Lu and DMoney: Thoughts on the Offense?

[drifters1234]

Also, I'm curious as to why we kept trying to run the ball with big formations, permitting Florida to have 7, 8 in the box, instead of trying to space them out a bit and give Duke some more space to run. It seemed like we were in a lot of 2 WR sets.

Because the coach was listening to all the posters who claim we didn't "commit to the run" last year.

Their front 4 was working our 5OL. You can spread them out all you want. They weren't necessarily making plays because of extra guys. Has nothing to do with "committing to the run."

I know. it was sarcasm.

 

[fincane]

Morris isn't a good pitch and catch QB, but I don't blame him. I feel there is still reminiscence of Whippleball when he gets flustered. Fisch was a guy who could reel him, this remains to be seen with Coley.

Fisch could reel him as much as he wants. Fisch didn't produce points against great competition. Even if you give Fisch one of the two Dorsett drops on the first drive against ND, his offenses only scored 4 TDs in three games against ND, FSU and K-State. One TD against FSU came in garbage time and the TD against K-State came after a long Duke kickoff return in garbage time. So giving him credit for the Dorsett drops on drive 1 in Chicago, thats 2 TDs in three games against big time competition when the game was in doubt. ****, Coley already has him beat. Fisch was good. Not great. He was awful against good teams. A little perspective.

 

[Jedi Master Cane]

Haven't been a fan of what I've seen from Coley's scheme so far...but it's early and I'm willing to give him time.

As I've mentioned in other threads...the biggest thing holding this offense back is the fact we are completely ignoring the middle of the field. Slants, drags, ins, seam routes.....none of them have been used through 2 games.

We need more screen passes to Duke in order to get him in space as well.

 

[drifters1234]

Morris was pretty bad against uf#g. He's trying to throw 193 yard TD passes on every play and constantly eschews the dump off pass. There are checkdowns open all the time. Fancy Boy Dorsey made a living dumping it off and letting guys pick up 15 to 30 yards for him. This dude had Duke standing alone a few times a couple yards beyond the LOS and had time to get it to him after making his first couple reads, but he just locked in on covered guys.

Let's not also lose track of this fact: That was a top 3 defense we just beat. And The Don was very clear after the game stating that sometimes you adapt what you're doing based off the flow and tenor of the game. This was clearly going to be a defensive war, and the last thing we needed was to have El Girafe' forcing passes and getting pick 6'd and buttfcking the D. Sometimes, your best move is to try to grind some clock and punt the ball 60 yards.

I agree. i believe Coley did not trust Morris enough w/ that rush, and UF's strong coverage skills. he was worried about INTs, which likely would have been devastating.

 

[Canesfan1899]

Haven't been a fan of what I've seen from Coley's scheme so far...but it's early and I'm willing to give him time.

As I've mentioned in other threads...the biggest thing holding this offense back is the fact we are completely ignoring the middle of the field. Slants, drags, ins, seam routes.....none of them have been used through 2 games.

We need more screen passes to Duke in order to get him in space as well.

From your lips to coley's ears.

 

[fincane]

Our receivers are just as good bamas....the only thing is bamas o-line won't let their qb get touched.

You saw what the Bama WRs gets all the time on the Dorsett TD. We ran the ball well and had Florida off balance. That young safety bit and Dorsett ran by them. The point is our WRs on their own won't go out there and beat an elite CB when its just them and the CB.

 

[JHallCanes]

Our WRs aren't elite

They are a good, deep group but not elite. Waters and Coley will change that eventually though IMO.

 

[marshallrc13]

We need to use the middle of the field! We need to get TEs involved and run slants and crossing routes. Use the middle of the field and it keeps everyone on defense honest and opens up other stuff. Our OL wasn't opening any holes either. I expected them to play better but Florida does have a front 4 that will be playing on Sundays.

 

[Canesfan1899]

Our WRs aren't elite

They are a good, deep group but not elite. Waters and Coley will change that eventually though IMO.

Do you think Dorsett could slide inside to the slot so we could use Coley out wide more? I would also love to see some M. Lewis soon, wonder if he's still working his way back.

 

[DMoney]

I'm nowhere near an X's-and'Os expert and won't pretend to be, so all I'll say is this: it's early.

Two games in last year, the theme on the boards was Miami's horizontal offense. Everybody was asking why we weren't challenging deep. By the end of the season, Morris and Co. were the top vertical attack in the ACC.

UF presents a unique package with the best pass-rushing DT in the nation and the best set of corners in the nation. That's enough to make any QB (even future first rounders) very uncomfortable. Add in the horrendous running on first and second down (average of 3rd and 11.5), and Morris is going to have a tough time.

The telltale sign that Morris is rushing things is when he starts missing high, like he did a few times to Dorsett. UF will do that to you, unless you are an unshakable #1 overall pick like Teddy Bridgewater. I thought Morris greatly improved his redzone accuracy and touch throughout spring and fall camp, and he showed that on the TD toss to Herb Waters. He'll continue to get better.

As for Coach Coley, this is 100% pure speculation, but I wonder how much last year's FSU/UF game played into his mind. It was a tight game until UF's defense took over late and EJ Manual self-destructed. I wonder if he was playing not to lose in the second half.

 

[OBLIVION]

Point blank

If the Stephen Morris that torched GT, NCST in the 1st/4th qtrs, and finished strong the last part of the season. Shows up from here on out. This team will be dangerous, and will not lose a game, but if he continues this Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ****. We will drop a game we shouldn't, and **** on last weekends win.

