Why, what, who and the errors on the Offense

[NamelessHusker]

After getting back from Lincoln, I turned the game on after recording it with TIVO to see why our offense was struggling so bad. No suprise, the same players involved in last weeks destruction of the offense seemed to be the same guys responsible this week. Here is a play by play breakdown of what i saw after watching film and breaking down each play for the FIRST HALF ONLY

 

1st Qtr

1st drive:

1st-10 Brandon Jackson drops an easily catchable ball and had 5 more yards to run. (error on Jackson)

2nd-10 Terrenace Nunn drops another ball (error on Nunn)

3rd-10 Cory Ross finds a hole and gets the first down.

 

1-10 Cory Ross rush-Cory had room to rush on the left side but runs up the middle into the OL (Cory Ross should have seen the large hole-error on Cory)

2-7 Sievers picks up some good yardage on a pass from Zac

3-2 OL breaks down, Ross sacked for a loss. 11 men in the box. The play should have been changed at the LOS but it was to late, we had already used 2 timesouts and the clock was ticking (error on Zac for not changing play)

4th-1 Brandon Jackson runs into the OL trying to get first down and doesn't get any yards. He had room to get the first down if he rushed to either sideline (error on B jackson)

End of drive

 

2nd drive

1-10 Wake Forest blitz- Zac Taylor overthrows (error on Zac)

2-10 Ross rushes, J.B Phillips doesn't cover his man, the WK defender who got by Philips sacks Ross for a loss (J.B Phillip error)

3-11 Nunn had a chance to extend his arms and catch a ball and he doesn't (T Nunn error)

End of drive

 

3rd drive

1-10 Fluellen drops a pass- C thomas doesn't block his guy0 (error on both players)

2-10 Zac Taylor and C thomas again fails to provide proper cover for Zac. Zac sees WF LB and tries to get rid of ball and it's tipped. Luckily it's not picked off (error C. Thomas)

3-10 Pocket collapses from Cornelius Thomas side after 2 seconds- C thomas called for holding (error C thomas)

3-20 Pass from Zac to J.B. Phillips but no catch by Phillips (J.B error).

End of drive

 

 

2ND QUARTER

4th drive

1-10 Cory Ross rushes right up the middle. gains 1 yard. Ross had room to run on both sides (error Ross)

2-9 Cory Ross runs, J.B Phillips in motion and stops and puts hands up like he is going to block on that side (play virtually blown by J.B at the moment before ball is snapp for not disgusing his motion) Ross picks up 3 yards (error on J.B Phillips)

3-6 Greg Austin beings moving and blows the play causing a false start (error Austin)

3-11 offensive line blitzed by Wake from C thomas side and C thomas blows cover for Zac protection and Zac is sacked on the play (error on C thomas)

End of drive

 

5th drive

1-10 OL blocks well, Ross finds a hole and gets first down

1-10 Ross sacked for 2 yard loss after J.B. Phillips allows the guy he was suppose to cover get by and that same guy sacked Cory Ross (error J.B Phillips)

2-11 Terrenace Nunn pickup of 13 yards

1-10 Ross rush middle, 1 yard loss- J.B. Phillip blows the play again with his motion blocking and lets the guy that he was suppose to pickup get through the line and sack ross for a loss. Ross had room to rush to the left as well (error J.B Phillips)

2-9 OL breaks down instantly within a second and Zac throws ball to Ross on a screen pass and picks up a yard

3-8 Grant Mulkey misses a block that could have opened up a hole for Ross to rush, but instead, Ross is dropped for a loss. (Error Mulkey)

End of drive

 

6th/Final drive of 2nd Qtr

1-10 Ross picks up a couple yards through a small hole

2-8 Ross rushes up the middle with no room to run but both sides were empty of WF defenders (error ross)

3-5 Frantz Hardy catches ball and gets first down

1-10 Ross rushes for 3 yards

2-7 Ross rushes to the sideline and picks up 6 yards

3-1 Ross pickup of 1st down but called back b/c of holding on Dane Todd (Todd error)

3-11 Dane Todd misses tackle and guy Dane Todd missed sacked Ross for a loss behind LOS.

