09-29-2012, 10:40 AM
One of the things that is missing in the evaluation is UWs talent, play calling, and effort.
UW focused on stopping the run by stuffing the box AND leaving their CBs one on one with our wideouts (WRs or TEs). They decided they would dare us to beat them with our QB passing to our WRs. Unfortunately, they exposed a weakness we have all expected but I think the GREAT play of their CBs (AND the bad officiating which allowed them to hold, interfere and be very aggressive all game) had a lot to do with that and was THE key to the game. It allowed them to stuff the box which forced us into 2nd or 3rd and long and put the ball into Nunes hands to make a play.
Nunes' poor short passing put us in the difficult position of having to pass long too often. BUT I do not think all those long passes were Pep's play calling. IIRC we call 3 plays in he huddle and it is Nunes' responsibility to check us into the "right" play and THEN to make the correct pass.
With UW leaving their CB on an "island" alone against Montgomery I think Nunes could have checked to a passing play vs a run - which was probably what AL would have done too. So the right play call. Montgomery actually got separation several times and Nunes made pretty accurate throws, so probably the right pass that AL would have made too. But, as several have pointed out - these are difficult plays to make. Hopefully, they get better at "executing" with repetition. To me, this actually represents the confident, "go for it" attitude that many on this board have wanted to see and what looks like the right play call and the right pass. But, I personally think there were shorter passes open on those plays and if Nunes checks down to the secondary receiver, we pick up the first down, extend the series, and put more pressure on the defense to cover the entire field.
Football is a lot about making decisions trading off risk/reward and probabilities. I think our coaches had a game plan to give Nunes a higher probability of passing success with less risk but unfortunately, he missed many of those throws and UW tempted him and forced us to take the higher risk passes and we are not at an execution level (hopefully yet) to cash in on those.
The biggest key to the game for us was missing on those short "easy" passes without defensive pressure either from the rush or coverage. Those are the highest percentage plays that MUST be fixed and is the primary reason I would consider replacing Nunes.
The other lingering issue for me is the failure of our screen plays. UW's DBs and LBs blasted in to blow up our screen plays so quickly that it appeared that they keyed off something. Screens are meant to be deceptive but something we are doing is obviously visible to our opponents. We must fix this.
UW focused on stopping the run by stuffing the box AND leaving their CBs one on one with our wideouts (WRs or TEs). They decided they would dare us to beat them with our QB passing to our WRs. Unfortunately, they exposed a weakness we have all expected but I think the GREAT play of their CBs (AND the bad officiating which allowed them to hold, interfere and be very aggressive all game) had a lot to do with that and was THE key to the game. It allowed them to stuff the box which forced us into 2nd or 3rd and long and put the ball into Nunes hands to make a play.
Nunes' poor short passing put us in the difficult position of having to pass long too often. BUT I do not think all those long passes were Pep's play calling. IIRC we call 3 plays in he huddle and it is Nunes' responsibility to check us into the "right" play and THEN to make the correct pass.
With UW leaving their CB on an "island" alone against Montgomery I think Nunes could have checked to a passing play vs a run - which was probably what AL would have done too. So the right play call. Montgomery actually got separation several times and Nunes made pretty accurate throws, so probably the right pass that AL would have made too. But, as several have pointed out - these are difficult plays to make. Hopefully, they get better at "executing" with repetition. To me, this actually represents the confident, "go for it" attitude that many on this board have wanted to see and what looks like the right play call and the right pass. But, I personally think there were shorter passes open on those plays and if Nunes checks down to the secondary receiver, we pick up the first down, extend the series, and put more pressure on the defense to cover the entire field.
Football is a lot about making decisions trading off risk/reward and probabilities. I think our coaches had a game plan to give Nunes a higher probability of passing success with less risk but unfortunately, he missed many of those throws and UW tempted him and forced us to take the higher risk passes and we are not at an execution level (hopefully yet) to cash in on those.
The biggest key to the game for us was missing on those short "easy" passes without defensive pressure either from the rush or coverage. Those are the highest percentage plays that MUST be fixed and is the primary reason I would consider replacing Nunes.
The other lingering issue for me is the failure of our screen plays. UW's DBs and LBs blasted in to blow up our screen plays so quickly that it appeared that they keyed off something. Screens are meant to be deceptive but something we are doing is obviously visible to our opponents. We must fix this.