My .02 on Watson

[walksalone]

I haven't said much about this, because I didn't want to infringe on the other threads. But after watching the game last night, and being able to think about this some, I've come to a couple conclusions.

 

There have been moments where I have to ask myself, is it our QB's or the OC? In the beginning, it was easier to pin it on the QB's (Lee playing through injury last year, Martinez being a freshman, Green being completely ineffective at times) than on Watson. But it just seems to me, and i'm sorry for beating a dead horse, that he's got "Callahanacy" which is the inability to change your battle plan mid fight. He kept plowing ahead with his plans, instead of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our offense, and adapting to the situation at hand.

 

So, for the most part, Watson as OC, has been a disappointment. On any other team, with a defense not as prevelant as ours, his deficiencies would be even more glaring. The games we've lost have for the most part, been relatively close. So to somebody who's not as aware as the majority of the board members are, these just look like "hard luck losses".

 

Then there are his moments where he looks like he knows what he's doing. Prime example, last years Holiday Bowl. That game got every one excited, thinking with our defense, this offense is going to put us in the national championship hunt.

[Blackshirts007]

Shouldn't it be 2.0

[omahahusker]

Shouldn't it be 2.0

 

.02 is 2 cents.

 

But you're right walksalone, Watson seems like a broken record at times. Nothing changes in terms of play calling.

[Eric the Red]

I haven't said much about this, because I didn't want to infringe on the other threads. But after watching the game last night, and being able to think about this some, I've come to a couple conclusions.

 

There have been moments where I have to ask myself, is it our QB's or the OC? In the beginning, it was easier to pin it on the QB's (Lee playing through injury last year, Martinez being a freshman, Green being completely ineffective at times) than on Watson. But it just seems to me, and i'm sorry for beating a dead horse, that he's got "Callahanacy" which is the inability to change your battle plan mid fight. He kept plowing ahead with his plans, instead of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our offense, and adapting to the situation at hand.

 

So, for the most part, Watson as OC, has been a disappointment. On any other team, with a defense not as prevelant as ours, his deficiencies would be even more glaring. The games we've lost have for the most part, been relatively close. So to somebody who's not as aware as the majority of the board members are, these just look like "hard luck losses".

 

Then there are his moments where he looks like he knows what he's doing. Prime example, last years Holiday Bowl. That game got every one excited, thinking with our defense, this offense is going to put us in the national championship hunt.

 

 

Here is my thing about this. Watson's supposed inability to change according to the talent he has.

 

Is this Watson or Bo? Bo rotinuly when asked says "we are going to pu whomever in their and they will run the defense or offense." In other words, I don't care who plays, we are running our plays regardless who is in there. We just plug people in there. If you don't know the plays ...you don't play.

 

Does this come down from the top?

[Blackshirts007]

Shouldn't it be 2.0

 

.02 is 2 cents.

 

But you're right walksalone, Watson seems like a broken record at times. Nothing changes in terms of play calling.

 

oh duh, sorry im a little out of it, im the kid that just got blown up by eric martin in the lower left hand part of your screen

[walksalone]

I haven't said much about this, because I didn't want to infringe on the other threads. But after watching the game last night, and being able to think about this some, I've come to a couple conclusions.

 

There have been moments where I have to ask myself, is it our QB's or the OC? In the beginning, it was easier to pin it on the QB's (Lee playing through injury last year, Martinez being a freshman, Green being completely ineffective at times) than on Watson. But it just seems to me, and i'm sorry for beating a dead horse, that he's got "Callahanacy" which is the inability to change your battle plan mid fight. He kept plowing ahead with his plans, instead of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our offense, and adapting to the situation at hand.

 

So, for the most part, Watson as OC, has been a disappointment. On any other team, with a defense not as prevelant as ours, his deficiencies would be even more glaring. The games we've lost have for the most part, been relatively close. So to somebody who's not as aware as the majority of the board members are, these just look like "hard luck losses".

 

Then there are his moments where he looks like he knows what he's doing. Prime example, last years Holiday Bowl. That game got every one excited, thinking with our defense, this offense is going to put us in the national championship hunt.

 

 

Here is my thing about this. Watson's supposed inability to change according to the talent he has.

 

Is this Watson or Bo? Bo rotinuly when asked says "we are going to pu whomever in their and they will run the defense or offense." In other words, I don't care who plays, we are running our plays regardless who is in there. We just plug people in there. If you don't know the plays ...you don't play.

 

Does this come down from the top?

 

You're on point, Bo should have done more, but he's not the offensive minded guy. I kinda got the impression that that is just "coach speak" and that he defers to Watson on things on the offensive side of the ball. Now, am I happy about that, not particularly.

[DaveH]

His gameplanning can be suspect, but the way I think about it is you can't prepare to turn the ball over like NU has this year. That also comes from coaching, though, and being mature enough to not make dumb mistakes.

[walksalone]

Shouldn't it be 2.0

 

.02 is 2 cents.

 

But you're right walksalone, Watson seems like a broken record at times. Nothing changes in terms of play calling.

 

Like I previously stated...

 

1) When something starts working offensively, do the exact opposite (running between the tackles)

 

2) When something isn't working, keep doing it over and over (zone read)

 

Thats what is killing us...

[BigRedfxtoy]

Shouldn't it be 2.0

 

.02 is 2 cents.

 

But you're right walksalone, Watson seems like a broken record at times. Nothing changes in terms of play calling.

 

Like I previously stated...

 

1) When something starts working offensively, do the exact opposite (running between the tackles)

 

2) When something isn't working, keep doing it over and over (zone read)

 

Thats what is killing us...

 

 

 

That pretty much sums it up!

[ZRod]

His gameplanning can be suspect, but the way I think about it is you can't prepare to turn the ball over like NU has this year. That also comes from coaching, though, and being mature enough to not make dumb mistakes.

