Our best offensive threats

YJMD

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,628
Seems to me that our best offense is actually in the intermediate passing game. Very hard to cover the group of Carter, McGowan, Sanders, Gibbs out of the backfield, and the Dylans. These guys are capable of getting open, and Yates has shown to be a very accurate passer in this range and have a good understanding of when to get the ball out. He makes good decisions although is maybe a touch on the passive side here. These routes are getting us 10+ yards and a chance to break for 30+.

I understand why we are more trying to get the run going and get the ball to our skill guys out on the perimeter when possible, but I think that is playing into our biggest weakness as well. I also recognize that Yates is limited in his pocket passing somewhat by his height, although this hasn't seem to be an issue in the actual games. More so with rushers getting free in passing situations. There is a lot that can be done in RPOs and pre-snap reads that aims to get the ball out to a receiver quickly, though. The chunk plays will make up for incompletions and throwaways in moving the ball downfield, and they can present a scoring threat before we get to the RZ where it gets much tougher to smash the ball in.

If we are able to make them pay for leaving vacancies in a blitz and having LBs and DBs clamp down in run support or containing the edges, then we'll be much more successful with the things we are trying to do the most.
 

forensicbuzz

21st Century Throwback Dad
Messages
9,061
Location
North Shore, Chicago
We have shown that there are at least 5 receivers that can go out there and catch clutch passes: McGowan, Carter, Sanders, Norris, and Harris. I know Rutherford and McCollum have also been out there, but I haven't seen clutch catches from them yet. Then we've got some fantastic freshmen that I don't know if they've even played yet.
 
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