Offensive Play-Calling

[Bogey]

I understand your point about developing backups. Best done in the context of low-risk game situations unless you have a really serious injury to King. There is no conclusive evidence of that in the Duke game. We've had only two games this year that otherwise allowed for backup reps - VMI and the second half of the GSU game. Pyron and Philo had significant minutes in the VMI game (both going 3/5), but not so much in the GSU game which could have been a missed opportunity.

As most coaches like to say, we are going to play the guys that give us the best chance to win. In a close game or one where we are behind, do you sub out an impaired but still effective King to give someone else a chance to develop? That would be silly indeed.

I agree with you here.

 

[Tech Lawyer]

I understand it seemed very vanilla and predictable this game, but it also seemed to work just fine. We put up 412 yards in the game, which is more than any team in Duke's 5 previous games this year (including Duke themselves). I think that the general idea of the plays look predictable but there are little differences in each play that we don't notice easily and help them succeed.

I respectfully disagree. If Duke had an offense of even an average caliber, we probably lose this game. We can't be vanilla against the big boys, and this includes VT on the road which is a very winnable game. A vanilla offense will get us beat in Blacksburg. I am hoping Buster is holding something back? Right now, #10 has poor body language on the field.

 

[Lil G]

I’ve had a similar thought about Pyron but on just a spot basis…bring him in for usual short yardage, but instead have him throw down field. We’ve trained everyone to crowd the line with him.

This but on a 4th and 1 conversion against UGA and it’s 2 go-routes to singleton and rutherford, burning everybody at the line scrimmage.

 

[78pike]

His high completion rate is inflated due to the high number of screen passes he throws. All I am saying it is better to give your backup a chance to prove himself on the field of play if your QB has a serious injury if you want to compete against good teams. If you don't, you will never have a decent backup QB, just like Scooter. Your opinion that an injured King is better than a healthy Pyron without giving Pyron a chance to prove himself on the field of play is silly, IMPO.

It makes me laugh at all the speculation that King has a hand injury when there is absolutely no proof of that being true. All the talk of that one overthrow in the end zone being due to a hand injury is ridiculous. Every once in a while even the best QB's in the NFL can overthrow their receiver. And why are we complaining about someone who has a completion rate of over 75%. After all the years of us having QB's with completion %'s around 50% I am ecstatic with 75% regardless of the kind of throws he is making. So many people want us to throw the ball deep which is the lowest probability completion the QB can throw. The screen passes are akin to toss sweeps. They usually result in positive yards. And it gets the ball into the hands of some our best playmakers giving them the opportunity to make something happen with their legs out in open space. Plus the screens wear the defense out making them run across the field to defend. I would mush rather see 2nd and 5 after a screen pass than 2nd and 10 after a long incompletion.

 

[GTBandit22]

Watching the replay, Buster did some outfoxing. The game sealing TD to Singleton was the one middle screen we ran the whole game I believe. The rest were bubble screens wide. But the one we really needed, we threw a wrinkle in there.

We also had about three plays where pure hustle had Duke shoestring tackle to save a big play, the biggest was outside zone handoff to Singleton. If that guy misses his foot, he’s probably housing it.

Just saying after a rewatch, I feel like we were much closer in this game than we have been all year to really breaking out. That was a pretty good defense we played and we were mere inches away from a couple of plays going big.

 

[roadkill]

Just saying after a rewatch, I feel like we were much closer in this game than we have been all year to really breaking out. That was a pretty good defense we played and we were mere inches away from a couple of plays going big.

Speculation on my part, but I think our offense has only been near 100% healthy (especially Jamal) in two games - FSU and Duke. Per FEI, FSU has an average and Duke has an above-average defense. In each of these games, we successfully executed a ball-control game plan and scored 24 points.

I'm anxious to see what a healthy GT offense can do against a below-average defense such as UNC.

 

[iceeater1969]

Think Clemson’s Hunter Renfrow. While the star WR’s cleared the field, Hunter ran short, precise routes and had great hands. Stockton could be a critical part of the offense before long.

And King trusts him to run to open spot.

 

[Ash]

We also had about three plays where pure hustle had Duke shoestring tackle to save a big play, the biggest was outside zone handoff to Singleton.

The Duke D was very well coached. They were in position to make plays and were making one handed tackles all night. Just a touch was enough to get our guys on the ground.

 

[Ramble1885]

I'll say this, Buster was WAY better vs Duke then two weeks prior at UL. He wasn't perfect but he called a good game.

