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Treb1982

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
453
Location
Augusta, GA
Statistics are like a lamp post to a drunk: more for support than illumination. I know what I see: We convert on 3rd and long; we beat Georgia and Miami last year. If we stop 3rd and long we win about half of the games we lost, including bowl games the past few years.

How many other teams could also say the same thing? I do feel like we have been very unfortunate the last 3 years late in games but part of me also feels you create your own luck. Hopefully 2014 will be the year we finally win one of these close games.
 

alaguy

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,117
I'm going to what I've been saying for a while:

Our success passing will be more dependent on our OL, pass protection in this case, than who the QB is. Our offense almost ALWAYS has open guys on any given pass play...it's just whether the QB has 1. Good enough pass pro and 2. Know where to go with their reads. JT is a more than capable passer to the get the ball where he needs to. I think he'll get better with reading defenses and knowing where to go depending our passing concepts. He's a smart dude, and grasping our passing concepts comes with time...as we saw with Tevin.

If you remember the play where JT got blindsided against Miami, there were guys open but JT had to move around the pocket and avoid pass rushers so he couldn't go through his progressions. If we continue to have that kind of pass pro for our QBs (regardless if it's JT or someone else), talking about whether we're going back to basics or expanding out playbook is moot.

The beauty of our offense is it puts so much pressure on perimeter defenders to read the backfield that they have to make the proper read or you have guys running free all over the secondary (see the ACCCG versus FSU for examples of this). I want to see our OL give our QBs time to find those open guys because they will be there the majority of the time.

Techster nailed it.We can pass IF IF IF we can block.I don't think we can be great but( short first yr QB) be effective enough.THE problem is blocking.I personally think it is indigenous to the PJ system.We run fine,we pass erratically.(1 50% yr in 6 ?)Without a big TE to block we have backs blocking a lot.They are VERY erratic in this,SAME with OL.They don't do it enough to be really good esp at OT.

Though if Smelter turns into Bey-Bey 2, the Off could be dangerous.
 

AE 87

Helluva Engineer
Messages
13,015
Statistics are like a lamp post to a drunk: more for support than illumination. I know what I see: We convert on 3rd and long; we beat Georgia and Miami last year. If we stop 3rd and long we win about half of the games we lost, including bowl games the past few years.

If your point is that Tech would have won more games if it converted more 3rd downs throughout the season, I agree with that. Heck, if we converted all of the 3rd downs, we would have been National Champions! However, the statistics say we were 4th in the country at converting 3rd downs last season, including 3rd and longs. I would like to see statistics on our conversion rate for 3rd and longs only, as compared to other teams, but don't know where to find that. But the point remains, even if we are absolutely horrible at 3rd and long (which I don't believe is true), the fact that we still finished 4th in the country means that we rarely got ourselves into those situations.

It would be nice to be great at all things and be the best at converting 3rd and short and 3rd and long. We can always get better, but spending significant practice time for passing on 3rd and long means we spend less time on 3rd and short. In the end, if we finish 4th in the country in 3rd down conversion, I would say we have a pretty good strategy going.

As stated in my earlier post, I agree with you that our defense under CPJ has generally been very bad at stopping 3rd downs, including 3rd and longs, and that is a big deal. It has led to a lot of losses over the last few years, including the very same UGA game you referenced. If we stop them on 4th down, it probably never comes down to Tech having to convert on 3rd down late in the game.

Fwiw, converting 3rd downs is one thing we did well in 2013 (every odd year, oddly).

We converted 30% of 3rd and 7+. By comparison, u[sic]ga coverted 26% and Aub 22%.
 

Buzztheirazz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,294
We will never be a consistent or good passing team as long as we have the current philosophy on pass protection. Period. When a QB's can't even finish his drop before scrambling, you miss countless opportunities down field. Throw in old school isolation routes and the QB has an uphill battle to be a 50% passer. Not being negative, just stating what I see as a coach.
I'm hoping that we sprinkle in more b-back screens, so that we're releasing the over aggressive DE's.
 
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Wrecking Ball

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
694
B-Back Screens, or, I would love to see quick passes against a stacked box. Byerly has done this beautifully in the vids of practice I've seen.
 

Bruce Wayne

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,870
I hope not. That means Thomas ain't gettin it done or is injured. I hope we see Byerly as a role player. He has a definite skill set we can use to exploit defenses in certain situations and he's a great change up from Thomas.
Or that our defense is so stout that Thomas and the O are running up the score so Byerly gets to play most of the second halves.
 

croberts

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
864
The pass protection scheme in obvious passing situations is what I fail to see corrected year after year. I am a CPJ fan, and I like the option offense he runs. I get the concept about catching them off guard with play action. I just do not understand why on 3rd and 25 we do not have a mainstream pass protection scheme. If we are going to fire off the ball with our line in those situations, we might as well just run it.
Show me any offense that is successful throwing on 3rd and 25? We should probably run it. I don't think we are in 3rd and 25 if we ran on 1st and 2nd down. I just want 7 completions a game. Average 25 yards per catch on 10 attempts. Not much to ask when 8 Are in the box and JT is making them pay big with his speed and quickness. I am glad I put my golden glasses on prior to posting.
 
Messages
2,077
Show me any offense that is successful throwing on 3rd and 25? We should probably run it. I don't think we are in 3rd and 25 if we ran on 1st and 2nd down. I just want 7 completions a game. Average 25 yards per catch on 10 attempts. Not much to ask when 8 Are in the box and JT is making them pay big with his speed and quickness. I am glad I put my golden glasses on prior to posting.

Holding, false start, false start. Third and 25.
 

gtg936g

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,142
Show me any offense that is successful throwing on 3rd and 25? We should probably run it. I don't think we are in 3rd and 25 if we ran on 1st and 2nd down. I just want 7 completions a game. Average 25 yards per catch on 10 attempts. Not much to ask when 8 Are in the box and JT is making them pay big with his speed and quickness. I am glad I put my golden glasses on prior to posting.
You guys are getting too hung up on the 3rd and 25..... Let me phrase it this way, most successful team have a 2 minute drill that involves passing, and their O line play in those situations is very different than ours.
 

GTRX7

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,508
Location
Atlanta
You guys are getting too hung up on the 3rd and 25..... Let me phrase it this way, most successful team have a 2 minute drill that involves passing, and their O line play in those situations is very different than ours.

Most successful teams have a two minute drill offense that looks a lot different from Oregon's and Auburn's as well. For what it is worth, we have started using the shotgun formation more in the last few years in two minute drill situations and are now looking to add hurry up.

Whether you believe it or not, our O line absolutely blocks differently on called passing plays than they do running plays. Would be interesting for Boomergump to weigh in on that.
 
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