Whatever you do don't Tressel it up, and give your advantage away. It's difficult to find worse
Offenses in college football. We hear about all this talent, and then we turn those thoroughbred into plow horses, or worse yet bystanders.
Couldn't agree with you more. If you have talent use it. Dictate the game to them.
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