End of drive

 

 

This is what i saw and why our offense is struggling. The main problems i still see from week 1 is this

1-J.B. Phillips is STILL not blocking for Cory Ross when we call a run play

 

2-J.B Phillip does a horrible job of blocking when he tries to block

 

3-C Thomas needs to be pulled. His side keeps getting picked on so much and the main reason why our pocket keeps collapsing. If i was a DC for another team, i would blitz that side all game long because it's the easiest side to get to the QB

 

4- Nunn and Jackson and Mulkey need to do a better job of catching the ball. They dropped balls on some crucial areas that could have helped us advance the ball

 

5- Ross needs to learn to run to the outside. This running up the middle when there is no room to run is pathetic. Last year he would run to the sideline and pickup yards. Why he is not doing that is beyond comprehension. Ross needs to learn that his offense line can not move the opponents DL and 1 yard here and 2 yards there isn't going to cut it. The few times he rushed to the sideline, he picked up 13, 6 and 57 yards. He picked up 75-80 yards of his 120 yards rushing the sideline.

 

Feel free to chime in

[Blackshirtsguru]

Guys I don't think Taylor is a bad QB at all. Hell the guy has hardly any time to do any kind of check down to the WR's. The kid stays in there and takes hits! WR's have T-Rex arms. I did like the great catch by Mulkey over the middle. WOW did he ever take a shot. Taylor really zips that ball in there. I feel for the guy when he threads the needle and WR's still drop passes. This HAS to help our future recruiting on potential WR's that want to come and play right away. As far as I am concerned there is no clear front runners for the WR spot in the future. Anyways. A win is a win. AND DAMN DO OUR BLACKSHIRTS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE BACK OR WHAT? I still chuckle at a few of you that chimed in last year blaming our defense on Cosgrove. All he needed was these kids to buy into his system. From what I am seeing THEY ARE SOLD! GBR!!

[kramer]

I noticed Phillips quite a bit yesterday and it wasn't for his pass catching abilitites . One time he went in motion and completely missed the guy. He also had a clip that was so blatant. Is Sievers simply not physical enough to block? Sievers runs a decent pattern.

[IrishAZ]

Thanks for the breakdown ###### - that was pretty cool.

 

To be fair ,though, maybe you could do something similar for the 2nd half? The O firmed up quite a bit after the break and Taylor looked pretty good during that long drive.

 

IRISH!

GRB!

[rocketlb]

Something that I noticed yesterday while I was at the game was that C. Thomas was getting his a$$ handed to him on almost every play. Running plays he was missing blocks. 5 and 7 step drops he couldn't hold his blocks. Luckily in the second half, when our offense started clicking, we started doing more three step drops so that he didn't have to hold his block for that long. I don't know if he's just not fast enough to keep up with their defensive line or what??? But I think that's definitely something that needs to be addressed before Big XII play. Did anybody else notice this??

[Foppa]

Something that I noticed yesterday while I was at the game was that C. Thomas was getting his a$$ handed to him on almost every play. Running plays he was missing blocks. 5 and 7 step drops he couldn't hold his blocks. Luckily in the second half, when our offense started clicking, we started doing more three step drops so that he didn't have to hold his block for that long. I don't know if he's just not fast enough to keep up with their defensive line or what??? But I think that's definitely something that needs to be addressed before Big XII play. Did anybody else notice this??

All night my buddy and I was watching #79 do absolutely NOTHING. I never saw the name (I don't always pick up on the lineman, but this game I wanted to find the problem areas), and didn't know who it was. He ran alongside Ross one play, watching him get his ASS kicked, while blocking NO ONE.

 

I read alot of posts, hearing -'s about Thomas. Sure enough, #79. I've seen enough. BC, if you have COMPLETELY NO ONE that can take over the Left Tackle position, you either better cancel the rest of the season after Pitt, or make funeral arrangements for your QB and RB because this guy does not care, doesn't get it, or is thinking about something else the whole game.

 

Can Patrick move in? Helming slide over? Please do something. I have been freaking about the O-Line, now I see a LARGE part of the problem. Hell, put Ross in at LT and let Lucky run it, because Ross may be undersized, but he has the heart of a lion, and would at least sacrifice himself to make an ATTEMPT to help his team. Thomas will not.

[rawhide]

Good info, Nameless

 

GBR

[rocketlb]

Can Patrick move in? Helming slide over? Please do something. I have been freaking about the O-Line, now I see a LARGE part of the problem. Hell, put Ross in at LT and let Lucky run it, because Ross may be undersized, but he has the heart of a lion, and would at least sacrifice himself to make an ATTEMPT to help his team. Thomas will not.   

 

Exactly what I was saying!

