Zac Lee's 16 completions

[Igetbored216]

As someone said, it reminds me of Sam Keller. Touted as a gun slinger, he became unsure of himself and always just dumped it off. Same thing with Lee. He has no confidence in himself and dances around in pocket. A few times it looked like he wanted to throw it down field, but instead held onto the ball and got sacked or dumped it off to a checkdown guy, who usually got blasted.

[Karawithasmile]

we have to throw the ball downfield and throw it to TEs over the middle. swing passes aren't very threatening to a defense.

 

EXACTLY! I mean, isn't our TE position supposed to have playmakers? Yet, we barely throw it that direction. Our wide receivers have blocks of concrete for hands, our running backs are either injured or sub-par...process of elimination says give the tight end a shot. Or four. Or however many it takes to score a touchdown in the first half....

[The Maudfather]

As someone said, it reminds me of Sam Keller. Touted as a gun slinger, he became unsure of himself and always just dumped it off. Same thing with Lee. He has no confidence in himself and dances around in pocket. A few times it looked like he wanted to throw it down field, but instead held onto the ball and got sacked or dumped it off to a checkdown guy, who usually got blasted.

[J_2_THA_BONE]

 

I'm a Zac supporter yet Cody did look more comfortable in the pocket. But we did give up 5 sacks plus the hurries and hits after the ball was released.

 

cody had *zero* fear of airing it out and was slingin' it like farve.

 

kid will be a gamer when he learns some control. should be real interesting this week.

Yeah Cody has a cannon of an arm.

[Igetbored216]

we have to throw the ball downfield and throw it to TEs over the middle. swing passes aren't very threatening to a defense.

 

EXACTLY! I mean, isn't our TE position supposed to have playmakers? Yet, we barely throw it that direction. Our wide receivers have blocks of concrete for hands, our running backs are either injured or sub-par...process of elimination says give the tight end a shot. Or four. Or however many it takes to score a touchdown in the first half....

 

Dear Kara,

 

I understand your concern and trust me, we need to get these things fixed, but let us not forget that we have to "look at what the defense is giving us". We can't just try to take what we want. I mean c'mon, let's be serious here, when in the history of college football has that ever worked, especially at Nebraska? You can't just line up with a power running game and mow over people for a whole decade and actually expect it to work. That's ridiculous.

 

Here's just some examples of my offensive philosophy: it's raining? Who cares? I think we should throw it 500 times just to prove that we're not afraid to throw when it's raining. Our running game is working really well against VT? Screw that! Let's change things up to keep the defense off guard and throw the ball until Zac can't feel his arm anymore. Our receivers can't catch anything? Who cares? Just keep throwing to them and maybe eventually they will catch one. Swing passes/screens to WRs aren't working? Who cares? Just keep throwing them because "that's what the defense is giving us".

 

You're silly Kara. You and your trying to get the ball to our playmakers. That's non-sense. Why don't you go follow teams like Florida, Alabama, Texas, or USC if you want that kind of ideology? See, here at Nebraska, our offensive philosophy is to bang our heads against the wall and maybe eventually the wall will be knocked down and out of our way.

 

The truth is, when I jump ship to be a head coach somewhere, this team is going to be lost without me. They are going to start making plays and actually score points in big games when it counts. The players will not know how to handle that kind of success. Oh, and I will be bringing WR coach Ted Gilmore too. Without him this year, who knows how many catches our WRs would be able to make. And taking the gloves and hand warmers when it's a torrential down pour and in the 50s at the Missouri game, well, that was a stroke of genious.

 

Get the ball to our playmakers. Haha...that's funny (and over rated).

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Shawn Watson

[junior4949]

Seriously, how can you guys blame Gilmore for the WR's dropping passes? I learned how to catch a football from my dad before I even started kindergarten. Even in junior high (7th and 8th grade) football, those that could catch were WR's and those that couldn't played a different position. This is probably one of if not the most basic fundamental of any sport, catching the fricken ball. Unless Gilmore is hypnotizing them convincing them the ball is a hot potato, how can you blame him for them not catching it?

[np_husker]

Of Lee's 16 completions, 2 went for more than 10 yards. One was a 27 yard screen pass to Helu, the other a 26 yard completion to Brooks on a 10 yard curl route... both on Lee's lone scoring drive.

 

Here is how far the ball traveled vertically on his 16 completions (in other words, how far downfield the receiver was when he made the catch)

 

4 yards

10 yards

1 yard

0 yards

-2 yards (RB screen)

11 yards

6 yards

4 yards

5 yards

-2 yards (WR screen)

-3 yards (WR screen)

3 yards

-2 yards (WR screen)

0 yards

3 yards

-1 yard (on 3rd and Goal from the 15)

 

This is astonishing to me. Obviously it's a combination of Watson having lost confidence in Lee to some degree, and Lee just not being able to pull the trigger on anything but short, simple routes like curls and dump-offs to the backs. His average completion is being caught 2.3 yards past the line of scrimmage! We're taking the dink and dunk passing game to a whole new level...

 

When we fall behind in a game it's hard to have hope that we'll be able to launch a comeback and your stats prove that. Yeah, we won at Mizzou, but I'm now thinking it was luck more than anything.

[stargazer]

What I think we're really missing, especially given lackluster o-line play... is the ability to improvise/make something out of nothing. It seems to me that Cody would bring this critical attribute to the game. Granted, he's going to make some mistakes early on... but let's get this process started sooner rather than later.

[redout22]

we have to throw the ball downfield and throw it to TEs over the middle. swing passes aren't very threatening to a defense.

Yeah seriously. Our TE's were supposed to be really good this year and they are hardly getting any action at all. McNeil was huge for us last year and this year and now he is getting the ball hardly at all.

[irafreak]

Keep in mind that Green was throwing and it was obvious that was all we were going to do. See how the kid performs when we aren't one dimensional. I thought he played well in that situation. At least we was trying. Old Zac "throw the ball away on fourth down" Lee just didn't want a poor grade. Watson must dock 1000 points for int's.

[MinnesotaHusker]

The way I saw it, the line wasn't terrible in pass protection. Not great, but most of the tech sacks were the ends coming off the edge, and the tackles did their job. It would take a very athletic tackle to get that wide and stonewall the DE, especially with how wide they lined up, so our tackles just took them around, it's up to the QB to step up into the pocket. Lee just kind of drops back and then stands there, where Green stepped up and had more time.

 

Another thing I like about Green is he doesn't just go down like most

QBs, Lee included. There was one play when a D-lineman was right in front of him, and Green just stepped out of it, instead going to the fetal position and falling down. I don't know if Green is ready to start, but you guys are right, the Keller/Lee comparisons are spot on.

[irafreak]

Yeah that was one of the best parts of his game saturday. He just shrugged off that tackler. I was waiting for the sack and when he got away it dawned on me...oh yeah Green's in there.