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Every Swing/Screen Pass of the 2019 Season


knapplc

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I know what you're thinking - it's the offseason, we haven't had a Husker Football game to watch in two months, you're jonesing, and you want to slam your hand in the car door ONE MORE TIME.

 

Well, I'm there for you my self-hating Husker friend!  :thumbs

 

Here they are, every glorious pass thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage in 2019. Presented by RambleOn51 / Nebraska Cornhuskers Athletics from the Reddit / YouTube.

 

 

 

Another friendly Redditor, NukeChem, broke down the yards gained from each of these plays.

 

Here's the LINK to NukeChem's spreadsheet.

 

Here it is, a bit easier to read:

 

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It's really not a sexy play, and rarely worked for big gains (we got 10+ yards on 18 of 90 attempts). But the play isn't designed to pop for big yardage, it's designed to set up other plays. It forces a defense to cover the field sideline-to-sideline, and if they don't, and if our perimeter blocking is good, and if our QB gets the ball out there in good time, it's a positive-yardage play.

 

Our biggest problem with this play, and the reason the fans hate it, is that our perimeter blocking is often terrible, the passes are often errant, or the timing is off. That results in no gain or negative-yardage plays, which happened 40 of the 90 times we ran it. 

 

UCF ran this play under Frost with much better success than we do. But they had better athletes on the perimeter, and (to date) we don't have a McKenzie Milton in the QB room to put the ball on target on time every time.

 

For Nebraska, it was feast or famine with this thing. Half our games (N. Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, Purdue, Maryland, Iowa) we averaged three yards or less with this play. For the other half (S. Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Wisconsin) we averaged seven or more yards with this play. 

 

Weird thing is, success with this play (and thus, spreading out the defense) didn't matter much to wins or losses. In our six games where we were less successful with this play we went 2-4, and in the games where we were more successful we went 3-3.

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12 minutes ago, knapplc said:

It's really not a sexy play, and rarely worked for big gains (we got 10+ yards on 18 of 90 attempts). But the play isn't designed to pop for big yardage, it's designed to set up other plays. It forces a defense to cover the field sideline-to-sideline, and if they don't, and if our perimeter blocking is good, and if our QB gets the ball out there in good time, it's a positive-yardage play.

 

Our biggest problem with this play, and the reason the fans hate it, is that our perimeter blocking is often terrible, the passes are often errant, or the timing is off. That results in no gain or negative-yardage plays, which happened 40 of the 90 times we ran it. 

 

UCF ran this play under Frost with much better success than we do. But they had better athletes on the perimeter, and (to date) we don't have a McKenzie Milton in the QB room to put the ball on target on time every time.

 

For Nebraska, it was feast or famine with this thing. Half our games (N. Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, Purdue, Maryland, Iowa) we averaged three yards or less with this play. For the other half (S. Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Wisconsin) we averaged seven or more yards with this play. 

 

Weird thing is, success with this play (and thus, spreading out the defense) didn't matter much to wins or losses. In our six games where we were less successful with this play we went 2-4, and in the games where we were more successful we went 3-3.

 

Because one of the biggest things that the repeated swing plays leads to is the deep pass offshoot from the swing pass.  NU didn't have a reliable deep threat to take advantage of the spread out defense, which creates points and leads to more wins.

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6 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

 

Because one of the biggest things that the repeated swing plays leads to is the deep pass offshoot from the swing pass.  NU didn't have a reliable deep threat to take advantage of the spread out defense, which creates points and leads to more wins.

You beat me to it.

 

One of the big reasons why we had limited success with this play is because we DIDN'T have the deep threat.  The DBs on the outside didn't have to respect that, so they could play closer to the line and react quicker to the play.  The blocking was bad.  But, it's easier to block if we have a deep threat.  And, since we lacked a big body receiver who typically can be a better blocker, we were trying to use a TE many times out there to block and they are going to be slower and less affective.  

 

I'm excited about the additions to the WR room with both players and the coach.  I think we will see a vast improvement here.

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36 minutes ago, knapplc said:

It's really not a sexy play, and rarely worked for big gains (we got 10+ yards on 18 of 90 attempts). But the play isn't designed to pop for big yardage, it's designed to set up other plays. It forces a defense to cover the field sideline-to-sideline, and if they don't, and if our perimeter blocking is good, and if our QB gets the ball out there in good time, it's a positive-yardage play.

 

Our biggest problem with this play, and the reason the fans hate it, is that our perimeter blocking is often terrible, the passes are often errant, or the timing is off. That results in no gain or negative-yardage plays, which happened 40 of the 90 times we ran it. 

 

UCF ran this play under Frost with much better success than we do. But they had better athletes on the perimeter, and (to date) we don't have a McKenzie Milton in the QB room to put the ball on target on time every time.

 

For Nebraska, it was feast or famine with this thing. Half our games (N. Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, Purdue, Maryland, Iowa) we averaged three yards or less with this play. For the other half (S. Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Wisconsin) we averaged seven or more yards with this play. 

 

Weird thing is, success with this play (and thus, spreading out the defense) didn't matter much to wins or losses. In our six games where we were less successful with this play we went 2-4, and in the games where we were more successful we went 3-3.

 

After watching it just one time the paragraph I bolded is my conclusion also.  Perimeter blocking was terrible on most of the negative or short yardage plays or the pass was behind the receiver or off target or both.  I will add one more thing.  When the RB goes in motion right before the snap and leaves an empty backfield it is really telegraphing what they are doing.  I mean they know where the ball is going in that situation.  When you combine that with poor blocking and a poor pass it can lead to disaster.  

 

I will also add that the flat pass/screen/swing pass is one of the hardest things to throw accurately with a lot of consistency.  To hit someone in stride when they are running down hill is tough.   

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