[TheKiD]

Good breakdown Nameless. But yeah, where's the second half? Anyway, I think some of those times when Ross ran up the gut instead of going off to the sideline may be because of the play called. If the play is supposed to be a dive up the gut and you try and roll out to the side and you get sacked behind the LOS, coach is gonna be pissssed off. When you're supposed to be running up the middle on the play, and you're behind both OL and DL (remember how big Ross is?) I'd say it's a bit difficult to tell whether there's room on either side.. probably best to go with the called play. So, I wouldn't say those are really errors on Ross's part... more of the OLs fault for not creating holes like they should.

[NamelessHusker]

Good breakdown Nameless.  But yeah, where's the second half?  Anyway, I think some of those times when Ross ran up the gut instead of going off to the sideline may be because of the play called.  If the play is supposed to be a dive up the gut and you try and roll out to the side and you get sacked behind the LOS, coach is gonna be pissssed off.  When you're supposed to be running up the middle on the play, and you're behind both OL and DL (remember how big Ross is?) I'd say it's a bit difficult to tell whether there's room on either side.. probably best to go with the called play.  So, I wouldn't say those are really errors on Ross's part... more of the OLs fault for not creating holes like they should.

I will break down the second half in a few, but i have to disagree with you on 1 point. The RB is suppose to have good field vision. I am sure a RB is 75% of the time suppose to run it up the middle because the OL is expected to create holes for him, but he should also use logic when he sees the hole is not there. That's something i saw Cory not use in the game (vision that is). If you watch the game again and look at Cory Ross's long run in the second half in particular, you will see he was going to rush it up the middle, but saw the hole close, stopped & changed direction and went to the sideline. The only good rush i saw up the middle by Cory was in the first drive as i mentioned above after we threw 2 passes that were both dropped. After that, Wake Forest never allowed a hole to open up in the middle again, or i should say our OL never managed to open up a hole

[NamelessHusker]

Second half breakdown

 

3rd Qtr

1st drive

1-10 OL doesn't create any holes, Ross rushes for 1 yard

2-9 OL holds and Zac to Muley, but overthrows him (Error Zac)

3-9 Wake Forest doesn't blitz, OL holds, Zac to Frantz for a pickup of 14 yards and 1st down

1-10 Pitch from Zac to ross, Ross begins to rush middle, changes directions nad goes up the sideline for a huge pickup down to the 10 yard line

1-goal Nunn catch for 2 yards

2-goal Ross bounces around through a small hole in the middle for 3 yards

3-goal Frantz loses defender, Zac throws to him for a Touchdown

End of drive

 

2nd drive

1-10 Wake forest sees the play is a run, begin shirting and they overload the left side, Zac pitche to B Jackson who rushes the overload sided and picks up 2 yards

 

2-8 Designed QB draw play. J.B. Phillips in motion and stops on the right side of the line, Zac calls play and fakes a pitch to Jackson and Zac takes the ball to the right side and begins running down right side. J.B Phillips picks up a defender, sees Zac running to sideline, and lets go of his defender, who rushes zac and forces him out. Had Phillips held on to the defender, Zac would have easily picked up the 10 yards, instead play is called for for illegal block in the back on Phillips (Error on J.B Phillips)

 

2-17 Pass incomplete to Nunn. Zac had 2 more WR's open but throws to Nunn who is triple covered up the middle (Zac Error)

 

3-17 WF defender rushes C. Thomas side, Thomas pushes defender back and Zac throws a long pass to Frantz but Frantz is a couple of feet away from it. Hardy tries to make a diving catch and fails (Error Zac)

End of Drive

 

3rd drive

1-10 Zac to hardy but HARDY drops it

2-10 WF DE blitzes C thomas side and overpowers Thomas and pushes Thomas back 5 yards into Zac, rest of OL holds, pass to Nunn tipped by WF defender and Jackson catches the deflection for 5 yards

3-5 Frantz catches slant pass for 14 yards and 1st down

1-10 OL holds, pass to mulkey who makes a rough pass and gets his hard and the 1st down

1-10 Zac to Frantz for 6 yards

2-4 Marlon Picks up 2 yards bouncing around

3-2 Zac to Mulkey for 1st down

1-10 Ross finds a small hole and gets 5 yards

2-5 Ross catches ball and rushes down the sideline for 1st down at 10 yard line

1-GOAL Pitch to Ross who gets 7 yards and is down at the 3 yard line

2-GOAL Zac to Nunn but pass is short and almost picked off by WF safety (Error Zac)

