beck is getting too much heat

[Chaddyboxer]

When Wiscy defense is showing blitz from all 3 linebackers and then pulls them all out to play zone coverage...that is suicide on a qb who is throwing the ball. 7 defenders are out there playing the pass...Beck definitely did not take what the defense was showing and attack...Beck will learn from this. I think his stubbornness got in the way.

[Chaddyboxer]

Look at it this way, if Wilson would have transferred to Nebraska would our offense still be based around the QB running game. NO!! If Andrew Luck transferred to Nebraska for his Senior season, would Beck be running the zone read? NO!!

 

Point is, the OC should/will adjust to the players around them to some extent. Beck did not do that Saturday night.

I have faith he will call much better games down the road...

[irafreak]

Exactly! He is the main reason for the meltdown. I can handle getting beat....I can handle getting beat soundly...I can't handle not giving our guys a chance to succeed. Why are people so fascinated with throwing the football? Turn it around. If we had say Kellen Moore and Justin Blackmon with the rest of our recievers and a lousy set of running backs that fumbled all the time and suddenly we RUN 16 of 17 plays would that be a problem?

 

Some of our best play makers are at the receiver position. I've been hearing complaints the whole season about Turner and Reed not getting the ball enough. Quincy Enunwa and Kenny Bell are also good players. And now when we try to get them the ball its "were a run first team and should not be passing that much" Can't have it both ways people, make up your minds. What do you want? To get playmakers the ball or hand off to Burkhead or run a crap option to the weak side every play?

You can easily get playmakers the ball without throwing into coverage or asking your rattled qb to sit in a pocket with no playaction to slow down the rush. Try a screen, a shovel pass, a reverse for turner and the backs. Try jailbreak screens and bubble screens and quick slants for the recievers. Option pass the deep ball to reed. Good gawd you act like the only way a reciever can touch the ball is if it's been thrown to him 15 yards downfield. My criticism of beck is for those 15 or 16 of 17 pass plays. That's not balance and we didn't need to panic. So yes we can have it both ways. Run the ball and sprinkle in passing plays down the field and into the flats....

 

Or you could dump it off to your WIDE FRICKEN OPEN running back.

yes but that requires taylor to checkdown...

[zoogs]

There are ways to get Turner and Reed the ball without scrapping the run game completely like Beck did on Saturday. Turner is an athlete that doesn’t just need the ball thrown to him to make plays. Reed is a stud when we run play action not when we go 4 wide and he is trying to beat a DB one on one.

It's called a screen pass, and apparently, Beck thinks it's a unicorn. Callahan was a terrible head coach, but the guys knew when to call trick plays, and how to use a screen.

 

I don't know about this. Last year all anyone wanted was Taylor on roll-outs and screens, but I keep hearing people more knowledgeable than me talk about how Taylor is(was?) just not that strong in those areas. This year we've seen a lot of roll-outs and, well, they really haven't been that pretty.

 

Maybe we'll see some screens but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't have that really installed in this offense. Keep in mind Callahan was basically a wizard with installing and using screen plays, and also that our offense has enough on its plate already, in terms of the different things we are putting in and trying to do. They can't get every play in any playbook imaginable. Didn't we want the playbook paired down and the offense to be kept simple? Well, there are some sacrifices to be made there.

[beanman]

Beck playcalling may be questionable. but when you see Taylor look down the field for an open receiver and not find anyone, but you can plainly see an open Burkhead in the flat not get one look at least a dozen times. Its a matter of execution and its on Taylor.

Taylor's skillset is what it is, and its Becks job to adjust.

 

Wrong! Its vice versa. Beck's offensive scheme is what is and its Taylor's job to adjust to the scheme. Otherwise an OC would come up with a new offensive scheme for every QB that comes into the program to tailor it to that QB. If the QB can't adjust to what the OC wants, the OC goes to the next guy. Thats why an OC recruits wants he wants out his QB, to minimize the amount of adjustments a QB has to make to get used to his scheme.

 

The fact is, you don't change the offense to cater to 1 QB's skillset, you make him adjust to it, or move to the next guy. That was one of Shawn Watson's mistakes.

 

I disagree, adjusting to the strengths of your QB doesnt require trashing the playbook. An OC that doesnt adjust to their players is one that fails. They all do it, that much seems obvious. Watsons problem was he didnt fit into what Bo wanted to do, Watson was a fine playcaller, he proved that in Bos first year. AGAIN, THEY ALL ADJUST!!

 

There was a QB on the team that could manage the game very well. The offense controlled the entire pace of the game for a year. They kept a poor Husker defense off of the field. Few mistakes, fumbles, picks. A QB that threw the ball 30 times a game and completed 68% of his passes. He carried a passer rating of 153 which would put him in the top 25 QB's in the country today. You were trying compare it to what?

 

So if an offense/defense/team is bad, it is because the coach isn't adjusting to his players? That sounds easy. Why hasn't anyone else figured this out yet?

 

I can't wait until the coaches make adjustments to maximize Sean Fisher. The rumor is the adjustment will be to lay him on the ground near the line a scrimmage where they think the ball is going. This should adjust to his strength of not being able to be in position for a tackle.

 

Thanks a lot. I just spit my food on my keyboard because that was so funny.

[Enhance]

Beck playcalling may be questionable. but when you see Taylor look down the field for an open receiver and not find anyone, but you can plainly see an open Burkhead in the flat not get one look at least a dozen times. Its a matter of execution and its on Taylor.

Taylor's skillset is what it is, and its Becks job to adjust.

