Opponent's Passing Charts

[Mavric]

There has discussion in other threads about why we have been better defending the pass in certain parts of the game than others. We seemed to be better in the second half against BYU than the first. The reverse was true against Miami. We seemed to do OK against Southern Miss for three quarters then got burned in the fourth.

There are obviously several factors that go into this. My contention is that a lot of it has to do with what the opponent is trying to do. For example, I don't think Southern Miss threw the ball down the field very much for the first three quarters then did a lot in the fourth.

I'm going to try to get through our games charting where each pass was thrown to see if there is a pattern. I'll note how far from the line each pass was caught and the total yards the play gained (or lost).

Starting with Southern Miss:

1st Possession

1&10, -25 - Swing pass to the RB six yards behind the line. Tackled for a two yard loss (apparently this was statted as a run as the pass was deemed to be thrown backwards)

3&10, -25 - WR screen thrown two yards behind the line. Incomplete.

2nd Possession

2&5, -33 - Slot receiver on the corner route completed 14 yards downfield, gain of 25. Man coverage by Nickel

3rd Possession

2&1, -37 - QB throws it away as he's being hit by Collins

3&1, -37 - Quick slant to the slot 4 yards down the field, gains 8. Safety in man coverage was 10 yards off at the snap. Man coverage by S. Holding wipes out the play.

3&11, -27 - Angle route to the RB caught at 3 yards, gains 17. Man coverage by LB.

1&10, -44 - Slant route to outside WR caught at 8 yards, gains 50 after Jones misses the tackle. Man coverage.

1&G, +6 - QB overthrows an open crossing route in the back of the end zone.

4th Possession

2&6, -29 - RB flare caught 3 yards behind the line, no gain

3&6, -29 - RB flare caught 2 yards behind the line, gains 20

5th Possession

3&18, -7 - RB releases out caught 2 yards downfield, gains 12

6th Possession

1&10, -25 - WR screen thrown at the line. Incomplete

2&10, -25 - Slot on the curl route caught 10 yards downfield, gains 17. LB underneath zone, safety deep, WR sits in the hole. Play nullified by penalty

2&15, -20 - Same play, similar result. Slot on the curl route caught 9 yards dowfield, tackled there.

3&6, -29 - QB throws it into the ground under pressure from Young McMullen. McMullen was on the same stunt as the now-famous Vine.

Halftime

 

[Mavric]

So in the first half - including three plays that don't show in the official stats - here's what happened.

5 passes thrown at or behind the line. 3/5 for 18 yards

3 passes thrown up to 5 yards downfield: 3/3 for 37 yards

3 passes thrown 6-10 yards downfield: 3/3 for 76 yards

2 passes thrown 11+ yards downfield: 1/2 for 25 yards

So they called 13 passes but only threw it more than 10 yards down the field twice. They also had 13 rushing plays (counting sacks) for -14 yards. That's not really testing us down the field - only 2 out of 26 plays. Yet they averaged 12 yards per attempt.

Edit: Plus they threw it away once which I didn't include in the above numbers.

 

[Mavric]

Second Half

Seventh Possession

1&10, +25 - Quick slant to the WR caught 6 yards downfield, gained 8. Man coverage.

Eighth Possession - Southern Miss goes hurry-up

1&10, -34 - Fade down the sideline 34 yards, incomplete. Rose and the WR get tangled up. Man coverage

2&10, -34 - Deep post down the middle for 28 yardss, tackled immediately. Man coverage

2&7, +35 - Quick out to the slot caught 2 yards downfield, gained 4

3&8, +36 - Big blitz, lots of pressure but the RB slips out and catches a 3 yard pass and gains 12.

2&2, +16 - QB throws it away just as Freedom buries him. Holding on USM

3&13, +27 - Blitz again, QB underthrows the WR 5 yards downfield, incomplete

Ninth Possession

2&6, +31 - Throw is behind WR 20 yards downfield but draws a pass interference flag

2&4, +10 - Can't tell if this is a called blitz or Weber automatics to a blitz when they roll his way but the late pressure causes a throw away.

3&4, +10 - Slot on the quick out for 3 yards, tackled immediately.

Basically the end of the third quarter possessions. Next possession starts with 21 seconds to go in the quarter.

 

[Mavric]

Southern Miss did try to start pressing the ball down the field in the third quarter, just didn't have a lot of plays. Plus they started going hurry-up so they were trying to be more aggressive. We were also being more aggressive with blitzes.

0 passes thrown behind the line

4 passes up to 5 yards downfield: 3/4 for 19 yards

1 pass thrown 6-10 yards downfield: 1/1 for 8 yards

3 passes thrown 11+ yards downfield: 1/2 for 28 yards plus one pass interference penalty.

2 times the pass rush caused a throw-away.

Still only 6 passes that were anything close to stretching the field. Pretty sure that changes in the fourth quarter. For the quarter they're (unofficially) 5/7 for 55 yards (7.8 ypa) plus the 15 yard penalty.

