[BostonCard]

Fair points, but how do you explain Shaw's comment and our relying on curl routes to Parkinson? Seemed to be our go to bread and butter play.

As you mentioned, back in the day, our teams seemed to execute pretty well. They were very well prepared and could adapt as necessary. What's changed? I remember during the Notre Dame game (I think), on third down one of our receivers ran a drag route across the middle of the field. Unfortunately, he ran the pattern two yards short of the first down, one would think, especially at Stanford, our guys would be prepared well enough to not make that simple mistake.

Osiris St. Brown. He ran the route just short of the marker, I believe. But he actually went backwards trying to evade the defender instead of simply turning upfield and getting another half yard of forward progress.

IMO there seemed to be more instances of players trying to "be a hero"/do too much this season, and I'm not sure why it seems that way.

That's pretty common on a team that's struggling.  Players take it upon themselves to try to compensate, and alas it is a recipe for a blown assignment on defense, or a missed block on offense, or a QB that will try to force a throw to a covered receiver, or, in this case, a receiver who gambles for a big run and misses the chance to get a first down.

It is human nature for some people to try to do too much, so it is up to the coaches to overcome it.  I think it is a legitimate criticism of the coaches that "don't be a hero; focus on executing your job and trust your teammates to do theirs" was not emphasized enough to this team.  

BC

[BostonCard]

Fair points, but how do you explain Shaw's comment and our relying on curl routes to Parkinson? Seemed to be our go to bread and butter play.

As you mentioned, back in the day, our teams seemed to execute pretty well. They were very well prepared and could adapt as necessary. What's changed? I remember during the Notre Dame game (I think), on third down one of our receivers ran a drag route across the middle of the field. Unfortunately, he ran the pattern two yards short of the first down, one would think, especially at Stanford, our guys would be prepared well enough to not make that simple mistake.

Osiris St. Brown. He ran the route just short of the marker, I believe. But he actually went backwards trying to evade the defender instead of simply turning upfield and getting another half yard of forward progress.

IMO there seemed to be more instances of players trying to "be a hero"/do too much this season, and I'm not sure why it seems that way.

That's pretty common on a team that's struggling.  Players take it upon themselves to try to compensate, and alas it is a recipe for a blown assignment on defense, or a missed block on offense, or a QB that will try to force a throw to a covered receiver, or, in this case, a receiver who gambles for a big run and misses the chance to get a first down.

It is human nature for some people to try to do too much, so it is up to the coaches to overcome it.  I think it is a legitimate criticism of the coaches that "don't be a hero; focus on executing your job and trust your teammates to do theirs" was not emphasized enough to this team.  

BC