3-GOAL Pocket collapses instantly from C thomas side and Zac throws to Phillips who is double teamed and almost picked off (Error C. Thomas and Zac)

End of drive

 

 

4TH QTR

 

4th drive

1-10 Marlon rushes but no room to go and gets dropped at LOS. C Thomas allows defender to get by and sack Marlon (Error C. Thomas)

2-10 Pass deflected

3-10 Pass deflected again

End of Drive

 

5th drive

1-10 Ross rushes to the sideline for 4 yards

2-6 Zac passes long to Nunn who drops the pass (Error Nunn)

3-6 Pass to Frantz but Pass Interference called

1-10 Pass to Nunn but Pass Interference called again

1-10 at 30 yard line: Pass intercepted (Error on Zac for forcing it)

End of Drive

 

6th drive

1-10 B Jackson for a couple of yards

2-8 WF blitz and Zac flushed out of pocket and throws ball away

3-8 Delay of game

3-14 Zac to Frantz 35 yard pass but Frantz drops an easy one (Error Frantz)

End of Drive

 

The errors were not as significant as they were in the first half. The OL corrected some mistakes, but some mistakes from the SAME players remained.

[Hunter94]

After getting back from Lincoln, I turned the game on after recording it with TIVO to see why our offense was struggling so bad. No suprise, the same players involved in last weeks destruction of the offense seemed to be the same guys responsible this week. Here is a play by play breakdown of what i saw after watching film and breaking down each play for the FIRST HALF ONLY

 

1st Qtr

1st drive:

1st-10 Brandon Jackson drops an easily catchable ball and had 5 more yards to run. (error on Jackson)

2nd-10 Terrenace Nunn drops another ball (error on Nunn)

3rd-10 Cory Ross finds a hole and gets the first down.

 

1-10 Cory Ross rush-Cory had room to rush on the left side but runs up the middle into the OL (Cory Ross should have seen the large hole-error on Cory)

2-7 Sievers picks up some good yardage on a pass from Zac

3-2 OL breaks down, Ross sacked for a loss. 11 men in the box. The play should have been changed at the LOS but it was to late, we had already used 2 timesouts and the clock was ticking (error on Zac for not changing play)

4th-1 Brandon Jackson runs into the OL trying to get first down and doesn't get any yards. He had room to get the first down if he rushed to either sideline (error on B jackson)

End of drive

 

2nd drive

1-10 Wake Forest blitz- Zac Taylor overthrows (error on Zac)

2-10 Ross rushes, J.B Phillips doesn't cover his man, the WK defender who got by Philips sacks Ross for a loss (J.B Phillip error)

3-11 Nunn had a chance to extend his arms and catch a ball and he doesn't (T Nunn error)

End of drive

 

3rd drive

1-10 Fluellen drops a pass- C thomas doesn't block his guy0 (error on both players)

2-10 Zac Taylor and C thomas again fails to provide proper cover for Zac. Zac sees WF LB and tries to get rid of ball and it's tipped. Luckily it's not picked off (error C. Thomas)

3-10 Pocket collapses from Cornelius Thomas side after 2 seconds- C thomas called for holding (error C thomas)

3-20 Pass from Zac to J.B. Phillips but no catch by Phillips (J.B error).

End of drive

 

 

2ND QUARTER

4th drive

1-10 Cory Ross rushes right up the middle. gains 1 yard. Ross had room to run on both sides (error Ross)

2-9 Cory Ross runs, J.B Phillips in motion and stops and puts hands up like he is going to block on that side (play virtually blown by J.B at the moment before ball is snapp for not disgusing his motion) Ross picks up 3 yards (error on J.B Phillips)

3-6 Greg Austin beings moving and blows the play causing a false start (error Austin)

3-11 offensive line blitzed by Wake from C thomas side and C thomas blows cover for Zac protection and Zac is sacked on the play (error on C thomas)

End of drive

 

5th drive

1-10 OL blocks well, Ross finds a hole and gets first down

1-10 Ross sacked for 2 yard loss after J.B. Phillips allows the guy he was suppose to cover get by and that same guy sacked Cory Ross (error J.B Phillips)

2-11 Terrenace Nunn pickup of 13 yards

1-10 Ross rush middle, 1 yard loss- J.B. Phillip blows the play again with his motion blocking and lets the guy that he was suppose to pickup get through the line and sack ross for a loss. Ross had room to rush to the left as well (error J.B Phillips)