 

[Mavric]

Tenth Possession

1&10, -22 - HB out of the backfield 3 yards downfield, gains 6

2&4, -28 - WR screen caught 3 yards behind the line, gains 8

1&10, -36 - Straight go route down the sideline caught 36 yards downfield, gains 53. Man coverage. First play of the fourth quarter, longest throw of the day

2&10, +11 - Good coverage, late pressure causes the throw away

3&10, +11 - Slot on the arrow route caught 3 yards downfield, drages half the defense for 9 yards. Holding on USM

3&20, +21 - Slot on the post caught 19 yards downfield, touchdown. Man coverage

Eleventh Possession - post-onside kick

1&10, -47 - Fly route to the WR caught 25 yards downfield, gaining 28. Man coverage

1&10, +25 - Deep in thrown behind the WR 13 yards downfield, incomplete

2&10, +25 - Quick slant to the slot for 6 yards, tackled immediately

3&4, +21 - Blitz, quick slant to the slot is tipped away. 4 yards downfield

4&4, +21 - Delayed in route to the slot thrown 7 yards downfield goes for the touchdown. Man coverage.

Twelfth Possession

1&10, -32 - Overthrows the WR on the out at 8 yards.

2&10, -32 - Short comeback route to WR at 7 yards, out of bounds there

3&3, -39 - QB throws behind the slot on the jet motion, quick out 1 yard downfield, incomplete

Thirteenth Possession

1&10, -25 - Fake WR screen, throw back to the RB two yards behind the line. No on within 8 yards of him when he catches it, runs for a gain of 39 yards

1&10, +36 - Throw 33 yards down the sideline - overthrown

2&10, +36 - RB wheel route caught 20 yards downfield gains 25. Man coverage with late safety help.

1&15, +16 - Wheel route to the slot for a touchdown. Called back for illegal motion. Man coverage

1&20, +21 - RB screen thrown 5 yards behind the line, gains 1

2&19, +20 - Post by the WR thrown 16 yards is incomplete. Don't think Rose actually tipped the ball but good play to get in the way.

3&19, +20 - RB on the angle route, caught at 5 yards, gains 6.

4&13, +14 - Wheel route to the slot picked off by Kalu but called for DPI.

Fourteenth Possession

1&10, -20 - Deep in by the slot for 19 yards, tackled immediately. Zone coverage

1&10, -39 - Seam route caught at 18 yards, gains 21. Zone coverage

Ballgame.

 

[Mavric]

So, in the fourth quarter (plus two plays):

3 passes thrown at or behind the line: 3/3 for 48 yards

5 passes thrown up to 5 yards downfield: 3/5 for 21 yards

4 passes thrown 6-10 yards downfield: 3/4 for 34 yards

11 passes thrown 11+ yards downfield: 7/11 for 181 yards (one INT that was nullified)

1 pass thrown away

 

[Mavric]

So you tell me: Was our pass defense that much better for the first three quarters? Or did we just get some timely sacks and penalties to stop their drives? Plus they finally figured out to throw it down the field in the fourth quarter.

 

[Kernal]

So you tell me: Was our pass defense that much better for the first three quarters? Or did we just get some timely sacks and penalties to stop their drives? Plus they finally figured out to throw it down the field in the fourth quarter.

I need to rewatch the game yet so I don't have an answer to your question. I thought Southern Miss tried to run the ball quite a bit earlier in the game, and in the fourth quarter they mostly threw it.

 

[funhusker]

So, in the fourth quarter (plus two plays):

3 passes thrown at or behind the line: 3/3 for 48 yards

5 passes thrown up to 5 yards downfield: 3/5 for 21 yards

4 passes thrown 6-10 yards downfield: 3/4 for 34 yards

11 passes thrown 11+ yards downfield: 7/11 for 181 yards (one INT that was nullified)

1 pass thrown away

Great work, Mavric!

This is scary on the surface. No other word to describe it.

But, did NU do anything differently defensively in the fourth? I'd have to rewatch, but my guess would be the pass defense was "softer" at the start of the fourth quarter when NU was trying to hold on to a sizable lead. Not an excuse, just a possible reason.

Or maybe the defense was the played the same, and NU is lucky it wasn't boat-raced by USM....

 

[Amac3309]

Im bored so I wanted to piggyback a little on what Mav was doing, so I went to look at the bigger plays in the 4th qtr and see what exactly is happening.

It is a little scary, but the thing im holding out hope in is that on a few of those plays the coverage was really good and the QB had to throw the receiver open because we did get pressure, and most of the other big plays outside of these 4 are RB out of the backfield, that they do need to figure out. Im actually fairly confident they will get those figured out.

For example the first long play to open the 4th qtr, 55 gets pressure in 3 seconds, look at the first screen shot of when the QB has to release it, then look at the 2nd screen shot and look at what he is seeing, the WR is in no way open he just chucked it up and let the receiver go get it (thats my biggest gripe with the DB's, Rose specifically, is they never turn and find the ball)





On the 3rd and 20 TD play, cockrell lines up 10 yds off the slot WR and then gets caught flat footed while the MLB doesn't quite drop far enough to take away the easy over the top pass, but bottom line is Cockrell cant cover a slot WR 1 on 1 with a free release.



On the 1st and 10 play the QB again throws it when Rose is covering well and he doesn't turn and look for the ball.



On the 4th and 4 TD, Kalu jumps an outside route, the receiver makes a quick cut inside and Kalu cant catch up, I'm not positive but it looks like a WR read route that if the LB stays home he cuts it out but if he goes with the back out of the back field he cuts back in, (actually similar route to the 1st and 10 on this drive that time the WR did cut it outside, prob why Kalu was cheating) great play design, but again a DB that is struggling with a slot WR with a free release





The last 2 were in zone, the slot WR found the soft spot and the QB threw it to a spot, I think it was the same rout and same play, Kalu had good coverage on the 1st but got turned around on the 2nd.

Moral of the story is 1)Turn and find the ball 2)Figure out how to cover the slot and the RB out of the backfield.

I really do think they will figure it out and be fine.