Washington State Football Game Thread

Washington State Football Game Thread - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: Washington State Football Game Thread (/thread-18532.html)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

RE: lex24 - SamuelMcF - 11-17-2019

(11-17-2019, 01:51 PM)winflop Wrote:
(11-16-2019, 09:46 PM)lex24 Wrote: Agree with you philosophically. Problem is, they can’t run well in general and particularly not against WSU. They had no chance running today. So they had to throw it. No choice.

Sorry but you have to at least try on the first couple of series. There was no attempt at all.

Agree. We ran very well against UW and Arizona, and well on a YPC basis (also limited attempts) against a better run D in Colorado. This was a bad run D. You HAVE to try.

RE: lex24 - Goose - 11-17-2019

(11-17-2019, 02:09 PM)SamuelMcF Wrote:
(11-17-2019, 01:51 PM)winflop Wrote:
(11-16-2019, 09:46 PM)lex24 Wrote: Agree with you philosophically. Problem is, they can’t run well in general and particularly not against WSU. They had no chance running today. So they had to throw it. No choice.

Sorry but you have to at least try on the first couple of series. There was no attempt at all.

Agree. We ran very well against UW and Arizona, and well on a YPC basis (also limited attempts) against a better run D in Colorado. This was a bad run D. You HAVE to try.

First, I think we can all agree that if the defense never stops WSU once, we don't win. The offense needed to both score lots of points and keep our defense off the field. If the defense has any chance of generating some pass rush and/or defending the pass, they must not be tired out. This type of game also puts pressure on WSU to play well on every series. They may not if the feel the pressure. In this game, we got behind early. That is a worst case scenario for us, and WSU clearly knew that. That 19 point lead really took the pressure off them.

Our coaching staff decided we had to go all in with the passing game. While I fully understand that choice, IMHO it doomed us to lose for sure. As was said in another post, you must fight the battle with the army you have. If you let the opponent dictate how the battle will be fought, you are at an extreme disadvantage. Your army must attempt to force the opponent to fight on your terms, not theirs. We had to create a situation where the defense would get some stops. If we can't do that, we lose no matter what. The only way to do that is keep them off the field for a while. To do that, you must run the ball. You can still throw the ball at times, but not exclusively. Get first downs. WSU has been poor against the run. See the attached data.

Opponent Yards    WSU Win WSU Home
Houston       240       Y                     N
UCLA             160 N          Y
Utah    192 N                  N
Arizona St     169 N             N
Colorado 190    Y                    Y
Oregon 314        N                    N
Cal              198    N    N
Stanford 19    Y                    Y

The idea that we can't dictate tempo and must accept their desire to force us to play their game is fatal. We have had trouble forcing them to play our game the last five times we played. Hogan was able to pull it off, but only just. The two games after that, we tried to dictate tempo and simply couldn't, because we couldn't run. Last year, we basically said "OK, we will play it your way". That almost worked, until WSU realized we were doing that, and then it didn't. This year, WSU expected us to repeat what almost worked last year. Had our defense been healthy, that may have worked this year. However, on the road, with a patchwork defense, it had no chance. Our only hope was to take advantage of WSU's bad run defense, as they attacked our bad pass defense. We didn't, and tried to match their Air Raid with our "sort of" Air Raid. IMHO, not a good choice. The data says you can run against WSU. It also says that if you do, you probably win. Cal, who hasn't had an offense until recently, could and did.