[Goose]

Just watched my recording of the game.  I think the only team that cannot pass on Stanford is....Stanford.

If TT is such an offensive genius, why are our routes (all 3 of them, from what I can see) so predictable?

Exactly, Qwerty.  Long to Elic, and maybe Mosely,  short out routes, and flat to whomever. Where, at least, are a few short or mid level crossing routes. What did the great, tricky plays at Sac State look like? Did they just take advantage of crummy defenders?

No, they took advantage of having players that could execute those tricky plays. Daniels is a limited passer. He is not very accurate in general. He throws some passes better than others, so those are the routes you see. Lamson is even more limited as a passer. Part of this is due to Daniels getting all the reps with the 1s, but last year TT made the determination that Daniels was a better passer. That said, Daniels also doesn't do a great job of reading the field.

Our receivers are also limited. They seldom get lots of separation so every throw has to be in a tight window. Even Elic ends up using his superior leaping ability to catch the 50/50 ball a lot of the time. On top of that our pass protection is generally poor so that limits the patterns that can be run. These deficiencies cascade to restrict what plays TT can call with any expectation our offense can actually execute them successfully. For instance Daniels may not read the field well because he so seldom has time to do so that he gets little practice. TT can only call what remains when these deficiencies are stacked end to end. It doesn't leave much, and even what is left is far from a sure thing.

[Goose]

Just watched my recording of the game.  I think the only team that cannot pass on Stanford is....Stanford.

If TT is such an offensive genius, why are our routes (all 3 of them, from what I can see) so predictable?

Exactly, Qwerty.  Long to Elic, and maybe Mosely,  short out routes, and flat to whomever. Where, at least, are a few short or mid level crossing routes. What did the great, tricky plays at Sac State look like? Did they just take advantage of crummy defenders?

No, they took advantage of having players that could execute those tricky plays. Daniels is a limited passer. He is not very accurate in general. He throws some passes better than others, so those are the routes you see. Lamson is even more limited as a passer. Part of this is due to Daniels getting all the reps with the 1s, but last year TT made the determination that Daniels was a better passer. That said, Daniels also doesn't do a great job of reading the field.

Our receivers are also limited. They seldom get lots of separation so every throw has to be in a tight window. Even Elic ends up using his superior leaping ability to catch the 50/50 ball a lot of the time. On top of that our pass protection is generally poor so that limits the patterns that can be run. These deficiencies cascade to restrict what plays TT can call with any expectation our offense can actually execute them successfully. For instance Daniels may not read the field well because he so seldom has time to do so that he gets little practice. TT can only call what remains when these deficiencies are stacked end to end. It doesn't leave much, and even what is left is far from a sure thing.