 

Wrong! Its vice versa. Beck's offensive scheme is what is and its Taylor's job to adjust to the scheme. Otherwise an OC would come up with a new offensive scheme for every QB that comes into the program to tailor it to that QB. If the QB can't adjust to what the OC wants, the OC goes to the next guy. Thats why an OC recruits wants he wants out his QB, to minimize the amount of adjustments a QB has to make to get used to his scheme.

 

The fact is, you don't change the offense to cater to 1 QB's skillset, you make him adjust to it, or move to the next guy. That was one of Shawn Watson's mistakes.

Sorry, but you are incorrect. In fact, you should never adjust a player to the scheme unless it is completely unavoidable. Furthermore, one of Shawn Watson's mistakes is actually the exact opposite of what you are saying. Therefore, I'm unsure how you came to this conclusion because it doesn't make any sense.

 

Watson CONTINUALLY did things the way he wanted them done, regardless of how the game was going or what the execution level was like. If Martinez wasn't passing well - oh well, let's keep passing. Receivers dropping balls - oh well, keep throwing. Martinez getting happy feet and throwing poor passes - keep him at it. This is a terrible train of thought.

 

Any tenured (or noob) offensive coordinator will adjust their scheme every single year based on the players they have. An offensive coordinator will NEVER keep their scheme the same every year, and the fact that you think so is somewhat strange, because I have never heard an OC say "hey, I'm going to make these players do what I want them to do regardless of their skill sets."

 

You wouldn't ask Martinez to throw 40 times, and you wouldn't ask Zac Lee to run 40 times a game. You always adjust the scheme, not the player.

[kchusker_chris]

All Martinez needed to do was look at Rex. A couple of those interceptions wouldn't have happened, a few more yards would have been gained, we wouldn't have been having this convo. There were 3 or 4 times Rex was hanging out by himself for the easy dump. There was Ben Cotton at the beginning of the game on the slant. The options were there for Martinez. He didn't execute because he was too busy looking 30 yards down field.

 

Line was decent. Play-calling was questionable - but mainly because of the end result. Simply check down and we wouldn't be questioning it.

 

I do like that pass to the outside on the option. It got Rex to the edge REALLY quick. Nice wrinkle.

[junior4949]

I'm afraid we'd still have the conversation. Let's assume we punt on those possessions rather than the INT's. Our D still wouldn't have been able to stop Wisconsin, and the score would have looked just as bad. Then, everyone would be ripping Beck for not trying the long ball to get the first down. That being said, yeah Beck called a horrible game. It was almost Callahanlike via 2004 Texas Tech.

[deedsker]

At what point do you realize we can't execute certain plays or they have a large source of error?

[gobiggergoredder]

When does a pass play not work? I'm just looking for some opinions.

 

Does it not work when no one is open? Does it not work when there is no pass protection? Does it not work because the QB can't throw the ball to receiver that is open? Does it not work because the QB can't follow a progression? Do you not call a play when people are consistently open?

[deedsker]

At what point do you realize the short comings of your personnel and try to keep them out of bad situations? This is the Watson problem. Is Beck going to follow suit?

[zoogs]

Flip side: at what point do we start thinking that the shortcomings of the personnel are limiting us far too much in games? When you can't call passes on 2nd and 16, 3rd and 16, and then in two straight two minute drills (starting at 1:59 left in the half, and then 0:32), you better hope we have a terrific defense, which we didn't.

[Hercules]

Flip side: at what point do we start thinking that the shortcomings of the personnel are limiting us far too much in games? When you can't call passes on 2nd and 16, 3rd and 16, and then in two straight two minute drills (starting at 1:59 left in the half, and then 0:32), you better hope we have a terrific defense, which we didn't.

 

Few teams have the personnel to mange 2nd and 16 or 3rd and 16. Rather than see us change our personnel to prepare ourselves for 3rd and 16 situations, how about we just not get into 3rd and 16 situations?

[zoogs]

It's a good idea, but few teams have the personnel such that they can't even try to pass on 3rd and long. How about 3rd and 10? 8? 6, the down and distance of Taylor's second interception in the midst of the pass-happy drive people are most critical of, one that began successfully?

 

I think there is a middle ground here. What I'm saying is that Beck could use Taylor better, but we should also recognize that Taylor, for all his strengths, does limit us in what we are able to do on offense, and does limit the extent to which we can make use of our playmakers.

[Hercules]

It's a good idea, but few teams have the personnel such that they can't even try to pass on 3rd and long. How about 3rd and 10? 8? 6, the down and distance of Taylor's second interception in the midst of the pass-happy drive people are most critical of, one that began successfully?

 

I think there is a middle ground here. What I'm saying is that Beck could use Taylor better, but we should also recognize that Taylor, for all his strengths, does limit us in what we are able to do on offense, and does limit the extent to which we can make use of our playmakers.

 

Nobody's critical of Beck for passing the ball in certain situations. But when he called pass plays on 14/15 consecutive plays, not all of those were necessary. What if he had called pass plays on 10/15 consecutive plays? Maybe that keeps the defense a little more honest and off-balance, maybe it keeps Taylor from trying to be superman.

 

People are critical of Beck because we all know we don't have the personnel to drop back on every stinkin' down to throw the ball. Not only that, but we didn't need to - there was plenty of time on the clock and we were already on Wisconsin's side of the field. People aren't even critical of his decision to pass - they're critical of his decision to not run. We could have run the ball (the strength of our offense), which would have left less time for Wisconsin had we scored, would have been less risky, and it would have kept the defense more honest had we gone back to the air.

 

But the way Beck called the second quarter, Wisconsin didn't have to worry about defending the run. It's funny how people on this board are so adamant that our offense not be too one-dimensional, but apparently those people really only care about that if that one dimension is the running game.