They got that big win they were lacking, no matter how we won it, we won. Time to go out, and play like we know we can for 4 qtrs every week.

 

[cowboycane]

Early in the game you saw us work the outside with those out routes and then hit Dorsett deep down the middle. Stephen had chances the rest of the game to hit guys down the seam and for whatever reason made different reads that, for the most part, didn't work out. We were also playing a very good-great defense. In summary: the framework is there, we just need to execute it better. If we are having this same conversation a month from now, then we might be in deep doo doo.

 

[Jedi Master Cane]

I'm nowhere near an X's-and'Os expert and won't pretend to be, so all I'll say is this: it's early.

Two games in last year, the theme on the boards was Miami's horizontal offense. Everybody was asking why we weren't challenging deep. By the end of the season, Morris and Co. were the top vertical attack in the ACC.

UF presents a unique package with the best pass-rushing DT in the nation and the best set of corners in the nation. That's enough to make any QB (even future first rounders) very uncomfortable. Add in the horrendous running on first and second down (average of 3rd and 11.5), and Morris is going to have a tough time.

The telltale sign that Morris is rushing things is when he starts missing high, like he did a few times to Dorsett. UF will do that to you, unless you are an unshakable #1 overall pick like Teddy Bridgewater. I thought Morris greatly improved his redzone accuracy and touch throughout spring and fall camp, and he showed that on the TD toss to Herb Waters. He'll continue to get better.

As for Coach Coley, this is 100% pure speculation, but I wonder how much last year's FSU/UF game played into his mind. It was a tight game until UF's defense took over late and EJ Manual self-destructed. I wonder if he was playing not to lose in the second half.

I thought the exact same thing as the game went on...it was pretty clear Coley took the mentality that he'd rather go conservative and let Driskell shoot himself in the foot.

In all honesty....it's not a horrible line of thinking. For this and other reasons I'm willing to give Coley more time, I just really want to see us attack the middle of the field with heavy frequency.

 

[LuCane]

Because the coach was listening to all the posters who claim we didn't "commit to the run" last year.

Their front 4 was working our 5OL. You can spread them out all you want. They weren't necessarily making plays because of extra guys. Has nothing to do with "committing to the run."

Lu: question ... IIRC, after 1st Q, Duke had 15 carries for 20 yards (or something anemic like that). If you're consistently running into 8 and 9 man fronts by going 2 wide, do you try to offset that by spreading out D? Because the constant, repetitive nature of trying to run from those formations had me frustrated.

From the guys on the team I've heard, we're in extremely good shape (conditioning). I don't think it was a matter of spreading them out to run because their front 4 was whipping us. I would have kept the foot on the gas pedal (no huddle) a little longer. Did you note that we didn't run a single toss all game? I was waiting for it. Instead, we decided we were going to win the game with a conservative approach, defense and punting/field position. I think Golden sees our punter as a competitive advantage.

We decided to win that game by being Rocky and allowing them to be Apollo Creed. It worked.

Agree with all of this, but why do you think we are avoiding the middle of the field? I know you said you didn't want to get into it, but I really value your observations.

I think they were avoiding the middle of the field because of some combination of Morris not reading that area as well, making a lot of pre-snap reads and trying to reduce overall risk for this game. I don't anticipate that'll be the case for the rest of the season.

 

[NorthFlaCane]

Morris had plenty of time on most of his passing plays

He was hit a few times, but he had enough time to go through his progressions most of the time

I just hope that this is an early season issue, that will be corrected by 3 weeks of practice and 2 sub-par opponents

 

[MAGIC CITY CANE]

Realize this won't happen, but this would be a good time to transition Coley into the booth with Coach D.

 

[LuCane]

I think we'll show a lot more explosiveness for the rest of the season. But, citing last year's offense as the best vertical attack in the ACC is shaky. Morris' biggest vertical pass plays have, correct me if I'm wrong, mostly been one-readers. That's not usually consistent and it showed when we played the better defenses (for multiple reasons). For Morris to make the jump we all expect and hope for, it'll be when he makes those 2nd or even 3rd reads that break defenses down. My understanding is he was doing that in fall camp.

There are a few plays/patterns we ran last year that so far haven't been used at all. One of the best patterns Morris throws, that usually takes more than a pre-snap read, is the deep in. We haven't tried it so far this year (I get why), but I hope it's used a lot more going forward.

 

[Coach Macho]

I disagree fincane...our WR's are elite. If the qb has literally no time to throw he will get jittery, I don't care who you are. Don't believe me, just ask Dan Marino in 1984.

Morris has plenty of time to throw, and if our WR's were elite they would be getting off of coverage.

 

[JHallCanes]

Our WRs aren't elite

They are a good, deep group but not elite. Waters and Coley will change that eventually though IMO.

Do you think Dorsett could slide inside to the slot so we could use Coley out wide more? I would also love to see some M. Lewis soon, wonder if he's still working his way back.

I've always liked Dorsett as an underneath guy. But then he turns around and catches a big one like he did Saturday.

I dunno. I don't know if Morris was getting a little gun shy or what. He came really close to some costly INTs and maybe Coley said something, especially for how our D was playing.

Its early. Like D pointed out, our offense turned a corner last season after a few games so we will see.

 

[LuCane]

I disagree fincane...our WR's are elite. If the qb has literally no time to throw he will get jittery, I don't care who you are. Don't believe me, just ask Dan Marino in 1984.

Morris has plenty of time to throw, and if our WR's were elite they would be getting off of coverage.

I think we have one elite WR and I imagine he'll be getting in on 50% of the snaps by the time FSU rolls around.