But you can coach the players on how to carry the ball properly, probably more position coaches though... and when the defense holds the other team to a FG or even scoreless after those turnovers it would behoove us to score some points on offense and give them a break instead of punting.

[shyndy]

I haven't said much about this, because I didn't want to infringe on the other threads. But after watching the game last night, and being able to think about this some, I've come to a couple conclusions.

 

There have been moments where I have to ask myself, is it our QB's or the OC? In the beginning, it was easier to pin it on the QB's (Lee playing through injury last year, Martinez being a freshman, Green being completely ineffective at times) than on Watson. But it just seems to me, and i'm sorry for beating a dead horse, that he's got "Callahanacy" which is the inability to change your battle plan mid fight. He kept plowing ahead with his plans, instead of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our offense, and adapting to the situation at hand.

 

So, for the most part, Watson as OC, has been a disappointment. On any other team, with a defense not as prevelant as ours, his deficiencies would be even more glaring. The games we've lost have for the most part, been relatively close. So to somebody who's not as aware as the majority of the board members are, these just look like "hard luck losses".

 

Then there are his moments where he looks like he knows what he's doing. Prime example, last years Holiday Bowl. That game got every one excited, thinking with our defense, this offense is going to put us in the national championship hunt.

 

I'm talking a little bit out of my ass, but the west coast offense(that we had anyway) is all about exploiting matchups. When we play a team with matchup problems we roll over them (Mizzou was a good example of this, and in colorado you could see that alot of the time when we motioned or shifted CU wasn't getting guys moved over right, we flat out would outnumber them on one side sometimes). If a defense has a systemic problem that is exploitable and they don't adjust or if we can get personnel mismatches we are fine. But the problem is you are fine against those sorts of teams usually no matter what you have for offense. Just seems like we can't catch anything off guard no matter what we do.

[walksalone]

I'm talking a little bit out of my ass, but the west coast offense(that we had anyway) is all about exploiting matchups. When we play a team with matchup problems we roll over them (Mizzou was a good example of this, and in colorado you could see that alot of the time when we motioned or shifted CU wasn't getting guys moved over right, we flat out would outnumber them on one side sometimes). If a defense has a systemic problem that is exploitable and they don't adjust or if we can get personnel mismatches we are fine. But the problem is you are fine against those sorts of teams usually no matter what you have for offense. Just seems like we can't catch anything off guard no matter what we do.

 

Most offenses are about exploiting weaknesses. But there are times, when the ability or opportunity to do so, just won't be there. Thats when you have to outwork your opponent. You just line it up, and pound the rock. No point in being fancy, just outwork, outmuscle and show more heart than your advisary.

[choyeskilm]

I never really had a huge problem with watson until sat. night. But when we were in the 4th quarter, it was 2nd down and like 3 or 4 to go, i think and watson calls the half-back pass to martinez and then throws again on third down. All we needed was a first down, NOT THE HOME RUN. Then all we needed was a few more yards to be within henery range, if we werent already. And then at the end of the game after we call a TIMEOUT, that is the best call that watson has with the game on the line....Seriously!

[hdomn8]

OC's & Playcallers are born, not made. Like Greg Davis at Texas, Watson just doesn't have "it".

[Glendower]

Okay, if we're going to have some out-of-butt talking, I'll jump in The talk about exploiting mismatches has me thinking about what Watson is "saying" with the way he calls games. There has already been a lot of talking about "out-thinking ourselves" but I think that it might be more than that. Finding and exploiting mismatches, in terms of an overall game plan, is what the OC is supposed to do. If he can outsmart a defense, then *he* wins. But if we run up the middle, even when it works, and overpower a defense, then, well, that's the players winning and anyone could have called that. So when we see the wildcat and Rex making 5 - 6 yards per carry (or even 2-3 when he runs right into a handful of defenders) over and over again and then a stupid, stupid pass or we go back to a QB who has been ineffective and try a stupid, stupid pass, that is Watson wanting to be the guy who wins the game by exploiting how awesomely he used the run to set up a pass (which didn't work). Maybe we should use the run to set up another run and another run and then a TD instead of making the run a means to set up some trickeration.

 

What did Watson give as his reason for giving up on the Wildcat, which was working? He didn't want to be one-dimensional? It wasn't that it wasn't working, no, the effectiveness of the run had nothing to do with it, it was that it didn't look very creative. Hell, if you gave the ball to an honest-to-god Neanderthal and said, "Get this to there," and pointed at the endzone, he'd most likely run it up the middle. So that's one-dimensional which is in and of itself "bad."

 

But you know what, Watson? You're one dimensional in another way. Defenses know that if they just give you the time, you'll do something stupid like call a deep pass from a running back to an injured quarter back against a good defense. Or you'll just give up on what's working to seem smart and tricky. They just let you eat your self. They don't NEED to be pulled in by the run because after 5 or more runs for 5 or more yards, you'll do 3 passes and then kick.

 

This kind of takes me back to the idea of Scott Frost (or someone of his ilk) as OC. A good OC would say, "What has been working in this game with the players that we have?" And that would be the Wildcat. I think Burkhead could be a Frost-like QB... maybe some people don't want to go back to the Power I, and that's fine. I don't know enough about formations to know what else to talk about, but move Burkhead to QB, put in an I Back and a FB and just crush it. Have faith in your players to use their strength, talent, and skill to win the game. Rex has thrown, what? 4 times at the college level? 1 for TD and the throw to Martinez was on target, under pressure, it was just into a lot of D--- not a wise move but he probably doesn't spend a lot of time practicing his throws.

 

Long Story Short --> Basically, Watson wants to win the game with a plan, even if that means rejecting something else that actually works if "anyone could have thought of that."