2-9 OL breaks down instantly within a second and Zac throws ball to Ross on a screen pass and picks up a yard

3-8 Grant Mulkey misses a block that could have opened up a hole for Ross to rush, but instead, Ross is dropped for a loss. (Error Mulkey)

End of drive

 

6th/Final drive of 2nd Qtr

1-10 Ross picks up a couple yards through a small hole

2-8 Ross rushes up the middle with no room to run but both sides were empty of WF defenders (error ross)

3-5 Frantz Hardy catches ball and gets first down

1-10 Ross rushes for 3 yards

2-7 Ross rushes to the sideline and picks up 6 yards

3-1 Ross pickup of 1st down but called back b/c of holding on Dane Todd (Todd error)

3-11 Dane Todd misses tackle and guy Dane Todd missed sacked Ross for a loss behind LOS.

End of drive

 

 

This is what i saw and why our offense is struggling. The main problems i still see from week 1 is this

1-J.B. Phillips is STILL not blocking for Cory Ross when we call a run play

 

2-J.B Phillip does a horrible job of blocking when he tries to block

 

3-C Thomas needs to be pulled. His side keeps getting picked on so much and the main reason why our pocket keeps collapsing. If i was a DC for another team, i would blitz that side all game long because it's the easiest side to get to the QB

 

4- Nunn and Jackson and Mulkey need to do a better job of catching the ball. They dropped balls on some crucial areas that could have helped us advance the ball

 

5- Ross needs to learn to run to the outside. This running up the middle when there is no room to run is pathetic. Last year he would run to the sideline and pickup yards. Why he is not doing that is beyond comprehension. Ross needs to learn that his offense line can not move the opponents DL and 1 yard here and 2 yards there isn't going to cut it. The few times he rushed to the sideline, he picked up 13, 6 and 57 yards. He picked up 75-80 yards of his 120 yards rushing the sideline.

 

Feel free to chime in

if we are going to run wide, we need to use Lucky more often than Ross, he has better speed........but trap blocking and running inside is prefered, running laterally against most athletic defenses usually doesn't work, although Ross scored from 57 on that type of play if i remember correctly.......

 

hunter

[Hunter94]

Something that I noticed yesterday while I was at the game was that  C. Thomas was getting his a$$ handed to him on almost every play.  Running plays he was missing blocks.  5 and 7 step drops he couldn't hold his blocks.  Luckily in the second half, when our offense started clicking, we started doing more three step drops so that he didn't have to hold his block for that long.  I don't know if he's just not fast enough to keep up with their defensive line or what???  But I think that's definitely something that needs to be addressed before Big XII play.  Did anybody else notice this??

All night my buddy and I was watching #79 do absolutely NOTHING. I never saw the name (I don't always pick up on the lineman, but this game I wanted to find the problem areas), and didn't know who it was. He ran alongside Ross one play, watching him get his ASS kicked, while blocking NO ONE.

 

I read alot of posts, hearing -'s about Thomas. Sure enough, #79. I've seen enough. BC, if you have COMPLETELY NO ONE that can take over the Left Tackle position, you either better cancel the rest of the season after Pitt, or make funeral arrangements for your QB and RB because this guy does not care, doesn't get it, or is thinking about something else the whole game.

 

Can Patrick move in? Helming slide over? Please do something. I have been freaking about the O-Line, now I see a LARGE part of the problem. Hell, put Ross in at LT and let Lucky run it, because Ross may be undersized, but he has the heart of a lion, and would at least sacrifice himself to make an ATTEMPT to help his team. Thomas will not.

yep, he has a prob at that position.........i thought Seppo was going to play the left side, until they changed their minds and put Thomas over there?......that was not a good decision by Norvell.......if he doesn't make a change by next game we are screwed!

 

 

hunter

[NamelessHusker]

I believe the duty is up to Dennis Wagner the OL coach, not Jay Norvell.

[NamelessHusker]

if we are going to run wide, we need to use Lucky more often than Ross, he has better speed........but trap blocking and running inside is prefered, running laterally against most athletic defenses usually doesn't work, although Ross scored from 57 on that type of play if i remember correctly.......

 

Adrian Peterson didn't have problems running to the side all year long last year. In fact, 80% of his yardage last year in my opinion was running down the sideline. You are correct though, Cory's long rush was down the sideline when the hole in the middle closed up