Now, I hope we hang 50 on you know who.

 

[PVdad]

Are you sure a backup (no disrespect to ours intended) can complete better than 74% of their passes, especially if they are expected to attempt higher-risk throws?

Granted, if King was hampered in the Duke game and we adjusted play-calling as a result, it could account for some of his high completion percentage. Bear in mind that some of his 8 misses were drops. As a counter that overthrow in the end zone, JH dropped a TD catch. There may have been other drops of catchable balls but I didn't check every throw. Had the throw to Haynes been caught, that would have left only 7 misses out of 31 attempts for an insane 78% completion rate.

I’m sure he can.

Busters offense is definitely QB friendly. Goal is to put a ton of stress of defenses and make them have to play really fast sideline to sideline. Hence a large portion of his completion % are shots to or just behind the LOS. Haynes does a good job of executing it.

The luxury the staff has is if something happened they wouldn’t have to change the playbook at all if Haynes or Zach is in there because their game is practically the same. Obviously King has more top end speed, but Zach isn’t all that far behind. I think he said King is a legit 4.4-4.5 guy and Zach was laser timed at 4.61. King has more wiggle. But also King I think is 205 or in that range and Zach as of last week was 220. King also does a really good job of running the quick game - getting the ball out to the sidelines. And that’s what is Qb friendly about this offense. I want to say I saw a stat that 75% of his throws this year are balls thrown at or behind the LOS, and he’s doing a heck of a job completing them.

The rest of the “rumors” and “speculation” pertaining to Haynes I’m not touching.

 

[roadkill]

I’m sure he can.

Busters offense is definitely QB friendly. Goal is to put a ton of stress of defenses and make them have to play really fast sideline to sideline. Hence a large portion of his completion % are shots to or just behind the LOS. Haynes does a good job of executing it.

The luxury the staff has is if something happened they wouldn’t have to change the playbook at all if Haynes or Zach is in there because their game is practically the same. Obviously King has more top end speed, but Zach isn’t all that far behind. I think he said King is a legit 4.4-4.5 guy and Zach was laser timed at 4.61. King has more wiggle. But also King I think is 205 or in that range and Zach as of last week was 220. King also does a really good job of running the quick game - getting the ball out to the sidelines. And that’s what is Qb friendly about this offense. I want to say I saw a stat that 75% of his throws this year are balls thrown at or behind the LOS, and he’s doing a heck of a job completing them.

The rest of the “rumors” and “speculation” pertaining to Haynes I’m not touching.

Haha – You may have a biased opinion, but I have no reason to disagree.

I share your confidence that that Zach can step in at any time and run Buster’s offense, and with his heavier build has already shown how he is the best choice to run certain plays.

This thread segment was initiated by @Bogey’s post which suggested I said an injured King was better than a healthy Pyron. While I did not say that, if it was implied, it’s my bad for poorly wording my thoughts. Bogey was doing some serious speculation (which to be fair, is what we do here) about injuries, resulting play calls, and what Zach needs to help him develop. My counter was that if your starting QB is executing at a very high level in a tight game, that’s not the time to sub him out.

Appreciate your insight, and I’d like to repeat that no disrespect to any of our backup QBs was intended by my previous post.

 

[billga99]

It makes me laugh at all the speculation that King has a hand injury when there is absolutely no proof of that being true. All the talk of that one overthrow in the end zone being due to a hand injury is ridiculous. Every once in a while even the best QB's in the NFL can overthrow their receiver. And why are we complaining about someone who has a completion rate of over 75%. After all the years of us having QB's with completion %'s around 50% I am ecstatic with 75% regardless of the kind of throws he is making. So many people want us to throw the ball deep which is the lowest probability completion the QB can throw. The screen passes are akin to toss sweeps. They usually result in positive yards. And it gets the ball into the hands of some our best playmakers giving them the opportunity to make something happen with their legs out in open space. Plus the screens wear the defense out making them run across the field to defend. I would mush rather see 2nd and 5 after a screen pass than 2nd and 10 after a long incompletion.

I agree with the long pass success rate. Throwing long passes with no results brings back a painful loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Game when we had our best receiver in history Calvin Johnson. The number of long passes in that game resulted in a few PIs but virtually no completions and we only put up 6 points. An occasional long pass can open up the field but it shouldn't be a big part of any consistent offense.

 

[Bogey]

Haha – You may have a biased opinion, but I have no reason to disagree.

I share your confidence that that Zach can step in at any time and run Buster’s offense, and with his heavier build has already shown how he is the best choice to run certain plays.

This thread segment was initiated by @Bogey’s post which suggested I said an injured King was better than a healthy Pyron. While I did not say that, if it was implied, it’s my bad for poorly wording my thoughts. Bogey was doing some serious speculation (which to be fair, is what we do here) about injuries, resulting play calls, and what Zach needs to help him develop. My counter was that if your starting QB is executing at a very high level in a tight game, that’s not the time to sub him out.

Appreciate your insight, and I’d like to repeat that no disrespect to any of our backup QBs was intended by my previous post.

Let's be fair. I was not speculating on King's injury, I was responding to another poster's suggestion of a hand injury in the context IF such an injury was indeed the case. I have no idea if that idea is indeed the case. We just went through Scooter's regime where he had no viable plan regarding Sims' nagging injuries affecting his play and I do not want to see us in that position once again, especially when we have such a high level talent in Pyron as an option.

 

[cpf2001]

The 2006 passing offense was basically entirely “throw it deep and let Calvin (or occasionally James) Johnson get it” and Wake simply decided to give up 15 yard PI calls occasionally instead of allowing any big connections. The completion percentage vs TD pass stats for Reggie Ball that year were quite goofy as a result. I think his completion rate went down every year because of the “ball control and occasionally just get it to Calvin” philosophy.

 

[MWBATL]

It makes me laugh at all the speculation that King has a hand injury when there is absolutely no proof of that being true. All the talk of that one overthrow in the end zone being due to a hand injury is ridiculous. Every once in a while even the best QB's in the NFL can overthrow their receiver. And why are we complaining about someone who has a completion rate of over 75%. After all the years of us having QB's with completion %'s around 50% I am ecstatic with 75% regardless of the kind of throws he is making. So many people want us to throw the ball deep which is the lowest probability completion the QB can throw. The screen passes are akin to toss sweeps. They usually result in positive yards. And it gets the ball into the hands of some our best playmakers giving them the opportunity to make something happen with their legs out in open space. Plus the screens wear the defense out making them run across the field to defend. I would mush rather see 2nd and 5 after a screen pass than 2nd and 10 after a long incompletion.

There may not be any injury to his hand. That is internet speculation (but what else are message boards for?).

BUT, I don’t recall anyone asking for more deep throws. What a lot of people have asked four is more 10-15 yard pssses. Those should have pretty high probability (like around 60-6% with a good QB).

Strategically those throws keep the D back on their heels and slows their charge to stop the WR screens, which often get nothing.

 

[PVdad]

Haha – You may have a biased opinion, but I have no reason to disagree.

I share your confidence that that Zach can step in at any time and run Buster’s offense, and with his heavier build has already shown how he is the best choice to run certain plays.

This thread segment was initiated by @Bogey’s post which suggested I said an injured King was better than a healthy Pyron. While I did not say that, if it was implied, it’s my bad for poorly wording my thoughts. Bogey was doing some serious speculation (which to be fair, is what we do here) about injuries, resulting play calls, and what Zach needs to help him develop. My counter was that if your starting QB is executing at a very high level in a tight game, that’s not the time to sub him out.

Appreciate your insight, and I’d like to repeat that no disrespect to any of our backup QBs was intended by my previous post.

Oh no worries. I didn’t take anything that was said by you or anyone for that matter negatively. Just wanted to share my insight and keep what I know inside the guardrails. If ya know what I mean….

 

[forensicbuzz]

There may not be any injury to his hand. That is internet speculation (but what else are message boards for?).

BUT, I don’t recall anyone asking for more deep throws. What a lot of people have asked four is more 10-15 yard pssses. Those should have pretty high probability (like around 60-6% with a good QB).

Strategically those throws keep the D back on their heels and slows their charge to stop the WR screens, which often get nothing.

I think the term I've heard continuously is "down field."

 

[MWBATL]

I think the term I've heard continuously is "down field."

10-15 yard passes is what we’ve been missing, imho. I’ve heard many use the term “mid-range”

 

[forensicbuzz]

10-15 yard passes is what we’ve been missing, imho. I’ve heard many use the term “mid-range”

I wasnt disagreeing with you. 10-15 versus 25-35 is still downfield.

 

[roadkill]

This is fun. We’re Georgia Tech, and we can debate the meaning of “downfield”, “midrange”, and “deep throws”. How about the meaning of “more”? That would be interesting too. s/